• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-41
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• 2023

Submerged floating tunnels must be connected to the ground to connect continents. The displacement imbalance at the shore connection between the underground bored tunnel and submerged floating tunnel can cause stress concentration, accompanying a fracture at the shore connection. The elastic joint has been proposed as a method to relive the stress concentration, however, the effect of the elastic joints on the dynamic behavior should be evaluated. In this study, the submerged floating tunnel and shore connection under dynamic load conditions were simulated through numerical analysis using a numerical model verified through a small-scaled physical model test. The resonant frequency was considered as a dynamic behavioral characteristic of the tunnel under the impact load, and it was confirmed that the stiffness of the elastic joint and the resonant frequency exhibit a power function relationship. When the shore connection is designed with a soft joint, the resonant frequency of the tunnel is reduced, which not only increases the risk of resonance in the marine environment where a dynamic load of low frequency is applied, but also greatly increases the maximum velocity of tunnel when resonance occurs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.112 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2023

Life expectancy is increasing due to the aging of the population, which is in turn exacerbating problems such as the prevalence of various geriatric diseases. This study was established to provide basic data for the expansion of forest healing activities for the elderly by systematically analyzing the literature on how such activities affect this age group. For the collection of studies, the Korean databases RISS, KISS, Korea Med, and Science On were used, while PubMed, Cochrane Central, MDPI, and Google Scholar were used to identify reports published elsewhere. To assess the quality of the methodology used in the collected studies, the risk of bias was analyzed using Cochrane's RoB2 and RoBANS. Among 1,856 reports initially identified, 21 were finally selected for analysis in this study, which were limited to research papers on forest healing activities for the elderly published between 2000 and January 2022. In this review, the subjects were those aged 60 or older, with a total of 750 participants, ranging from at least 7 to a maximum of 88 per study. The analysis showed that the most frequently performed tests in each category were on depression as a psychological indicator in 7 studies, MMSE(Mini Mental State Examination) as a cognitive indicator in 2 studies, on blood pressure as a physiological indicator in 4 studies, on melatonin as a biochemical indicator in 2 studies, and on body fat and muscle strength as physical indicators in 3 studies. Of the 21 studies, 19 used two or more test items, with psychological indicators being most commonly measured. For the future application of forest healing activities for the elderly, various forest healing programs to prevent cognitive function decline should be developed and distributed, and follow-up studies should be continuously presented to provide the basis for forest healing activities.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.37-42
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• 2023

This study aimed to examine the safety of HemoHIM, a dietary supplement containing methoxsalen. HemoHIM is a dietary supplement marketed globally, and a competitor to ginseng. It has been reported to contain methoxsalen, a plant extract for treating psoriasis and vitiligo. Methoxsalen is known to cause hepatotoxicity, but most of the cases has been reported from ingestion as a drug, not a food. There are no reports of hepatotoxicity from the consumption derived from natural products such as Angelica gigas, Cnidium officinale, and Paeonia lactiflora, which are the main ingredients in the HemoHIM. However, a recent case of acute hepatitis was reported in Hong-Kong after ingestion of HemoHIM. It is difficult to conclude that hepatitis was caused by HemoHIM, because there was no check of co-occurring medications with a higher risk of hepatotoxicity, no description of the progress, no quantitative comparison of methoxsalen in HemoHIM to it in common foods such as carrots and celery, and no description of the patient's underlying diseases. On the other hand, there was a study that suggest hemoHIM is safe, and that study had adequate number of subjects even though more studies are needed to ensure safety.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the prognostic factors related to tooth loss after 5 years of periodontal surgery in periodontal disease patients. Materials and Methods: From January to December 2017, 22 patients and 124 teeth who underwent periodontal treatment through periodontal surgery were targeted. At the time of treatment, the measured values were evaluated after recording the maximum probing depth, average periodontal probing depth, number of root, furcation involvement, pulp vitality, and prosthesis state on the day of periodontal surgery. Based on the initial records at the time of visit, patient-related factors were gender, age, smoking, tooth loss due to periodontal disease at the time of first visit, diabetes, and maintenance period. The influence of each factor on tooth loss was evaluated. Results: As a result of examining the influence of tooth-related factors on tooth loss, the maximum probing depth depth (P: 0.000), bone loss (P: 0.021) was found to have a significant effect on tooth loss. Conclusion: As a result of examining the influence of patient-related factors on tooth loss, any variables had no significant effect. Bone loss, maximum probing depth acted as statistically significant prognostic factors for tooth loss in patients who underwent periodontal surgery.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.455-462
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• 2023

During pregnancy, maternal immune activation (MIA) from infection increases the risk of neurodevelopmental diseases, including schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. MIA induced by polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly (I:C)) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in animal experiments has led to offspring with abnormal behaviors and brain development. In addition, it has recently been reported that microglia, which reside in the brain and function as immune cells, play an important role in behavioral abnormalities and brain development in MIA-induced offspring. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we investigated whether microglia-specific inhibition of GPR56, a member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family, causes behavioral abnormalities in brain development. First, MIA induction did not affect the microglia population, but when examining the expression of microglial GRP56 in MIA-induced fetuses, GPR56 expression was inhibited between embryonic days 14.5 (E14.5) and E18.5 regardless of sex. Furthermore, microglial GPR56-suppressed mice showed abnormal behaviors in the MIA-induced offspring, including sociability deficits, repetitive behavioral patterns, and increased anxiety levels. Although abnormal cortical development such as that in the MIA-induced offspring were not observed in the microglial GPR56-suppressed mice, their brain activity was observed through c-fos staining. These results suggest that microglia-specific GPR56 deficiency may cause abnormal behaviors and could be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis and/or as a therapeutic target of behavioral deficits in MIA offspring.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.320-329
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• 2023

Background: Oral frailty has garnered considerable interest following its identification as a risk factor for physical frailty. The Korean oral frailty diagnosis criteria have emphasized the need for extensive research on oral frailty diagnostic items and interventions. Our study performed an in-depth analysis of the tongue-palate pressure patterns in healthy community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Of the 217 older adults aged ≥60 years who visited a senior center in Wonju, 205 participants who completed tongue pressure measurement were included in the final analysis. Pressure changes over time were recorded by instructing the participants to press their tongue against the hard palate with for 7 seconds per cycle. The participants were divided into the normal and abnormal tongue pressure (NTP and ATP, respectively) groups based on whether they achieved the target tongue pressure at least once; tongue pressure patterns were compared between the groups. Furthermore, the average time taken to achieve the standard tongue pressure value was calculated for the participants in the NTP group and used to evaluate the decrease in tongue pressure in the ATP group. Results: Among the 205 participants, 40.5% had ATP. The tongue pressure graph revealed a gentle and consistent incline that was maintained even after achieving standard tongue pressure in the NTP group. The graph was more extreme in the ATP group, and the changes in the pressure type varied across individuals; the tongue pressure was only 48.4%, 40.7%, 31.9%, and 22.6% of the NTP in the participants in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and ≥90s, respectively (p<0.05). Conclusion: Tongue pressure weakness was observed in 40.5% of the healthy community-dwelling older adults. Furthermore, ATP graphs were observed in the patients with tongue pressure weakness. Thus, activities improving the oral function in community-dwelling older adults and systematic oral rehabilitation programs should be devised to promote normal swallowing.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.108-126
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• 2023

In this paper, the dynamic hard shoulder running for bus only (HSRFBO) was presented to solve the traffic congestion by increase the capacity in chronic congested sections of highways, and a simulation was performed to evaluate the comparison with the current hard shoulder running for all vehicles(HSRFAV) and median bus only lane and HSR(MBOLHSR). According to the evaluation results, it was evaluated to be more advantageous in terms of traffic flow and safety than the current HSRFAV. In addition, the speed of passing buses is slightly reduced compared to the MBOHSR, but the speed of entering and exiting buses is increased and the speed of buses and cars is greatly improved. Therefore It was analyzed that the efficiency of transport personnel was also improved. In particular, it is expected that traffic flow will be stabilized as the difference in speed between passenger cars and buses will be greatly reduced, and violations of exclusive bus lanes by passenger cars will be greatly reduced. In addition, the operation time of HSR is greatly reduced, so that the original function of the shoulder lane can be maintained as much as possible. As a result, it was analyzed that the risk of accidents was significantly reduced when operating HSRFBO compared to when operating MBOHSR, and cross-conflicts with high accident severity did not occur.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.101-134
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• 2024

Objectives The purpose of this study is to observe the effectiveness of acupotomy treatment for lateral epicondylitis by comparing it with various control groups. Methods We searched 11 domestic and international databases for systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The subjects were studies published from January 1, 2017 to September 1, 2023, and only randomised controlled trials were included. Results 208 studies were searched, of which 21 studies were finally selected. Among the studies published after 2017, the largest number of studies was published in 2019. The average number of participants per study was 72.28±20.26 and the average age was in the 40s. The most frequent intervention in the study was acupotomy alone, and the treatment most often mentioned as a control group was local nerve block. The most used evaluation tool is efficiency. Acupotomy+manipulation had statistically better effect than that of local nerve block in terms of pain (standard mean difference -1.87, 95% confidence interval, -2.18 to -1.57, p<0.00001) and elbow joint function (standard mean difference 2.25, 95% confidence interval, 1.65 to 2.86, p<0.00001). Conclusions As a result of the meta-analysis, the effect of acupotomy added manual therapy treatment was statistically significant compared to the local nerve block frequently used for lateral epicondylitis. Based on these results, it appears that more research on combination treatments other than acupotomy treatment will be needed. Also, it appears that more large-scale randomized controlled studies that strictly adhere to the standards for reporting interventions in controlled trials of acupuncture, risk of bias 2 criteria will be needed.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Frailty is a clinical syndrome as an increased vulnerability to stressors, leading to a decrease in physiologic reserves and a decline in the ability to maintain a good homeostasis. This condition leads to an increased risk of hospitalization, disability and mortality. Frailty occurs due to various causes and requires a multidimensional approach. It is also important to detect and manage it early. Frailty is also deeply related to neuropsychiatric problems such as pain and depression. In evaluating frailty, it is desirable to comprehensively consider not only physical areas such as disease, nutrition, movement, and sensory functions, but also psychosocial areas, and representative scales include Fried's physical frailty phenotype and Rockwood's frailty index. Physical activity and appropriate protein intake are important for frailty management, and inappropriate drug use should be reduced and oral care, cognitive function, and falls should also be noted. Frailty and pain can affect each other, and pain can promote frailty. Evidence has been published that hormone and protein abnormalities, immune system activity and inflammatory response, and epigenetic mechanisms work in common in the field of frailty and pain. More extensive and high-quality research should be conducted in the future, and the quality of life will be improved if the results are applied to the suppression and treatment of old age and pain.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.22.1-22.9
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• 2023

Background: Shift work increases the risk of chronic diseases, including metabolic diseases. However, studies on the relationship between shift work and renal function are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between shift work and a decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Methods: Data were evaluated for 1,324,930 workers who visited the Korean Medical Institute from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020 and underwent a health checkup. Daytime workers were randomly extracted at a ratio of 1:4 after matching for age and sex. In total, 18,190 workers aged over 40 years were included in the analyses; these included 3,638 shift workers and 14,552 daytime workers. Participants were categorized into the shift work group when they underwent a specific health checkup for night shift work or indicated that they were shift workers in the questionnaire. The odds ratio was calculated using a conditional logistic regression to investigate the relevance of shift work for changes in GFR. Results: 35 workers in the shift group and 54 in the daytime group exhibited an estimated GFR (eGFR) value of < 60 mL/min/1.73m² (p < 0.01). The difference in eGFR values between two checkups differed significantly depending on the type of work (p < 0.01); the difference in the shift work group (-9.64 mL/min/1.73 m²) was larger than that in the daytime work group (-7.45 mL/min/1.73 m²). The odds ratio for eGFR reduction to < 60 mL/min/1.73 m² in the shift group versus the daytime group was 4.07 (95% confidence interval: 2.54-6.52), which was statistically significant. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that eGFR decreases by a significantly larger value in shift workers than in daytime workers; thus, shift work could be a contributing factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Further prospective studies are necessary to validate this finding and identify measures to prevent CKD in shift workers.