• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.341-351
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to analyze the effects of Tai Chi on fall-related risk factors through meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials published in English and Korean between 2000 and 2010. Methods: Using health related database and hand search of references and Google, 28 randomized studies were collected from doctoral dissertation and published peer reviewed articles. The Comprehensive Meta-analysis version 2.0 was used for the analysis. Results: The effect sizes for Tai Chi for 3 months were significant with ES=0.54 for static balance, ES=0.24 for dynamic balance, ES=0.69 for balance measured by scale, and ES=0.40 for flexibility, ES=0.48 for muscle strength, ES=0.71 for ADL, and ES=0.37 for fear of falling. Also, the effect sizes of Tai Chi for 6 months were significant for most fall-related variables. The 6 month data for flexibility was not analyzed since only one study was published. Conclusion: The analysis of studies of randomized clinical trials indicate that Tai Chi is effective in improving balance, flexibility, muscle strength, activities of daily living, and fear of falling when applied for 3 or 6 months. The findings provide the objective evidence to apply Tai Chi as a fall preventive intervention.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.165-182
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review was to understand clinical usefulness of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) on students' mental health. Methods: Ten databases were included to extract clinical studies on effects of EFT intervention with students. Characteristics of selected studies were described, and biases were assessed with Risk of Bias (RoB) or Risk of Bias Assessment for Non-Randomized Studies (RoBANS). Results: A total of 14 clinical trials were extracted for analysis. There were 8 randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), 2 non-randomized-controlled trials (nRCTs), and 4 before-after studies. EFT have significant clinical usefulness in public speaking anxiety, test anxiety, stress, depression, learning related emotions, adolescent anxiety, and eating issues. The risk of selection bias in most studies was high or uncertain. Conclusions: EFT is an effective clinical technique for managing students' mental health issues. However, the included studies have been conducted with relatively poor quality and small sample size. Clinical trials with high quality study design and well-designed EFT education programs are needed to generalize clinical usefulness.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.147-158
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review the recent research trends of evidence based medicine, especially human randomized controlled trials on acupuncture. Methods : The articles were collected by retrieving the database of Pubmed and Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion Society. The retrieving period was from October 2003 to September 2008, and the search term was 'acupuncture'. The articles were classified according to their publication journals, countries, publication years, targeted diseases, types of acupuncture and types of control. Results : In total, 558 articles in Pubmed and 35 articles in Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion Society were searched. The number of articles on acupuncture research has increased with higher rate since 2000, but the Qualitative development has not achieved the same amplitude. Studies in Korea were insufficient both in Qualitative and Quantitative aspects. In countries, China had the most papers, and in targeted diseases, pain diseases were most dominant. In the types of acupuncture, classical acupuncture, and in the types of control, conventional western treatment showed the highest frequency. Conclusions: We need to do many-sided and more high Quality researches on acupuncture. For that, well-designed randornized trials are absolutely necessary.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.57 no.11
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• pp.2086-2094
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• 2008

Finding a planar surface on 3D space is very important for efficient and safe operation of a mobile robot. In this paper, we propose a method using a plane detection cell (PDC) and iterative randomized Hough transform (IRHT) for finding the planar region from a 3D range image. First, the local planar region is detected by a PDC from the target area of the range image. Each plane is then segmented by analyzing the accumulated peaks from voting the local direction and position information of the local PDC in Hough space to reduce effect of noises and outliers and improve the efficiency of the HT. When segmenting each plane region, the IRHT repeatedly decreases the size of the planar region used for voting in the Hough parameter space in order to reduce the effect of noise and solve the local maxima problem in the parameter space. In general, range images have many planes of different normal directions. Hence, we first detected the largest plane region and then the remained region is again processed. Through this procedure, we can segment all planar regions of interest in the range image.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2006

Objective : A prospective, randomized, controlled clinical study is performed to verify the effectiveness of epidural dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges to reduce postoperative pain following lumbar microdiscectomy. Methods : Twenty-three patients (10 men and 13 women) undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy were included. Five pieces of gelatin sponge measuring $1{\times}1cm$ [Gelfoam; Pharmacia & Upjohn. Kalamazoo, MI, USA], soaked with either 5mg dexamethasone or an equal amount [2mL] of saline, were left on the decompressed nerve root after unilateral hemilami-nectomy, flavectomy and discectomy. Results : Subjective visual analog scale[VAS] scores of leg pain in the dexamethasone group on the first, third and first postoperative days [2.5, 2.5, 1.7, respectively] were significantly lower than in the control group [5.0, 4.8, 3.6][P<0.05]. No side effects related to the dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges were observed. Conclusion : The intraoperative application of dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges during lumber microdiscetomy can provide effective-postoperative analgesia without complications.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.230-238
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• 2003

In this paper, Inverter drives adopting 2 phase space vector SRP-PWM (Separately Randomized Pulse Position PWM) with fixed switching frequency is proposed. The proposed 2 phase space vector SRP-PWM scheme is based on the 3 phase SRP-PWM. In the proposed SRP-PWM scheme, each of two phase pulses is located randomly in each switching interval. The experimental results show that the voltage and acoustic noise harmonics are spread to a wide band area. Also, the performance of the proposed 2 phase SRP-PWM and the conventional center aligned SVM are compared to each other. In result, the speed response is nearly similar to each other from the viewpoint of the v/f constant control.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.281-290
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• 2017

Mack and Skillings (1980) proposed a nonparametric method in a randomized block design with replications. This method employs the mean of observations instead of each observation. However, it has the inherent disadvantage that there may be a loss of information. In this paper, we proposed a nonparametric method that employees an aligned method and linear placement statistics to supplement its weakness. A Monte-Carlo study is performed to compare the power of the proposed method with previous methods.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2018

Despite recent clinical guidelines, the optimal therapeutic strategy for the management of refractory chronic cough is still a challenge. The present systematic review was designed to assess the evidence for efficacy and safety of gabapentin in the treatment of chronic cough. A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library databases, and publications cited in bibliographies was performed. Articles were searched by two reviewers with a priori criteria for study selection. Seven relevant articles were identified, including two randomized controlled trials, one prospective case-series designed with consecutive patients, one retrospective case series of consecutive patients, one retrospective case series with unknown consecutive status, and two case reports comprising six and two patients, respectively. Improvements were detected in cough-specific quality of life (Leicester Cough Questionnaire score) and cough severity (visual analogue scale score) following gabapentin treatment in randomized controlled trials. The results of prospective case-series showed that the rate of overall improvement of cough and sensory neuropathy with gabapentin was 68%. Gabapentin treatment of patients with chronic cough showed superior efficacy and a good safety record compared with placebo or standard medications. Additional randomized and controlled trials are needed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine if smoking cessation programs (SCPs) are effective for adults through a systematic review of the results of such programs in large randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: The PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) strategy was established, 1,160 literature from domestic and foreign electronic databases was reviewed, and 22 references were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of each reference was evaluated using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network tool, and meta-analysis was carried out. Results: The SCPs were significantly effective for adult smokers. Smoking cessation counseling, education, and smoking cessation medications such as nicotine patch were more effective than the other interventions. However, the results showed short-term effects (within six months), and differences were observed among the SCPs. For the outcome measures for SCPs, the abstinence rate of seven days was mainly used, but differences were identified between the CO level and the cotinine-verified abstinence rate of smoking cessation. Conclusions: For a smoking cessation program for adult smokers, the strength of the evidence of the program's effectiveness in RCTs that provide the identified intervention strategies should be considered.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.115-126
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• 2009

Objective: By assessing the quality of methodology and synthesis of results of RCTs (Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials) with herbal acupuncture (pharmacopuncture), we hope to help with administrating herbal acupuncture therapy in clinic and conducting RCT with herbal acupuncture. Methods: Reports of RCT conducted in Korea published in medical journals until February 2009 were collected. We surveyed elementary information of RCTs, evaluated randomization, double-blinding, allocation concealment and put together the results of RCTs by seven clinical topics. Results: 38 RCTs with herbal acupuncture were selected, then adequate methods for randomization and allocation concealment were found in 39% and 5% of studies. Complete double-blinding and a clear accounting of all participants were conducted in 42% and 50% of reports. The synthesis of RCTs revealed that herbal acupuncture was useful and effective on degenerative gonarthritis, omarthralgia on cerebrovascular accident, acute ankle sprain, back sprain, neck sprain, headache, rheumatoid arthritis and tennis elbow, generally. Conclusions: Although further improvement in quality of methodology of RCTs with herbal acupuncture is required, clinical usefulness of herbal acupuncture was shown especially on disorders of musculoskeletal system via RCTs.