• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.209-216
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• 2024

Objective : Some patients with disc herniation who underwent discectomy complain of back pain after surgery and are unsatisfied with the surgical results. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between preoperative disc height (DH), postoperative DH, and pain score 12 months after surgery in patients who underwent microdiscectomy for herniated lumbar disc. Methods : This study enrolled patients who underwent microdiscectomy at a medical center between January 2012 and December 2020. Patients with X-ray or computed tomography and pain score assessment (visual analog scale score) prior to surgery, immediately post-op, and at 1, 6, and 12 months after surgery were included. The DH index was defined as DH/overlying vertebral width. The DH ratio was defined as the postoperative DH/preoperative DH. Simple linear regression and multivariate linear regression analyses were applied to assess the correlation between DHs and leg pain scores 12 months after surgery. Results : A total of 118 patients who underwent microdiscectomy were included. DH decreased up to 12 months after surgery. The DH ratio at 1, 6, and 12 months after discectomy showed a significant positive correlation with the pain scores at 12 months after discectomy (1 month : p=0.045, B=0.52; 6 months : p=0.008, B=0.78; 12 months : p=0.005, B=0.69). Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that the level of surgery, sex, age, and body mass index had no significant relationship with back pain scores after 12 months. Conclusion : In patients who underwent microdiscectomy, the DH ratios at 1, 6, and 12 months after surgery were prognostic factors for back pain scores at 12 months after surgery. Aggressive discectomy is recommended for lower postoperative DH ratios and Visual analog scale scores, leading to improved patient satisfaction.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.36-44
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• 2024

This paper presents the application of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Region of Interest (ROI) techniques for concrete crack analysis. Surfaces of concrete structures, such as beams, etc., are exposed to fatigue stress and cyclic loads, typically resulting in the initiation of cracks at a microscopic level on the structure's surface. Early detection enables preventative measures to mitigate potential damage and failures. Conventional manual inspections often yield subpar results, especially for large-scale infrastructure where access is challenging and detecting cracks can be difficult. This paper presents data collection, edge segmentation and ROI techniques application, and analysis of concrete cracks using Convolutional Neural Networks. This paper aims to achieve the following objectives: Firstly, achieving improved accuracy in crack detection using image-based technology compared to traditional manual inspection methods. Secondly, developing an algorithm that utilizes enhanced Sobel edge segmentation and ROI techniques. The algorithm provides automated crack detection capabilities for non-destructive testing.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2008

Purpose : Several studies have reported the recent increase in the incidence of acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis(APSGN). The objective of this study is to see changes of clinical findings/manifwstation in children with APSGN. Methods : Medical records of 63 children who were diagnosed with APSGN in the deparment of Pediatrics, Kyungpook National University Hospital, between January 1992 and December 2006 were reviewed retrospectively. We analyzed various clinical characteristics such as age, sex, degrees of proteinuria, degrees of hematuria, and presence or absence of histories of systemic antibiotic use in children with APSGN, and compared the children with APSGN who were diagnosed between 1992 and 2000 to those who were diagnosed between 2001 and 2006. Results : Age of the patients ranged from 2-14 years(median 7.11 years) at the time of disease onset. Study patients consisted of 41 boys and 22 girls. APSGN followed infection of the throat in 87% of cases. Patient developed an acute nephritic syndrome 12 days after an antecedent streptococcal pharyngitis. Forty patients presented with gross hematuria. Fortyone patients had hypertension at the time of diagnosis. Hypertension disappeared within 7.8$\pm$8.2 days, gross hematuria within 11.3$\pm$17.2 days and microscopic hematuria within 3.5$\pm$3.9 months from the disease onset. Patients in 2001-2006 had significantly higher increase of antistreptolysin O(ASO) titer. However, no significant differences in clinical characteristics were observed. Age, sex, severity of proteinuria, gross or microscopic hematuria, antibiotic therapy did not affect the clinical manifestations of glomerulonephritis. In other words, hypertension, duration of hematuria, recovery of serum C3 level are not different between the two time periods. Conclusion : Our data indicates that patients in 2001-2006 had significantly higher level of ASO titer. However, they did not show significant clinical differences. To evaluate the causes of the resurgence of APSGN, a national epidemic is needed.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.199-232
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• 2018

There are increasing needs for understanding and fathoming of business management environment through big data analysis at industrial and corporative level. The research using the company disclosure information, which is comprehensively covering the business performance and the future plan of the company, is getting attention. However, there is limited research on developing applicable analytical models leveraging such corporate disclosure data due to its unstructured nature. This study proposes a text-mining-based analytical model for industrial and firm level analyses using publicly available company disclousre data. Specifically, we apply LDA topic model and word2vec word embedding model on the U.S. SEC data from the publicly listed firms and analyze the trends of business topics at the industrial and corporate levels. Using LDA topic modeling based on SEC EDGAR 10-K document, whole industrial management topics are figured out. For comparison of different pattern of industries' topic trend, software and hardware industries are compared in recent 20 years. Also, the changes of management subject at firm level are observed with comparison of two companies in software industry. The changes of topic trends provides lens for identifying decreasing and growing management subjects at industrial and firm level. Mapping companies and products(or services) based on dimension reduction after using word2vec word embedding model and principal component analysis of 10-K document at firm level in software industry, companies and products(services) that have similar management subjects are identified and also their changes in decades. For suggesting methodology to develop analysis model based on public management data at industrial and corporate level, there may be contributions in terms of making ground of practical methodology to identifying changes of managements subjects. However, there are required further researches to provide microscopic analytical model with regard to relation of technology management strategy between management performance in case of related to various pattern of management topics as of frequent changes of management subject or their momentum. Also more studies are needed for developing competitive context analysis model with product(service)-portfolios between firms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.508-513
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• 2009

Pine needles have long been used as a traditional health-promoting medicinal food in Korea. To investigate the effects of pine (pinus densiflora) needle extracts on blood flow and serum lipid improvement were assessed in vivo. 8 week-old Sprague Dawley strain rats were divided into four groups of seven rats each; CON, 0.5% CHOL, HOT water and Sub-supercritical group. Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride contents were lower in the CON group than the 0.5% CHOL group. Three weeks of feeding hot water and sub-supercritical extract resulted in a decrease in serum triglyceride and total cholesterol level. The level of HDL-cholesterol in the 0.5% CHOL group was significantly (p<0.05) reduced compared to the CON group, but it had a tendency to increase with pine needle extract supplementation. Blood passage time of the pine needle extracts supplemented group was higher than the 0.5% CHOL group. Microscopic observation showed that whole blood passed smoothly through the micro channels in pine needle extracts supplemented groups. The platelet aggregation ability of the groups treated with pine needle extracts was less than that of the 0.5% CHOL group. All these results suggest that pine needle extracts might improve blood homeostasis mediated via antiplatelet activities.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.86-95
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• 2013

Objectives: Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with high fat diet, and atherogenic changes were seen in the aorta. However, when Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with a high fat diet and administered Youngyopaedoc-san together, these atherogenic changes were rarely seen. This study was aimed to find the inflammatory marker level changes in Sprague-Dawley rats with Youngyopaedoc-san-related anti-atherogenic effect. Methods: The extract from Youngyopaedoc-san was made by the pharmacy department of Kyung-hee Oriental Medical Hospital. The animals were divided into five groups: normal diet, high fat diet, high fat diet with Youngyopaedoc-san, high fat diet with Vytorin, and high fat diet with Youngyopaedoc-san and Vytorin. A light microscopic image of a cross section taken from the aorta of the Sprague-Dawley rat was analyzed. We compared inflammatory marker levels among the five groups. Results: The complex of Youngyopaedoc-san and Vytorin has more anti-atherogenic effects in the aorta of Sprague-Dawley rats fed with high fat diet than Vytorin alone. Youngyopaedoc-san has inhibitory effect on the increase of IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-2 levels. The difference on eosinophil levels of each group was statistically significant, but the eosinophil level of each group was within normal limits, so the difference on eosinophil levels was not clinically significant. Conclusions: Youngyopaedoc-san-related anti-atherogenic effect could be a result of inhibitory mechanism on IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-2.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.215-224
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• 2014

It is hardly surprising for the current elder generation to choose extreme measure, that is to commit suicide, because of various social or health problems caused by financial difficulties and diseases, for neither individuals nor the nation had not prepared for their later lives. Therefore, the number of elder suicide is rapidly increasing, so that it is becoming a big social issue. Research in various fields related to elderly suicide has been done due to recent huge interest, but most of them focused on microscopic factors and it is likely that most are in national level or individual level, so research about elderly suicide by regional areas is insufficient. Due to the nature of Korean administration system which is operated by each local government, study on elderly suicide by regional areas is acutely required. The purpose of this study is to draw policy suggestions of preventing suicide by analyzing current state of suicide rates in terms of sex(male elder vs female elder) and age(young old vs old old) in each 16 regions for 9years(from 2003 to 2011) and then analyzing interrelationships between the suicide rates and socio-economic factors.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.617-628
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• 1998

In order to understand the pathogenetic mechanism of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the role of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) in association with oxidative stress was investigated in rats. $Interleukin-1{\alpha}\;(IL-1,\;50\;{\mu}g/rat)$ was used to induce acute lung injury by neutrophilic respiratory burst. Five hours after IL-1 insufflation into trachea, microvascular integrity was disrupted, and protein leakage into the alveolar lumen was followed. An infiltration of neutrophils was clearly observed after IL-1 treatment. It was the origin of the generation of oxygen radicals causing oxidative stress in the lung. IL-1 increased tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, but mepacrine, a PLA2 inhibitor, did not change the levels of these cytokines. Although IL-1 increased PLA2 activity time-dependently, mepacrine inhibited the activity almost completely. Activation of PLA2 elevated leukotriene C4 and B4 (LTC4 and LTB4), and 6-keto-prostaglandin $F2{\alpha}\;(6-keto-PGF2{\alpha})$ was consumed completely by respiratory burst induced by IL-1. Mepacrine did not alter these changes in the contents of lipid mediators. To estimate the functional changes of alveolar barrier during the oxidative stress, quantitative changes of pulmonary surfactant, activity of gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), and ultrastructural changes were examined. IL-1 increased the level of phospholipid in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, which seemed to be caused by abnormal, pathological release of lamellar bodies into the alveolar lumen. Mepacrine recovered the amount of surfactant up to control level. IL-1 decreased GGT activity, while mepacrine restored it. In ultrastructural study, when treated with IL-1, marked necroses of endothelial cells and type II pneumocytes were observed, while mepacrine inhibited these pathological changes. In histochemical electron microscopy, increased generation of oxidants was identified around neutrophils and in the cytoplasm of type II pneumocytes. Mepacrine reduced the generation of oxidants in the tissue produced by neutrophilic respiratory burst. In immunoelectron microscopic study, PLA2 was identified in the cytoplasm of the type II pneumocytes after IL-1 treatment, but mepacrine diminished PLA2 particles in the cytoplasm of the type II pneumocyte. Based on these experimental results, it is suggested that PLA2 plays a pivotal role in inducing acute lung injury mediated by IL-1 through the oxidative stress by neutrophils. By causing endothelial damage, functional changes of pulmonary surfactant and alveolar type I pneumocyte, oxidative stress disrupts microvascular integrity and alveolar barrier.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2008

This simulation study examined the effect of data acquisition error including the data type of TEM image, and incident beam intensity of the tilt series on 3D tomograms. Simulation was performed with the 3D head phantom model of Kak and Slaney, and the slightly modified 3D head phantom model with enhanced difference in absorption coefficients. Reconstructed tomogram for the original head phantom model using 8-bit gray-scale image was distorted with extremely high level of noise, while an acceptable result was obtained for the modified model. The results for the original model using wrong formulation for the transmitted beam intensity was proved to be incorrect. The high level of noise along the z direction was found in case of the modified model. On the other hand, the wrong value of incident beam intensity in both models gave distorted results. In order to reconstruct an artifacts-free 3D structure from the projections with invisible features in electron tomography, the 16-bit projection images should be used with the correct incident beam intensity which is applied to Beer's law.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1024-1030
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• 1998

We investigated the effects of vitamin E supplementation on protein glycosylation in early and end stage product, and light microscopic studies were done on the renal glomeruli of KK-mice of various ages and various duration of diabetes. Weaned KK-mice were fed high fat diets containing 20% corn oil(wt/wt), and sacrificed at 4,6, and 9 months of age. The high vitamin E diet was a high fit diet supplemented with an excess amount of d1-$\alpha$-tocopheryl acetate (2080IU/kg diet). We measured Hemoglobin $A_{IC}$ (Hb $A_{IC}$) as a glycosylation early product, and renal collagen-linked fluorescence as a glycosylation end product. In the diabetic group, levels of Hb $A_{IC}$ were increased within 2 months after onset of diabetes and remained at a constant level for the duration of experiment. 5 months after onset of diabetes, renal collagen linked fluorescence(CLF) was markedly increased. A quantative, morphologically demonstratable, progressive thickening of the basement membrane and calcification occured in the diabetic KK-mice. There is a statiscally positive correlation between CLF and histologic grade of diabetic nephropathy. Hepatic vitamin E levels correlated with those of Hb $A_{IC}$, renal CLF, and renal calcification. Treatment with vitamin I did not modify the level of blood glucose. However, we observered a significant lowering of CLF and Hb $A_{IC}$ in diabetic mice. Supplementation of vitamin E was found to delay the progression of diabetic nephropathy. (forean J Nutrition 31(6) : 1024-1030, 1998)0, 1998)