• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.125-135
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• 2022

Objectives: A restrospective chart review were conducted to investigate the overall weight loss effect of the integrated Korean medicine treatment on obese patients (body mass index [BMI] ≥25 kg/m²) in Korean medicine clinic and analyze the difference in the effect according to lifestyle behaviors. Methods: The medical records of 43 obese patients were retrospectively analyzed including body weight, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, and body composition who received integrated Korean medicine treatment for 4 weeks at 24 Korean medicine clinics in Daejeon metropolitan city. All outcome measures were evaluated again 8 weeks after the end of treatment at week 12 for follow-up. EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), the Korean version of the obesity-related quality of life scale (KOQOL) and patient's satisfaction were also evaluated. The analysis was divided according to the treatment period and observation period, and subgroup analysis was performed according to drinking and exercise habits. Results: Body weight, body fat, waist circumference, hip circumference, body fat were significantly reduced at week 4 and week 12. Theses weight reduction effects were significantly greater within treatment period (0 to 4 week) than observation period (4 to 12 week). Especially in the non-exercise group, the changes in body fat mass and body fat percent showed a significant difference between the treatment period and the observation period. KOQOL were also significantly improved at 12 week, but not in EQ-5D. No severe adverse events were observed. Conclusions: The integrated Korean medicine treatment could be effective to treat obesity including weight loss. It is necessary to prevent additional weight regain through regular exercise even after Korean medicine treatment.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.71-84
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• 1998

Health has been seen as a resource necessary for both maintaining oneself and for living in a society pursuing high quality of life. Therefore, the medicare provision takes place of one of the most significant indexes for evaluating the regional welfare level. The purpose of this study is to investigate the locational characteristics of medicare service facilities. For the purpose, the distribution patterns of the medicare resources are analyzed both at the regional and local scales. The medicare resources are concentrated at the Metropolitan Seoul area in the regional scale, and they are also concentrated at the economic core areas in the local scale. Especially, higher level medicare resources, such as the general hospitals and medical specialists, show more concentration at the economic core areas than lower level services. This means that access to opportunities to receive higher level medicare is poorer in a more socially disadvantaged area. Since medicare service facilities are invested and operated by both private and public sectors, whose locational mechanisms are deferent, we analyzed the distribution patterns. Most medicare facilities are invested and managed by private sector in Korea, which is operated by market mechanism. This is related with the fact that the medicare facilities are concentrated at the economic core areas. The proportion of private sector is higher in the Metropolitan Seoul area, and thus this region shows stronger spatial disparity of medicare provision. In general, the medicare service facilities are located in the hierarchical structure, and thus the services levels and facility scales are differentiated by the hierarchy. We examined the hierarchical structure in the medicare service facilities in Korea. The referral medicare system has been applied with the assumption of the three level hierarchical structures in Korea. However, we could not find any distinct hierarchical structure in the scales of the medical service facilities.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.628-635
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• 2017

It is important to prescribe and take medicines that are appropriate for symptoms, since medicines are closely related to human health and life. Moreover, it becomes more important to accurately classify genuine medicines with counterfeit, since the number of counterfeit increases worldwide. However, the number of high-quality experts who have enough experience to properly classify them is limited and there exists a need for the automatic technique to classify medicine tablets. In this paper, we propose a method to classify the tablets by using a handheld spectrometer which provides both Near Infra-Red (NIR) and visible light spectrums. We adopted Support Vector Machine(SVM) as a machine learning algorithm for tablet classification. As a result of the simulation, we could obtain the classification accuracy of 99.9 % on average by using both NIR and visible light spectrums. Also, we proposed a two-step SVM approach to discriminate the counterfeit tablets from the genuine ones. This method could improve both the accuracy and the processing time.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.127-136
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• 2017

The purpose of the study was to investigate the awareness of basic emergency care by private ambulance drivers. A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 300 private ambulance drivers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon from February 20 to April 1, 2013. The questionnaire consisted of basic life support related airway management(3 items), respiratory management(9 items), circulation(4 items), consciousness(4 items), and infection control(3 items). The awareness of infection control accounted for 87% and emergency care including airway, breathing, consciousness, and respiration was 60%. The knowledge of emergency care was 15.20(maximum 23.0 points). Consciousness was 2.55(maximum 4.0), airway management was 2.08(maximum 3.0), respiration was 5.35(maximum 9.0), circulation was 2.56(maximum 4.0), and infection control was 2.64(maximum 4.0). In order to improve the quality of private ambulance drivers, it is important to develop the emergency care program and expansion.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.39-58
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• 2011

This study aimed to investigate recognition and satisfaction toward Korean herbal foods according to dietary lifestyle as well as the actual status of using ingredients for Korean herbal foods while looking for methods to improve use. The general characteristics of the respondents included relations with foods such as learning or working on them, and the correlations with the examined items were analyzed by grouping according to dietary lifestyle. Five significant dietary lifestyle groups were derived by analyzing the groups using the factor scores from the analysis. Recognition of Korean herbal foods was higher with older respondents and more cooking experience. Regarding experience related to Korean herbal foods, the housewives showed higher satisfaction when the ingredients of foods were bought and cooked. And satisfaction with price differed significantly by dietary lifestyle. With regard to experience of using ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat products, the groups with more cooking experience indicated relatively lower satisfaction with the taste of such products. When visiting restaurants, the groups with less cooking experience showed higher satisfaction with taste and nutritional values. Regarding the actual status of using ingredients for Korean herbal foods, most of the respondents answered that hygiene and quality management, distribution and marketing, and the promotion of ingredients are all essential.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2023

After thyroidectomy, some patients who show normal vocal cord movement still complain of subjective voice problems, which could lead to a decrease in quality of life related to communication. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a newly designed voice therapy applying neck exercise and semi-occluded vocal tract exercise (SOVTE) to improve voice problems after thyroidectomy without neurological injury. For this purpose, voice therapy was randomly assigned to 10 women who received thyroidectomy. Acoustic analysis [fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonics ratio, min Voice Range Profile (VRP), max VRP, VRP] was performed before and after surgery and immediately after voice therapy to compare voice changes. The study showed a statistically significant increase in max VRP and VRP after voice therapy compared to before surgery. These results suggest that the voice therapy methods in this study effectively improve a major symptom of voice problems after thyroidectomy, specifically the reduction in the high-frequency range. However, this study was limited in the number of s participants and did not control for the type of surgery. Therefore, further research utilizing larger sample sizes and controlled variables is needed to investigate the long-term effects of voice therapy.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2023

Objectives : This study aims to identify various psychiatric symptoms and psychosomatic symptoms caused by COVID-19 infection and investigate their long-term impact. Methods : A systematic literature review was conducted, selecting papers from domestic and international databases using keywords such as "COVID-19" and "psychosomatic." A total of 16 papers, including those using structured measurement tools for psychosomatic symptoms, were included in the final analysis. Results : Psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms have been reported in acute COVID-19 infection, while long-term post-COVID symptoms include chest pain and fatigue. The frequency of long-term psychosomatic symptoms has been estimated to be 10%-20%. Factors contributing to these symptoms include psychological and social stress related to infectious diseases, gender, elderly age, a history of psychiatric disorders, and comorbid mental illnesses. It is suggested that systemic inflammation, autoimmune responses, and dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system may be involved. Conclusions : Psychosomatic symptoms arising after COVID-19 infection have a negative impact on quality of life and psychosocial functioning. Understanding and addressing psychiatric aspects are crucial for symptom prevention and treatment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.581-590
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• 2022

It is important to create a decent pedestrian space in order to realize a public space that can ultimately improve the quality of life based on guaranteeing people's right to move while also enhancing urban activity. The goal of this study is to develop a pedestrian path evaluation system in order to lay the foundation for data construction leading to the creation of such elegant walking space. First, a basic system was established in keeping with factors and the space, and this system was used as the basic framework of the study. The trends identified in the literature can be divided into eight categories, denoted here as: Walking safety policy, Walking focused plan, Recognition transition, Transportaion system, Activity-linked walking, Facility utilization walking, Nature and history linked walking and Content convergence walking. The macro- and micro-indices and factors mentioned in related studies were synthesized and classified, and the basis for universality and differentiation was established by integrating them. Next, according to the basic composition of the walking system, Walking potential and slope safety in the Safety category, Basic walking connectivity and Traffic linkage in the Efficiency category, Walking arrangement and Rest convenience in the Health category, and Resource connectivity and Activity abundance in the Comfortability category macro evaluation system of the eight categories were established and a corresponding measurement method was developed.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.210-217
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• 2018

Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects quality of life and nutrition. Several studies have demonstrated a link between periodontal disease and low bone density, and vitamin D is expected to have a beneficial effect on periodontal disease as well as on bone mineral density and anti-inflammatory effects. The purpose of this study was to identify the association between periodontal disease and vitamin D because the results are different in some studies and there is a lack of research in Korea. In this study, we conducted a multiple linear regression analysis of 8,783 subjects among 23,626 subjects who were older than 20 years of age, who had serum vitamin D levels and periodontal disease, who had three years of the National Health and Nutrition Survey that was conducted in Korea from 2012 to 2014. We examined the relationship between serum vitamin D levels and periodontal disease. Tooth loss and vitamin D levels were negatively correlated (${\beta}=-0.028$, p=0.008). In addition, the prevalence of periodontal disease was found to be higher in men younger than 50 years of age with lower vitamin D levels (Q1: 1.769 [1.125~2.782], Q2: 1.182 [0.743~1.881], Q3: 0.676 [0.400~1.881]; p=0.001). Low vitamin D levels and periodontal disease are common diseases in primary care. Vitamin D supplementation is expected to have favorable effect on periodontal disease and falls, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and cancer. Therefore, patients with periodontal disease may benefit from periodic vitamin D management to improve quality of life as well as to manage periodontal disease. In addition, as shown in this study, not only elderly individuals, but also men younger than 50 years of age are related to periodontal disease, so there should be interest in controlling the levels of vitamin D in adults.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.10
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• pp.355-385
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• 2005

As the system of autonomous police that has been debated for long time is fixed to be introduced by the program of participatory government, this treatise intends to analyze main contents and review controversial items in order to present supplementary measures. The program of participatory government to introduce autonomous police in Korea focuses on converting the autonomous police of Korea from centralized police administration in order to provide 'customized security service' that is appropriate to the regional environment. Thus, if relevant city, county or district considers that it is required to introduce the system autonomous police, the assembly may enforce the decision by enacting ordinance. For enforcement, organization in the unit of section will be established in the line of mayor, county headman and district office. The main role will be security service that is closely related to the life of inhabitants such as crime prevention, patrol, traffic crackdown, etc. as well as public health, sanitation and environmental control which are being performed by autonomous organization at present. However some expected controversial items may be summarized in the following 3 points on the premise of accepting the program of government. First, the point at issue related to the basic function of police. The basic function of police is generally understood as order keeping function such as anterior and preventive job and law enforcing function such as posterior and suppressing job. By the way, the program of government does not endow the autonomous police with investigation right for general crime, thereby raising the controversy that our autonomous police is nothing but the assistant of police. Furthermore, the present national police also expresses its dissatisfaction to the transfer of authority. Second, the issue of balance of security service between self-governing bodies may be raised. The security environment is different between self-governing bodies and thus demand of security is different. Therefore, the security service of autonomous police will reveal difference in qualitative aspect for each self-governing body. Moreover, it can be easily anticipated that the quality of security service may be different as per the financial independence degree. Third, the point at issue anticipated with the operation funded by the budget of self-governing body. As autonomous police is operated by the budget of self-governing body, the following problems may be raised; (1) since police administration is subordinated to general administration, the concentration may be weakened (2) the cooperation between policy agencies may be impeded (3) owing to the difficult in possessing spare police, the mobility of police may be somewhat reduced.