• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.175-182
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify low pain prevalence rate and factors affecting low back pain in emergency medical technicians. Method: A descriptive relationship research design was utilized. The participants were 74 emergency medical technicians who worked at fire stations in W and J city and agreed to participate in this study. Data were collected between April and August 2008 using a questionnaire, which included demographic factors, severity of low back pain using a visual analog scale, factors related to low back pain and health behavior, and BMI. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression were performed for data analysis. Results: 85.1% of emergency medical technicians experienced low back pain. The mean score of low back pain was relatively low (M=4.0, SD=2.33). Significant factors affecting low back pain were found to be age, marital status, exercise, hours of standing work, and BMI. These variables explained 35.1% of variance in low back pain (F=8.45, p<.001). Conclusion: These results suggest that further research is needed to develop interventions for prevention and management of low back pain among emergency medical technicians.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2012

An image obtained from a low light environment results in a low-exposure problem caused by non-ideal camera settings, i.e. aperture size and shutter speed. Of particular note, the multiple color-filter aperture (MCA) system inherently suffers from low-exposure problems and performance degradation in its image classification and registration processes due to its finite size of the apertures. In this context, this paper presents a novel method for the color enhancement of low-exposure images and its application to color shift model-based MCA system for image refocusing. Although various histogram equalization (HE) approaches have been proposed, they tend to distort the color information of the processed image due to the range limits of the histogram. The proposed color enhancement algorithm enhances the global brightness by analyzing the basic cause of the low-exposure phenomenon, and then compensates for the contrast degradation artifacts by using an adaptive histogram specification. We also apply the proposed algorithm to the preprocessing step of the refocusing technique in the MCA system to enhance the color image. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method can enhance the contrast of any low-exposure color image acquired by a conventional camera, and is suitable for commercial low-cost, high-quality imaging devices, such as consumer-grade camcorders, real-time 3D reconstruction systems, digital, and computational cameras.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1274-1281
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• 2011

Dietary protein restriction affects lipid metabolism in rats. This study was performed to determine the effect of a low protein diet on hepatic lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity in growing male rats. Growing rats were fed either a control 20% protein diet or an 8% low protein diet. Feeding a low protein diet for four weeks from 8 weeks of age induced a fatty liver. Expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, a key lipogenic enzyme, was increased in rats fed a low protein diet. Feeding a low protein diet decreased very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) secretion without statistical significance. Feeding a low protein diet down-regulated protein expression of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, an important enzyme of VLDL secretion. Feeding a low protein diet increased serum adiponectin levels. We performed glucose tolerance test (GTT) and insulin tolerance test (ITT). Both GTT and ITT were increased in protein-restricted growing rats. Our results demonstrate that dietary protein restriction increases insulin sensitivity and that this could be due to low-protein diet-mediated metabolic adaptation. In addition, increased adiponectin levels may influences insulin sensitivity. In conclusion, dietary protein restriction induces a fatty liver. Both increased lipogenesis and decreased VLDL secretion has contributed to this metabolic changes. In addition, insulin resistance was not associated with fatty liver induced by protein restriction.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify the pain patterns and factors affecting low back pain in middle-aged women with backache. Method: A descriptive research design was utilized. The participants were middle-aged women who visited to two back pain clinics in Wonju from October, 2006 through February, 2007. A total of 195 low back pain patients agreed to participate in this study, and data from 177 were analyzed. Data were collected using a questionnaire which included a modified short-form Korean pain rating scale, demographic factors, factors related to low back pain and health behavior. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis was utilized in the analysis. Results: The mean score for low back pain was relatively low(M=21.57, SD=11.44). Among pain patterns, scores for dull pain were the highest of all the dimensions. In the regression analysis, significant factors affecting low back pain were found to be age, level of education, religion, BMI, experience of pregnancy, delivery type and exercise. These variables explained 24.8% of variance in low back pain(F=3.79, p<.001). Conclusion: These results suggest that nurses need for assessment and intervention to take into consideration pain patterns as well as factors affecting middle-age women with backache.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.429-437
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• 2011

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to describe the prevalence of low weight and to investigate related factors contributing to low weight in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: From the database of the Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES-IV), the researchers selected 2,964 older adults aged over 65. The original study was a population-based epidemiological survey of health and nutrition with a stratified multistage clustered probability design. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$-test and multiple logistic regression with the SPSS/WIN 18.0 program. Results: The prevalence of low weight in older adults was 4.7%. The prevalence of low weight was different according to demographic characteristics. That is, the rate was higher in male elders, older ones, and rural residents. In the cases of current smoking, frequent alcohol consumption and no chronic disease, the prevalence of low weight was higher. Age, gender, area of residence, and current smoking were found to be contributing factors to low weight in community-dwelling older adults. Conclusion: The result of this study provides important insights into possible reasons for low weight in community- dwelling older adults and suggests that low weight should be considered in promoting older adults' health.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2014

Purpose: In this study, the effect of milling on paddy rice stored at low temperature, the changes in grain temperature of bulk storage bags exposed at room temperature, the post-milling water content of paddy rice, the whiteness of rice, and the rate of pest incidence were investigated and data were analyzed. Methods: Changes in temperature inside the bulk storage bags kept at low temperature and grain temperature after exposure to room temperature were measured. Experiments were conducted for identifying the reasons of post-milling quality changes in paddy rice stored at low temperature. Results: It was determined that a short-term increase of water content in paddy rice was directly related to surface condensation, and that rice should be milled at least 72 h after removal from low-temperature storage, in order to completely eliminate surface condensation of paddy rice kept in bulk storage bags. It was observed that post-milling quality of rice changed, but water content was maintained at high levels for more than 18 d in rice that was milled when condensation occurred, regardless of paper or vinyl packaging. Rice whiteness rapidly decreased in rice that was milled when condensation occurred, regardless of packaging, while rice that was milled 72 h or more after removal from low temperature storage did not show any significant changes in whiteness. No pest incidence was observed up to 12 d after removal from low temperature storage, regardless of packaging. Starting at 18 d, after removal from low temperature storage, rice that was milled when condensation occurred, was affected by pests, while 24 d after removal from low temperature storage, all portions of rice were affected by pests. Conclusions: Our results suggest that changes in post-milling quality of rice could be significantly reduced by exposing paddy rice to room temperature for at least 72 h before milling, in order to allow the increase of grain temperature and prevent surface condensation.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2016

Recently, active efforts are being made for future Si CMOS technology by various researches on emerging devices and materials. Capability of low power consumption becomes increasingly important criterion for advanced logic devices in extending the Si CMOS. In this work, a junctionless field-effect transistor (JLFET) with ultra-thin poly-Si (UTP) channel is designed aiming the sub-10-nm technology for low-power (LP) applications. A comparative study by device simulations has been performed for the devices with crystalline and polycrystalline Si channels, respectively, in order to demonstrate that the difference in their performances becomes smaller and eventually disappears as the 10-nm regime is reached. The UTP JLFET would be one of the strongest candidates for advanced logic technology, with various virtues of high-speed operation, low power consumption, and low-thermal-budget process integration.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2011

The low temperature characteristics of automotive diesel have been legally regulated due to the fact that solid particle in diesel at low temperature can cause severe problems in the vehicle. The biodiesel is well known for eco-friendly fuel, which is one of the most popular alternative petrodiesel, but it is easy to solidified at low temperature than petrodiesel at low temperature. For that reason, in this study, we investigated the low temperature fuel characteristics of diesel-biodiesel blends which were prepared to mix 6 different kinds of biodiesel to winter diesel fuel, respectively. Also, we confirmed to improve low temperature fuel characteristics by pour point depressant.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.200-205
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• 2012

In the high oil price age, intensification of energy efficiency promotion in the building sector is required. Windows are dominating in large percent of whole building loads, and are regarding as the primary target of energy efficiency. In this study, in order to reduce heat loss of buildings, we investigate the thermal performance properties of Temperable Low-e glazing coated Ag membrane that has high electrical conductivity. The Temperable Low-e glazing windows has high insulation and shading properties, and it has strength that can supply various product which consumers want. In order to evaluate thermal performance of temperable windows, we install single low-e windows and double low-e windows in the experimental chamber and analysis the comparison heating energy consumption between single and double Low-e glazing windows. performance evaluation was conducted.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.102-108
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• 2006

Microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) was investigated to determine whether it was an effective binding agent for the processing of low-quality pork loins. MTGase especially promoted the coagulation of myosin heavy chain (MHC). However, the effect of MTGase on MHC from low-quality meat was less than that from the normal meat when the reaction time was not enough. The breaking strength of the heat-induced gel made of myosin B from low-quality meat with MTGase was lower than that of normal meat. Sausage made with low-quality meat with MTGase did not exhibit improved hardness, as compared to that made with normal meat. Results of this study indicated that use of low-quality meat in the manufacture of sausage was feasible to get textural property equal to that of normal meat sausage, when a half or more of the raw material was normal meat and MTGase was used in the sausage.