• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1089-1101
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• 2022

Immunotherapy has revolutionized and opened a new paradigm for cancer treatment. In the era of immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy, precision medicine has gained emphasis, and an early response assessment is a key element of this approach. Treatment response assessment for immunotherapy is challenging for radiologists because of the rapid development of immunotherapeutic agents, from immune checkpoint inhibitors to chimeric antigen receptor-T cells, with which many radiologists may not be familiar, and the atypical responses to therapy, such as pseudoprogression and hyperprogression. Therefore, new response assessment methods such as immune response assessment, functional/molecular imaging biomarkers, and artificial intelligence (including radiomics and machine learning approaches) have been developed and investigated. Radiologists should be aware of recent trends in immunotherapy development and new response assessment methods.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.425-427
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• 2024

This study presents a preliminary exploration into the effect of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) on the cerebellum in individuals with cerebellar atrophy. Over a three month-long period, nine subjects received a 4.5g of KRG daily, with assessments including the ARS, ADAS-Cog, and FDG-PET/CT scans. Results revealed a notable improvement in ataxia and cognitive function without a significant correlation between them. PET/CT scans and SUVR analyses supported these findings, showing an increase in cerebellar glucose uptake after KRG intake. These outcomes suggest a potential pleiotropic effect of KRG on cerebellar function.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.547-557
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• 2022

Online learning at a medical school was evaluated and improved based on the results of the evaluation and the principles of online learning environments design. The purpose of this study was to compare the results of online learning satisfaction between semesters from medical students and professors. To evaluate online learning, satisfaction surveys for an online learning platform, student participation, learning methods, learning contents, student assessments, and learning supports were developed and distributed to research participants. 223 students and 37 professors participated for the 1st semester, and 218 students and 49 professors participated for the 2nd semester, and paired t-tests were used for the analysis. Student satisfaction for the online learning platform, learning methods, learning contents, and learning supports were positively changed. However, the differences in the satisfaction for the student participation and student assessments were not statistically significant. In particular, students' satisfaction in basic medical sciences and clinical medicine periods decreased, whereas students' satisfaction in preclinical medicine and clinical clerkship periods increased. Based on the results, this study will contribute to the improvement of online learning at medical schools.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.3
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• pp.221-225
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• 2017

Since 2015, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) has performed annual qualitative assessments of asthma management provided by all medical institutions that care for asthma patients in Korea. According to the third report of qualitative assessment of asthma management in 2017, the assessment appears to have contributed to improving the quality of asthma care provided by medical institutions, especially primary clinics. However, there is still a gap between the ideal goals of asthma management and actual health care policies/regulations in real clinical settings, which leads to the state of standstill with respect to the quality of asthma management despite considerable efforts such as the qualitative assessment of asthma management by national agencies such as the HIRA. At this point, a harmonized approach is needed to raise the level of asthma management among several components including medical policies, efforts of academic associations such as education and distribution of the guideline for management, and reliable financial support by the government.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.518-539
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• 2024

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) has emerged as a pivotal tool for diagnosing and risk-stratifying patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Recent advancements in image analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have enabled the comprehensive quantitative analysis of coronary atherosclerosis. Fully quantitative assessments of coronary stenosis and lumen attenuation have improved the accuracy of assessing stenosis severity and predicting hemodynamically significant lesions. In addition to stenosis evaluation, quantitative plaque analysis plays a crucial role in predicting and monitoring CAD progression. Studies have demonstrated that the quantitative assessment of plaque subtypes based on CT attenuation provides a nuanced understanding of plaque characteristics and their association with cardiovascular events. Quantitative analysis of serial CCTA scans offers a unique perspective on the impact of medical therapies on plaque modification. However, challenges such as time-intensive analyses and variability in software platforms still need to be addressed for broader clinical implementation. The paradigm of CCTA has shifted towards comprehensive quantitative plaque analysis facilitated by technological advancements. As these methods continue to evolve, their integration into routine clinical practice has the potential to enhance risk assessment and guide individualized patient management. This article reviews the evolving landscape of quantitative plaque analysis in CCTA and explores its applications and limitations.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.947-955
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• 2019

Degenerating nodules (DNs), which primarily manifest as benign thyroid nodules, are one of the main causes of discordance in ultrasonography (US) and cytological assessments. Intranodular hemorrhage is one of the mechanisms contributing to discordant nodules, and an impaired blood supply may explain further DN shrinkage and infarction. The surgical specimens can be divided into acute and chronic stages based on the histological changes, which usually mimic the US features of malignant tumors. Serial US follow-up should be recommended instead of other unnecessary procedures. However, repeated fine-needle aspiration, diagnostic surgery, or core-needle biopsy may still be necessary for indeterminable or highly suspicious DNs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.505-510
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• 1996

Many diseases cause other diseases with strength of influences and time intervals. Prognostic and therapeutic assessments are the important part of clinical medicine as well as diagnostic assessments. In cases where a patient already has manufestations of multiple disorders (complications), progress forecasting and therapy decision by physicians without support tools are very dificult: physicians often say that "Once complications set in, the patient may die". Treating complications are difficult tasks for physicians, because they have to consider all of the complexities, possibilities and interactions between the diseases. The prediction of multiple disorders has many bundles that arise from such time-dependent interrelationships between diseases and nonlinear progress. This paper proposes a model based on time-dependent influences, which appropriately describes the progress of mulitple disorders, and gives some modificaitons for applying this model to medical domains: time-dependent influence matrix manifestation vector, therapy efficacy matrix, S-shaped curve approximation, definitions of which are provided. This research proposes an algorithm for forecasting the state of each disease on the time horizon and for evaluation of therapy alternatives with not toy example, but real patient history of multiple disorders.disorders.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-74
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• 2019

Researchers usually examine the quality of survey data by several conventional measures of reliability and validity. However, those measures are mainly designed to examine the quality of an individual measurement, rather than the quality of a data set as a whole. There is a relative lack of methods for evaluation of the overall data quality. This paper attempts to fill this gap. We propose using interviewers' assessments as one of criteria for evaluating the overall data quality. Interviewers are the ones who literally conduct and thus directly observe interviews. Taiwan's Election and Democratization Studies (TEDS) have required interviewers to assess how trustworthy the responses of each of their interviewees are, and to provide several descriptions about the process and environment of the interviews. We use this information to evaluate the data quality of TEDS surveys and compare it with the results from the conventional test-retest method. The findings are that the interviewer assessment is a fair indicator of the overall reliability of attitudinal questions but not a good indicator when factual questions are examined. Regarding the evaluation of data validity, more data is required to see whether or not interviewers' assessment is informative in terms of data quality.

• Korean journal of aerospace and environmental medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2019

The health of licence holders (flight crew members and air traffic controllers) is recognized as an important element of aviation safety. The medical emergency symptoms that occur during the flight duty period without prior notice can interfere with human performance capabilities and threaten aviation safety. To prevent this, ICAO has been required to conduct a periodic medical assessment process of licence holders including routine analysis of in-flight incapacitation events and medical findings during medical to identify areas of increased medical risk and continuous reevaluation of the medical assessment process to concentrate on identified areas of increased medical risk. The supply and demand of licence holders have become a major issue due to the increase in air traffic around the world, and the pilot retirement age has been extended to 65 years. But, there is no significant change in the aviation medical assessments process. The follow up of the result of medical examination discovered through aviation medical examination is a very important part, but it has not been properly implemented, and the sick leaves and medical inflight incapacitation reporting system should be improved. The management of health risk factors for licence holders must be implemented to prevent aircraft accidents or aviation safety problems caused by health problems. In this paper, we propose the development plan and concrete improvement plan of the health risk management system of licence holders in Korea in terms of aviation safety.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2024

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry for a tooth from an individual exposed is well known as retrospective dosimetry in radiological accidents. A major constraint of the conventional X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry is the necessity to extract the tooth of the exposed patient for dose assessment. In this study, to conduct the dose assessments of exposed patients through part-extraction of tooth enamel, the minimum detectable dose (MDD) of the tooth enamel was evaluated based on the amount of mass. Further, a field test was conducted via intercomparison using various dose assessment methods to verify the feasibility of X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry using the minimum mass of tooth enamel. The intercomparison results demonstrated that effective dose determination via X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry is reliable. Consequently, it was determined that the minimum mass of tooth enamel required to evaluate an absorbed dose above 0.5 Gy is 15 mg. Thus, EPR dosimetry using 15 mg of tooth enamel can be applied in the triage and initial medical response stages for patients exposed during radiological accidents. This approach represents an advancement in managing radiological accidents by offering a more efficient and less invasive method of dose assessment.