• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1797-1808
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• 2021

Objective: To determine whether volumetric CT texture analysis (CTTA) using fully automatic tumor segmentation can help predict recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients with intrahepatic mass-forming cholangiocarcinomas (IMCCs) after surgical resection. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the preoperative CT scans of 89 patients with IMCCs (64 male; 25 female; mean age, 62.1 years; range, 38-78 years) who underwent surgical resection between January 2005 and December 2016. Volumetric CTTA of IMCCs was performed in late arterial phase images using both fully automatic and semi-automatic liver tumor segmentation techniques. The time spent on segmentation and texture analysis was compared, and the first-order and second-order texture parameters and shape features were extracted. The reliability of CTTA parameters between the techniques was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Intra- and interobserver reproducibility of volumetric CTTAs were also obtained using ICCs. Cox proportional hazard regression were used to predict RFS using CTTA parameters and clinicopathological parameters. Results: The time spent on fully automatic tumor segmentation and CTTA was significantly shorter than that for semi-automatic segmentation: mean ± standard deviation of 1 minutes 37 seconds ± 50 seconds vs. 10 minutes 48 seconds ± 13 minutes 44 seconds (p < 0.001). ICCs of the texture features between the two techniques ranged from 0.215 to 0.980. ICCs for the intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility using fully automatic segmentation were 0.601-0.997 and 0.177-0.984, respectively. Multivariable analysis identified lower first-order mean (hazard ratio [HR], 0.982; p = 0.010), larger pathologic tumor size (HR, 1.171; p < 0.001), and positive lymph node involvement (HR, 2.193; p = 0.014) as significant parameters for shorter RFS using fully automatic segmentation. Conclusion: Volumetric CTTA parameters obtained using fully automatic segmentation could be utilized as prognostic markers in patients with IMCC, with comparable reproducibility in significantly less time compared with semi-automatic segmentation.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2016

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the reliability and validity of a personal computer-based muscle viewer (PC-BMW) compared with that of a portable ultrasound (P-US) for measuring upper trapezius (UT) and transversus abdominis (TrA) muscle thickness at rest and during contraction. Design: Observational inter-rater reliability study. Methods: Fifty-five healthy participants (25 men, 30 women) participated in this study. PC-BMW and P-US were randomly measured at the UT and TrA muscles. Two examiners randomly obtained the images of all participants in 3 test sessions lasting 2 days. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs), standard error of measurement, contraction ratio, and correlation were used to estimate reliability and validity. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationship between muscle thickness measures taken from PC-BMW and P-US. Results: The intra-rater reliability ICCs of UT and TrA muscle thickness for the PC-BMW were >0.995, indicating excellent reliability. Inter-rater reliability ICCs for the PC-BMW ranged from 0.963 to 0.987. The P-US also exhibited high reliability. A high correlation was found between the measurements of the two muscles in PC-BMW and P-US (p<0.01). Conclusions: PC-BMW provides clear and excellent images, is pocket-sized and less expensive than a conventional ultrasound imaging system. PC-BMW can be utilized variously and has the advantage of rehabilitative ultrasound imaging. More research is needed to evaluate the utility of PC-BMW for rehabilitation.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.189-220
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of individual background, educational experiences, and social awareness on youth's civic participation in the three East Asian countries (South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), and provide educational implications for encouraging Korean youth's civic participation. And we estimated the effects of 17 variables on the youth's current and future civic participation using 'International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016' data opened in 2018. The result showed that the factors affecting on the civic participation were significantly different between the three countries. And significant differences on current and future civic participation were confirmed within the same country. First, Korean youth have high level of their parents' civic resources but the level of civic education in school is lower than other countries, and Taiwan youth have relatively high level of national identity. Second, the factors affecting on civic participation are more influenced by educational experiences than individual background such as parents' socioeconomic status, and the mass media have significant effect on youth's civic participation in all the three countries. Third, non-formal program and cultural experiences in school have significant effects on civic participation in future adulthood. Based on these results, this study suggested that it was important to provide various non-formal activities as well as expansion of civic education for encouraging youth's civic participation.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.31-53
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• 2016

This study aims to examine the effects of student's individual background and school factors on global citizenship and to provide some suggestions to improve global citizenship education in Korea. To achieve this purpose, we used International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009 data which studied student knowledge and understanding of civics and citizenship as well as student perceptions, and attitudes related to civics and citizenship from 38 countries. The data was analyzed with a 2-level Hierarchical Linear Model. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. Girls had more positive attitudes than boys toward gender equality and equal rights for different ethnic groups and immigrants. This study also showed that the level of student's global citizenship depended on whether home language was different from test language. Parental educational attainment and parental occupational status generally affected the level of student's global citizenship and students' interest in political and social issues appeared to be strongly affected by their parents. These findings suggest that parents play important role in improving global citizenship. At the school level, teacher-student relationships and the value of student participation had positive effects on global citizenship. Therefore, in order to implement global citizenship education in schools, it is necessary to consider the change of school climate.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.527-532
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• 2018

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of leisure activity on learning agility and to verify the mediative effectiveness of interpersonal relationship between leisure activity and learning agility for youths. To achieve these purpose, 6,637 data that sampled by 'IEA ICCS 2016' were analyzed with structural equation. The results of study were as follow. First, leisure activity directly effects on learning agility for youths. Second, leisure activity directly effects on interpersonal relationship. Third, interpersonal relationship directly effects on learning agility and partial mediative effects between leisure activity and learning agility. These results implies that youths' leisure activity is not only directly affecting learning agility, but also affecting interpersonal relationship. And this interpersonal relationship also effects learning agility. Based on these results, some practical implications were proposed to develop learning agility in terms of leisure activity and interpersonal relationship.

• Clinics in Orthopedic Surgery
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.500-507
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• 2018

Background: The sagittal alignment of the spine and pelvis is not only closely related to the overall posture of the body but also to the evaluation and treatment of spine disease. In the last few years, the EOS imaging system, a new low-dose radiation X-ray device, became available for sagittal alignment assessment. However, there has been little research on the reliability of EOS. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intrarater and interrater reliability of EOS for the sagittal alignment assessment of the spine and pelvis. Methods: Records of 46 patients were selected from the EOS recording system between November 2016 and April 2017. The exclusion criteria were congenital spinal anomaly and deformity, and previous history of spine and pelvis operation. Sagittal parameters of the spine and pelvis were measured by three examiners three times each using both manual and EOS methods. Means comparison t-test, Pearson bivariate correlation analysis, and reliability analysis by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for intrarater and interrater reliability were performed using R package "irr." Results: We found excellent intrarater and interrater reliability of EOS measurements. For intrarater reliability, the ICC ranged from 0.898 to 0.982. For interrater reliability, the ICC ranged from 0.794 to 0.837. We used a paired t-test to compare the values measured by manual and EOS methods: there was no statistically significant difference between the two methods. Correlation analysis also showed a statistically significant positive correlation. Conclusions: EOS showed excellent reliability for assessment of the sagittal alignment of the spine and pelvis.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.231-247
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors of ICT literacy in the primary school students in South Korea and to examine the gender and city size difference on the factor of ICT literacy. To accomplish this goal, we have analyzed the data of Korea Youth Competency Measurement and International Comparative Study I: ICCS 2016 which is nationally collected from the primary school students, currently on the 5 ~ 6th grades in South Korea. 1,188 samples were used in the study excluding missing samples. The participants were 584 5^th grad and 604 6^th grad students, 620 males (52.2%) and 568 females (47.8%). The mean age was 13.49 years (SD=.52). The result of the study reveals the four factors of ICT literacy through cross-validating exploratory factor analysis and confirmative factor analysis; pleasure of using ICT, perceived usefulness of using ICT, learning ability with using ICT, and operating ability of ICT. This study found that the leaner differ in gender on learning ability with using ICT and pleasure of using ICT. The female students were significantly larger than male students on learning ability with using ICT. However, the male students were significantly larger than male students on pleasure of using ICT. This study found that the leaner differ in city size on the factors of ICT literacy excluding pleasure of using ICT. The students living in the big size city were significantly larger than the students living in the middle and small. That is, over all, female students were more learning with ICT, male students were more interesting about ICT, and the students living in the big size city were more ICT use for learning. Based on the results, some strategies were suggested on the proper use of the factors of ICT in education.