• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.210-220
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• 2023

Recently, smart wearable products, including electromyography (EMG) measurement devices and clothing, have been developed to monitor users' exercise levels, muscle activation, and muscle balance more effectively during fitness activities. However, technical and socioeconomic barriers, such as flexibility and durability, still pose challenges in terms of comfort, ease of wear, and wearability of smart clothing, which includes devices and circuits. To address these issues, this study developed a wearable EMG device integrated with clothing to collect valid EMG signals from desired muscles while maintaining comfort, functionality, and ease of wear. After deriving a combined structure that could stably position the wearable device within the clothing, a prototype was manufactured and evaluated for fit, compression, comfort, and exercise comfort test by ten participants (height = 176.2 cm, weight = 76.4 kg, chest circumference = 101.2 cm). The study found that the prototype had smaller circumferences around the chest, waist, and abdomen compared to commercial products, resulting in lower ratings for wearing comfort and ease of wear. However, the prototype received high ratings for fitting, pressure, and the exercise comfort test. Valid signals were obtained when the EMG device was combined to the prototype for the rectus femoris muscle, indicating stable positioning of the device during exercise.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.369-372
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• 2021

These days, people spend more time sitting at a desk for studies or work. Also, because people continue to use computers, smartphones, and tablet PCs often during break times, their posture is getting worse. Maintaining a position of bad posture for an extended period of time causes problems with the musculoskeletal system related to the neck, shoulders, and spine. Additionally, problems such as physical fatigue and posture deformation are predicted to expand to a wide range of age groups. Therefore, the core function of the system we are developing is to ensure correct sitting posture and to receive alert notifications via the created mobile application. To create the system, a flex sensor, pressure sensor, and tilt sensor are attached to a chair and utilized. The flex sensor detects and compares the amount of bending in the chair's posture and transmits this value to an Arduino Uno R3 board. Additionally, information such as body balance and incline angle are collected to determine whether or not the current sitting posture is correct. When the posture is incorrect, a notification is sent through the mobile application to indicate to the user and the monitoring app that their posture is not correct. The system proposed in this study is expected to be of great help in future posture-related research.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1873-1893
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• 2023

The development of lightweight, low energy and small-sized sensors incorporated with the wireless networks has brought about a phenomenal growth of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in its different fields of applications. Moreover, the routing of data is crucial in a wide number of critical applications that includes ecosystem monitoring, military and disaster management. However, the time-delay, energy imbalance and minimized network lifetime are considered as the key problems faced during the process of data transmission. Furthermore, only when the functionality of cluster head selection is available in WSNs, it is possible to improve energy and network lifetime. Besides that, the task of cluster head selection is regarded as an NP-hard optimization problem that can be effectively modelled using hybrid metaheuristic approaches. Due to this reason, an Improved Coyote Optimization Algorithm-based Clustering Technique (ICOACT) is proposed for extending the lifetime for making efficient choices for cluster heads while maintaining a consistent balance between exploitation and exploration. The issue of premature convergence and its tendency of being trapped into the local optima in the Improved Coyote Optimization Algorithm (ICOA) through the selection of center solution is used for replacing the best solution in the search space during the clustering functionality. The simulation results of the proposed ICOACT confirmed its efficiency by increasing the number of alive nodes, the total number of clusters formed with the least amount of end-to-end delay and mean packet loss rate.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.611-619
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• 2019

This study was conducted to investigate changes in the mental functions of the elderly in nursing facilities affected by a horticultural therapy program based on validation therapy. To meet the purpose, we conducted a horticultural therapy program based on validation therapy with 58 elderly participants (average age 79.12±6.84, men and women) once a week, 50 minutes per session, in a total of 10 sessions. Participants were divided into the control and experimental group with convenience sampling. The program was carried out from March 15 to November 22, 2018. Vibraimage 8 pro(ELSYS, 2014) is a recent, psychologically based, emotional-recognition visual imaging technology that measures pixels microvibration in terms of digital frequency and amplitude parameters. To examine the effects of the horticultural therapy program based on validation therapy, Vibraimage was used to assess aggression, stress, tension, suspect, balance, charm, energy, self-regulation, inhibition, neuroticism and positive, negative, physiological domains of mental functions before and after program. As a result, the mean score of the positive domain in the control group significantly decreased from 63.89±5.09 to 60.74±5.48, but it decreased without statistical significance in the experimental group from 63.98±5.45 to 61.39±6.02. The mean score of neuroticism in the experimental group significantly decreased from 31.64±10.94 to 22.87±13.79. Moreover, the mean score of the physiological domain in the experimental group also significantly decreased from 25.08±6.27 to 19.42±8.80. Accordingly, horticultural therapy program based on validation therapy can be utilized as a program to promote mental health, especially maintaining positive mental health function of the eldery, helping those who live in long-term care facilities enjoy a happier life more happier.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.757-764
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• 2023

Background: Vestibular neuritis is a common cause of acute unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy. Vestibular neuritis is the second most common disease among patients with dizziness. Clinical symptoms of vestibular neuritis include the sudden onset of vertigo with spontaneous nystagmus, unsteady gait, nausea, and vomiting that last from days to weeks. However, even after the vertigo disappears, difficulty maintaining balance while walking may persist for weeks to months. Antihistamines, serotonin receptor blockers, and benzodiazepine vestibular suppressants are widely used as symptomatic treatments to reduce the severity of symptoms that occur in the acute phase. Case Summary: A patient diagnosed with acute vestibular neuritis was treated with acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal medicine. We used the visual analog scale (VAS) to assess each symptom and the vertigo score to observe the effect of treatment. After treatment, the VAS scores for each symptom and the vertigo score decreased, and the severity of nystagmus was reduced. Conclusion: This study suggests that Korean medicine treatments, including Samchulgunbi-tang-gagam, could be effective in improving the clinical symptoms of vestibular neuritis.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.74-83
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• 2024

This study aims to estimate roadkill occurrences and investigate influential factors in Chungcheongnam-do, contributing to the establishment of roadkill prevention measures. By comprehensively considering weather, road, and environmental information, machine learning was utilized to estimate roadkill incidents and analyze the importance of each variable, deriving primary influencing factors. The Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) exhibited the best performance, achieving an accuracy of 92.0%, a recall of 84.6%, an F1-score of 89.2%, and an AUC of 0.907. The key factors affecting roadkill included average local atmospheric pressure (hPa), average ground temperature (℃), month, average dew point temperature (℃), presence of median barriers, and average wind speed (m/s). These findings are anticipated to contribute to roadkill prevention strategies and enhance traffic safety, playing a crucial role in maintaining a balance between ecosystems and road development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2024

The riparian area plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The Korean government has recognized the importance of protecting riparian areas and has taken steps to purchase land and create ecobelt to reduce non-point source pollutants(NSPs) that can negatively impact water quality. However, selecting the catchment area and calculating the pollution load can be challenging due to the small area of the purchased land and the limitations of low-resolution DEMs. To address these challenges, this study proposes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) to create a high-resolution DEM and calculate the pollution load through land cover analysis. This approach can provide a more accurate representation of the land use status and help to identify areas that are contributing to NSPs. The quantitative comparison of the difference in water quality improvement ecosystem services according to the scenarios of additional catchment areas shows that even land purchased for the same amount of money may have different ecosystem service values, and this was quantitatively calculated. This can be used to prioritize future land acquisition. Overall, this study's approach could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of ecobelt in reducing NSPs and inform future efforts to protect riparian areas in Korea and beyond.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.21-51
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• 2024

Since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009, the importance of nonbank financial institutions in macroprudential management has increased significantly. Consequently, major countries and international financial institutions have been actively discussing and implementing macroprudential supervision and regulation for non-bank financial institutions (NBFI). In this context, this paper analyzes the systemic risk of both banks and non-bank sectors (securities firms and insurance companies) in South Korea over different time periods. Using the widely recognized ΔCoVaR methodology for measuring systemic risk, the analysis reveals that systemic risk increased substantially across all three sectors (banks, securities firms, and insurance companies) during the Global Financial Crisis, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the banking sector exhibited relatively high systemic risk compared to the securities and insurance sectors, the relative differences in systemic risk varied across the different crisis periods. Notably, during the margin call crisis in March of 2020, the gap in systemic risk between the banking and securities sectors decreased significantly compared to that during both the Global Financial Crisis and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, indicating that securities firms had a more substantial impact on risk in the overall financial system during this period. Furthermore, I analyze the impact of the issuance of equity-linked securities (ELS) by financial institutions on systemic risk, as measured by ΔCoVaR, finding that an increase in the outstanding balance of ELS issuance by financial institutions had an impact on increasing ΔCoVaR during the three crisis periods. These findings underscore the growing importance of non-bank financial institutions in relation to South Korea's macroprudential management and supervision. To address this evolving landscape, enhanced monitoring and regulatory measures focusing on non-bank systemic risk are essential components of maintaining financial stability in the country.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.438-450
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• 2024

Arabidopsis MORC1 (Microrchidia) is required for multiple levels of immunity. We identified 14 MORC1-interacting proteins (MIPs) via yeast two-hybrid screening, eight of which have confirmed or putative nuclear-associated functions. While a few MIP mutants displayed altered bacterial resistance, MIP13 was unusual. The MIP13 mutant was susceptible to Pseudomonas syringae, but when combined with morc1/2, it regained wild-type resistance; notably, morc1/2 is susceptible to the same pathogen. MIP13 encodes MED9, a mediator complex component that interfaces with RNA polymerase II and transcription factors. Expression analysis of defense genes PR1, PR2, and PR5 in response to avirulent P. syringae revealed that morc1/2 med9 expressed these genes in a slow but sustained manner, unlike its lower-order mutants. This expression pattern may explain the restored resistance and suggests that the interplay of MORC1/2 and MED9 might be important in curbing defense responses to maintain fitness. Indeed, repeated challenges with avirulent P. syringae triggered significant growth inhibition in morc1/2 med9, indicating that MED9 and MORC1 may play an important role in balancing defense and growth. Furthermore, the in planta interaction of MED9 and MORC1 occurred 24 h, not 6 h, post-infection, suggesting that the interaction functions late in the defense signaling. Our study reveals a complex interplay between MORC1 and MED9 in maintaining an optimal balance between defense and growth in Arabidopsis.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.483-493
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• 2024

This study analyzed changes in groundwater recharge due to urbanization and future climate change using the SWAT hydrological model in the Anseong river basin (1,647 km²) adjacent to the west sea of Korea. The urbanization scenario was constructed based on increasing urban density and expansion, resulting in a decrease in groundwater recharge and recharge rate by 19.9 mm and 1.77 %, respectively. Future climate change scenarios were simulated using two models representing extreme rainfall and drought, with the drought model indicating that maintaining an average recharge rate of 21.6 % would be challenging. Results from the combined scenario of urbanization and extreme drought suggest that groundwater recharge during the spring season in urban areas would be most significantly affected.