• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.361-365
• /
• 2021

Background Pain in the postoperative body contouring patient has traditionally been managed with narcotic medication. In an effort to minimize side effects and prevent addiction, plastic surgeons are searching for novel ways to provide adequate analgesia, one of which is nerve blocks. This study was conducted with a meta-analysis that evaluates the efficacy of these blocks for patients who undergo breast surgery. Methods A search of the PubMed/MEDLINE database for articles including the terms "post-operative analgesia" OR "postoperative pain management" AND "in plastic surgery" OR "in cosmetic surgery" OR "in elective surgery" in February 2019 generated five studies on elective breast augmentation and reduction mammoplasty that reported pain scores and quantities of opioids consumed. Independent samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and a random effects model were implemented for evaluation. Results A total of 317 patients were identified as having undergone body contouring of the breast, about half of which received a nerve block. Pain scores on a 1-10 scale and opioid dose-equivalents were calculated. Those who were blocked had an average score of 2.40 compared to 3.64 for those who did not (P<0.001), and required an average of 5.20 less narcotic doses (P<0.001). Pain relief following subpectoral augmentation was best achieved with type-II blocks as opposed to type-I and type-II with serratus plane (P<0.001). Conclusions The opioid epidemic has extended to all surgical specialties. Implementation of a nerve block seems to be an efficacious and cost-effective mechanism to not only help with post-operative pain, but also lower the need for narcotics, especially in subpectoral augmentation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.3-27
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effects of different graft materials used in alveolar ridge preservation on dimensional hard tissue changes of the alveolar ridge, assessed using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. Methods: A systematic electronic search of MEDLINE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and a manual search were conducted from November 2019 until January 2020. Randomized controlled trials were included if they assessed at least 1 variable related to vertical or horizontal hard tissue changes measured using CBCT scans. After a qualitative analysis of the included studies, subgroups were formed according to the graft material used, and a quantitative analysis was performed for 5 outcome variables: changes in vertical alveolar bone height at 2 points (midbuccal and midpalatal/midlingual) and changes in horizontal (buccolingual) alveolar bone width at 3 different levels from the initial crest height (1, 3, and 5 mm). Results: The search resulted in 1,582 studies, and after an independent 3-stage screening, 16 studies were selected for qualitative analysis and 9 for quantitative analysis. The metaanalysis showed a significantly (P<0.05) lower reduction of alveolar ridge dimensions for the xenogenic subgroup than in the allogenic subgroup, both vertically at the midbuccal aspect (weighted mean difference [WMD]=-0.20; standard error [SE]=0.26 vs. WMD=-0.90; SE=0.22) as well as horizontally at 1 mm (WMD=-1.32; SE=0.07 vs. WMD=-2.99; SE=0.96) and 3 mm (WMD=-0.78; SE=0.11 vs. WMD=-1.63; SE=0.40) from the initial crest height. No statistical analysis could be performed for the autogenic subgroup because it was not reported in sufficient numbers. Conclusions: Less vertical and horizontal bone reduction was observed when xenogenic graft materials were used than when allogenic graft materials were used; however, the loss of alveolar ridge dimensions could not be completely prevented by any graft material.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.73-82
• /
• 2010

Productivity improvement is considered as one of hot potato topics in international shipyards by the increasing amount of orders. In order to improve productivity of lines, shipbuilders have been researching and developing new work method, process automation, advanced planning and scheduling and so on. An optimization approach was accomplished on short-term scheduling of subassembly lines in this research. The problem of subassembly line scheduling turned out to be a non-deterministic polynomial time problem with regard to SKID pattern’s sequence and worker assignment to each station. The problem was applied by simulated annealing algorithm, one of meta-heuristic methods. The algorithm was aimed to avoid local minimum value by changing results with probability function. The optimization result was compared with discrete-event simulation's to propose what pros and cons were. This paper will help planners work on scheduling and decision-making to complete their task by evaluation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.489-502
• /
• 2022

In this study, a Gaussian process regression (GPR) model as well as six GPR-based metaheuristic optimization models, including GPR-PSO, GPR-GWO, GPR-MVO, GPR-MFO, GPR-SCA, and GPR-SSO, were developed to predict fly-rock distance in the blasting operation of open pit mines. These models included GPR-SCA, GPR-SSO, GPR-MVO, and GPR. In the models that were obtained from the Soungun copper mine in Iran, a total of 300 datasets were used. These datasets included six input parameters and one output parameter (fly-rock). In order to conduct the assessment of the prediction outcomes, many statistical evaluation indices were used. In the end, it was determined that the performance prediction of the ML models to predict the fly-rock from high to low is GPR-PSO, GPR-GWO, GPR-MVO, GPR-MFO, GPR-SCA, GPR-SSO, and GPR with ranking scores of 66, 60, 54, 46, 43, 38, and 30 (for 5-fold method), respectively. These scores correspond in conclusion, the GPR-PSO model generated the most accurate findings, hence it was suggested that this model be used to forecast the fly-rock. In addition, the mutual information test, also known as MIT, was used in order to investigate the influence that each input parameter had on the fly-rock. In the end, it was determined that the stemming (T) parameter was the most effective of all the parameters on the fly-rock.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.231-242
• /
• 2023

Purpose : This study aimed to identify ways to improve the quality of physical therapy research and ultimately review the current situation to improve evidence-based decision-making in physical therapy. Methods : For better evidence-based decision-making in physical therapy, researchers should review the quality assessment of articles in more detail and report their findings for valid and appropriate level of evidence and strength of recommendations. The level of evidence affects how well the findings are derived from well-designed literature. The evaluation of the evidence focuses primarily on the study design and the degree of bias that may compromise the validity of the findings. The final recommendation is based on a combination of the study design and literature quality. To uncover gems of information in each paper, a risk of bias assessment should be performed after the literature has been initially selected. Results : Researchers should consider the complexity of the intervention, appropriate grouping, and calculation of effect sizes for the intervention. Researchers conducting systematic reviews should provide a detailed description of the quality assessment performed and present a detailed analysis of their interpretation of the results. The results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be interpreted with caution and include a risk of bias assessment. Guidelines for the level of evidence and strength of recommendations should be developed and utilized more broadly to improve reporting practices in physical therapy. Conclusion : Researchers should be knowledgeable about the strengths and limitations of each study design and methodology. In the future, researchers will also need to improve their ability to critically evaluate their findings, given the potential for their results to influence clinical practice.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.14 no.9
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2009

The field of the web service orchestration introduced to generate a valuable service by reusing single services. Recently, it suggests rule-based searching and composition by the AI (Artificial Intelligence) instead of simple searching or orchestration based on the IOPE(Input, Output, Precondition, Effect) to implement the Semantic web as the web service of the next generation. It introduce a AOP programming paradigm from existing object-oriented programming paradigm for more efficient modularization of software. In this paper, we design a dynamic web service orchestration and invocation scheme applying Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) and Reflection for Semantic web. The proposed scheme makes use of the Reflection technique to gather dynamically meta data and generates byte code by AOP to compose dynamically web services. As well as, our scheme shows how to execute composed web services through dynamic proxy objects generated by the Reflection. For performance evaluation of the proposed scheme, we experiment on search performance of composed web services with respect to business logic layer and user view layer.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.85-100
• /
• 2009

This study suggested the expansion strategies of school library catalog considering educational context which should be used teaching and learning process. To achieve the purpose of research, this study derived educational context categories by comparing and analyzing teaching and learning related factors, information resource related factors. Also, this study analysed case system considering educational context. Based on the results, this study designed the catalog data elements as an element to be added to an existing school libraries system(DLS). The derived data element is end user(teacher, students), instructional situations (teaching method, instructional object, curriculum, evaluation type), resource type(feature, discipline, format), reading situation(contextual reading, literature topic), related materials(teacher representation, student representation).

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.13-35
• /
• 2020

Startup accelerators are a new type of investors providing a certain amount of shares for imparting education, mentoring, networking, and providing space and seed money that can directly resolve the difficulties faced by nascent entrepreneurs (Clarysse, 2016). Startup accelerators have expanded worldwide as their influence over the startup ecosystem has increasingly been established (Pauwels et al., 2016; Cohen & Hochberg, 2014). This study was conducted to derive investment determinants of startup accelerators that are emerging as major investment players around the world. To this end, the accelerator-type determinants of investment were derived. As previous research on this topic is nonexistent, this process involved qualitative meta-synthesis, literature reviews, observation, and in-depth interviews. First, more than 30 research papers were examined for the determinants of investment for firms at an early stage of their foundation, and the categories and determinants of investment in the relevant studies were comparatively analyzed using qualitative meta-synthesis. Further, related data were investigated to identify the characteristics of accelerators, and the startup evaluation process of US accelerators was studied. The more than 100 questions raised during this process were coded to examine the determinants of investment that accelerators considered important. In-depth interviews were conducted with four US accelerators to identify the characteristics of accelerators and key determinants of investment. Ultimately, 5 categories of accelerator-type determinants of investment and 26 subordinate determinants of investment were derived. The results were verified and supplemented by consulting with seven accelerators in Korea. The results were confirmed after pilot tests and verification by seven domestic accelerators. After confirming the accelerator-type determinants, the reliability of them was verified by examining the importance and priority of each category through the quantitative survey of Korean accelerators. The research that elicited the accelerator-type investment determinants is the first research and is expected to be a major reference to the progress of subsequent studies. This research that systematically derived the investment determinants of the accelerator is expected to make major contributions to the progress of follow-up studies, the process of selecting startups, and the investment decision-making process of the accelerators.

• Journal of The Korean Ophthalmological Society
• /
• v.60 no.2
• /
• pp.144-151
• /
• 2019

Purpose: Intravitreal aflibercept, ranibizumab, bevacizumab, and dexamethasone are the most widely used drugs in the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of anti-vascular endothelial growth factors and dexamethasone for the treatment of DME. Methods: There were nine previous systematic reviews on this topic; we updated these high-quality reviews. Seven studies were added to two studies following a literature search. Efficacy outcomes were 1) average improvement in visual acuity, 2) proportion of patients who experienced an improvement in vision (an increase in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of ${\geq}15$ in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study [ETDRS]), and 3) proportion of patients who experienced worsening vision (a decrease in BCVA of ${\geq}15$ in the ETDRS). Safety outcomes included systemic adverse events and ocular-related adverse events. Results: The mean difference in the BCVA for ranibizumab versus bevacizumab treatment was 0.16 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.02, 0.34), and that for ranibizumab versus aflibercept was -0.08 (95% CI: -0.26, 0.10). The mean difference in the change of BCVA for aflibercept versus ranibizumab was -0.20 (95% CI: -0.40, -0.01), and that for aflibercept versus bevacizumab was -0.34 (95% CI: -0.53, -0.14). Other efficacy outcomes showed similar trends, and there was no significant difference between treatments. There was also no significant difference in both systemic and ocular adverse events rates between the treatments. Conclusions: In DME patients, the efficacy of aflibercept was found to be higher with respect to BCVA changes compared with ranibizumab or bevacizumab. However, there were no significant difference in terms of visual acuity improvement or visual acuity of more than 15 letters, nor in terms of anti-vascular endothelial growth factors (as a safety outcome).

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.314-327
• /
• 1999

In this study, domains, contents, and effects of pre-existed intervention programs for individuals with arthritis were meta-analyzed to develop arthritis health promotion program based on Holistic Model. The developed program includes strategies of cognition, environment, and behavior. and also generates positive changes in the physical, psychological, and social demensions. Then needs assessment on conveniently selected 153 women who visited a university hospital in Seoul or in Inchon are conducted to identify the objective domains of arthritis health promotion program According to the study results. target health problems of the arthritis health promotion program were shown as pain, disability, depression, and role impediment in social domain. These objectives could be achieved by including the strategies of changing cognition, the strategies of changing behavior through learning the skill related to the health promoting behavior. and the strategies of changing environment in the health promotion program. That is, it is analyzed that the contents of program are not exclusive one another in physical. psychological. and social demensions, and also are not exclusive one another in aspect of cognition, behavior, and environment. The necessary methods to achieve the desired objectives for the developed arthritis health promotion program and evaluation subjects are as follows : (1) In the arthritis health promotion program, knowledge on management of arthritis, efficacy related to arthritis management, skill for pain management, skill for exercise, establishment of positive self-concept, enhancement of positive thinking, stress management. skill for problem solving, skill for setting goals. skill for requesting help, and skill for communication are all included. Through the improvement of all those strategies, intermediate objectives, such as “joint protection, and maintenance of pain management behavior”, “maintenance of regular exercise”, and “promotion of coping skill in psychosocial dimension” are achieved. (2) These intermediate objectives are also the methods for achieving objectives in next stage. It implies that through the intermediate objectives. the final objectives such as “minimization of physical symptoms and signs”, “maximization of psychological function”, and “maximazation of role performance in social domain” could be achieved. Each of these final objectives reflects the different dimension of quality of life, respectively. When these objectives are achieved, the quality of life that client perceives is improved. Therefore, through evaluation of these final objectives, the level of achieving final outcome of arthritis health promotion such as quality of life is determined.