• Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.957-963
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• 2015

Objective To compare the pain-reducing effect of forest bathing alone versus forest bathing in combination with stretching and strengthening exercises in patients with chronic posterior neck pain. Methods Sixty-four subjects with posterior neck pain that had lasted more than 3 months were enrolled. They were randomly divided into a forest bathing alone (FBA) group and a forest bathing with exercise (FBE) group; each group included 32 subjects. All subjects from both groups walked every morning in the forest for about 2 hours for 5 days. In the afternoon, the FBE group did a stretching and strengthening exercise for about 4 hours; the FBA group had free time in the woods. Visual analog scale (VAS) on one day, VAS over the previous week, neck disability index (NDI), EuroQol 5D-3L VAS (EQ VAS) and index (EQ index), McGill pain questionnaire (MPQ), the number of trigger points in the posterior neck region (TRPs), and the range of motion of the cervical spine were evaluated on the first and last day of the program and compared between the two groups. Results The number of TRPs were significantly reduced in the FBE group compared with the FBA group (p=0.013). However, the other scales showed no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion When patients with chronic posterior neck pain underwent a short-term forest bathing (less than 7 days) program, FBE was more effective in the reduction of the number of TRPs than FBA. However, all other pain measurement scales we evaluated showed no statistically significant difference between the two protocols.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.18-25
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• 2019

Recently, micro-grids based on a CVCF inverter have been replacing diesel generators to reduce CO2 emissions in island areas with the increase of renewable energy sources. Stable operation methods are also being researched. These micro-grids may cause energy sinking if the total output of renewable energy sources is larger than the total customer loads. In the case of energy sinking, the voltage of a CVCF battery could rapidly increase according to the condition of SOC, and blackout could occur in the micro-grid due to the operation of a protection device in a CVCF inverter. Therefore, this paper analyzes the operation characteristics of a CVCF-inverter-based micro-grid when energy sinking occurs and proposes a transient operation strategy to prevent shut-down of the CVCF inverter. A test device of a 30-kW CVCF-inverter-based micro-grid was implemented, and the transient operation characteristics for the energy sinking phenomenon are presented. The simulation results confirm that blackout can be properly prevented according to the conditions of SOC and voltage in a CVCF battery.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2019

Recently, the rapid growth of the companion animal market has led to the development of animal disease diagnosis kits. Therefore, the utility of the introduction of biomarkers for the development of animal molecular diagnostics is being reevaluated. A good biomarker should be precise and reliable, distinguish between normal and diseased states, and differentiate between different diseases. Recently reported genetic markers, tumor markers (cell free DNA, circulating tumor cells, granzyme, and skin tumors), and others (brucellosis, programmed death recovery-1, symmetric dimethylarginine, periostin, and cysteinyl leukotrien) have been developed. The biomarkers are used for risk prediction or for the screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of disease progression. The most important criteria for related biomarkers are disease specificity. Many potential biomarkers have emerged from laboratory and test studies, but they have not been validated in independent or large-scale clinical studies. Candidate biomarkers evaluate disease associations, verify the effectiveness of biomarkers for early detection and disease progression, and incorporate them into humans and animals. In the future, it will be necessary to reevaluate the utility of well-structured biomarker-based research and study the development of kits that can be used in on-site tests in accordance with the trends introduced in the diagnosis of animal diseases.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.156-160
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• 2018

Purpose: Chronic tophaceous gout is a painful and disabling inflammatory disease. Surgical treatment for chronic tophaceous gout is very difficult with many complications. This study evaluated the efficacy of shortening scarf osteotomy on the treatment of chronic tophaceous gout in the 1st metatarso-phalangeal (MTP) joint. Materials and Methods: From January 2006 to December 2015, 14 patients (19 cases) who underwent axial shortening scarf osteotomy for chronic tophaceous gout were reviewed. All patients were male. The average age at the time of surgery was 59.6 years (42~66 years). The minimum follow-up was 24 months. Total removal of the tophi mass with the adhered medial capsule of the 1st MTP joint was attempted. Axial shortening scarf osteotomy was done on the 1st metatarsal shaft. The visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) forefoot score was assessed preoperatively and postoperatively. The range of motion (ROM) of the 1st MTP joint was also compared pre- and postoperatively. Results: The average size of the extracted tophaceous mass was 32 mm. The mean amount of the length of metatarsal shortening was 4.9 mm. The mean ROM of the 1st MTP joint was improved from $30.4^{\circ}$ to $62.3^{\circ}$. The mean AOFAS forefoot score improved from 51.4 to 86.6 points. The mean VAS for pain improved from 4.6 to 0.3 points. Conclusion: The axial shortening scarf osteotomy used on chronic tophaceous gout could reconstruct the 1st MTP joint with an improved ROM and was free of pain. Axial shortening scarf osteotomy is suggested as a useful and effective method for the treatment of chronic tophaceous gout.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.592-607
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• 2021

Objective : Few studies exist on primary spinal cord tumors (PSCTs) in pediatric patients. The purpose of this study was to perform descriptive analysis and detailed survival analysis for PSCTs. Methods : Between 1985 and 2017, 126 pediatric patients (male : female, 56 : 70) with PSCTs underwent surgery in a single institution. We retrospectively analyzed data regarding demographics, tumor characteristics, outcomes, and survival statistics. Subgroup analysis was performed for the intramedullary (IM) tumors and extradural (ED) tumors separately. Results : The mean age of the participants was 6.4±5.04 years, and the mean follow-up time was 69.5±46.30 months. The most common compartment was the ED compartment (n=57, 45.2%), followed by the IM (n=43, 34.1%) and intradural extramedullary (IDEM; n=16, 12.7%) compartments. Approximately half of PSCTs were malignant (n=69, 54.8%). The most common pathologies were schwannomas (n=14) and neuroblastomas (n=14). Twenty-two patients (17.5%) died from the disease, with a mean disease duration of 15.8±15.85 months. Thirty-six patients (28.6%) suffered from progression, with a mean period of 22.6±30.81 months. The 10-year overall survival (OS) rates and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 81% and 66%, respectively. Regarding IM tumors, the 10-year OS rates and PFS rates were 79% and 57%, respectively. In ED tumors, the 10-year OS rates and PFS rates were 80% and 81%, respectively. Pathology and the extent of resection showed beneficial effects on OS for total PSCTs, IM tumors, and ED tumors. PFS was affected by both the extent of removal and pathology in total PSCTs and ED tumors; however, pathology was a main determinant of PFS rather than the extent of removal in IM tumors. The degree of improvement in the modified McCormick scale showed a trend towards improvement in patients with IM tumors who achieved gross total removal (p=0.447). Conclusion : Approximately half of PSCTs were malignant, and ED tumors were most common. The most common pathologies were schwannomas and neuroblastomas. Both the pathology and extent of resection had a decisive effect on OS. For IM tumors, pathology was a main determinant of PFS rather than the extent of removal. Radical excision of IM tumors could be a viable option for better survival without an increased risk of worse functional outcomes.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.6_1
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• pp.1407-1419
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• 2020

Long time-series gridded data is crucial for the analyses of Earth environmental changes. Climate reanalysis and satellite images are now used as global-scale periodical and quantitative information for the atmosphere and land surface. This paper examines the feasibility of DCT-PLS (penalized least square regression based on discrete cosine transform) for the spatial gap filling of gridded data through the experiments for multiple variables. Because gap-free data is required for an objective comparison of original with gap-filled data, we used LDAPS (Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System) daily data and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) monthly products. In the experiments for relative humidity, wind speed, LST (land surface temperature), and NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), we made sure that randomly generated gaps were retrieved very similar to the original data. The correlation coefficients were over 0.95 for the four variables. Because the DCT-PLS method does not require ancillary data and can refer to both spatial and temporal information with a fast computation, it can be applied to operative systems for satellite data processing.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.24-34
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• 2022

Viewing religion as contents, we analyzed the network structure by creating networks on 13 world religions. The whole network was constructed by combining 13 religions, and it showed the characteristics of a scale-free network as a general social network. The world religion network had a very small value of clustering coefficient, unlike the general social network. This seems to be the result of the diversity of terms that describe religion. The core network was constructed by applying K-core algorithm used to create the core network to the whole network. When k-3 was applied, it was too complicated but when k-4 was applied, it was too simple to obtain meaningful results. It indicates that it difficult to apply the K-core algorithm to a network containing a low clustering coefficient. Therefore, core networks were constructed according to the number of key words centered on the hub node to analyze the characteristics of world religions. In addition, meaningful information was derived by constructing the world's five major religious networks and East Asian religious networks. In this study, various information was obtained by analyzing world religions as contents. It was also presented a method of creating and analyzing a core network based on key words for networks with a low clustering coefficient.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_3
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• pp.1761-1775
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• 2022

Due to unpredictable climate change, the frequency of occurrence of water-related disasters and the scale of damage are also continuously increasing. In terms of disaster management, it is essential to identify the damaged area in a wide area and monitor for mid-term and long-term forecasting. In the field of water disasters, research on remote sensing technology using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images for wide-area monitoring is being actively conducted. Time-series analysis for monitoring requires a complex preprocessing process that collects a large amount of images and considers the noisy radar characteristics, and for this, a considerable amount of time is required. With the recent development of cloud computing technology, many platforms capable of performing spatiotemporal analysis using satellite big data have been proposed. Google Earth Engine (GEE)is a representative platform that provides about 600 satellite data for free and enables semi real time space time analysis based on the analysis preparation data of satellite images. Therefore, in this study, immediate water disaster damage detection and mid to long term time series observation studies were conducted using GEE. Through the Otsu technique, which is mainly used for change detection, changes in river width and flood area due to river flooding were confirmed, centered on the torrential rains that occurred in 2020. In addition, in terms of disaster management, the change trend of the time series waterbody from 2018 to 2022 was confirmed. The short processing time through javascript based coding, and the strength of spatiotemporal analysis and result expression, are expected to enable use in the field of water disasters. In addition, it is expected that the field of application will be expanded through connection with various satellite bigdata in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.19-28
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• 2022

Cavities behind concrete walls can adversely affect the stability of structures. Thus study aims to detect cavities behind concrete structures using a microphone in a laboratory model test. A small-scale concrete wall is constructed in a chamber, which is composed of a reinforced concrete plate and dry soil. A plastic bowl is then placed between the plate and soil to simulate a cavity behind the concrete structure. Leaky surface acoustic waves are generated by impacting the concrete plate using a hammer and are measured using a microphone. The measured signals are analyzed using natural frequencies, and cavity-free sections are evaluated. The test results show that the first natural frequency decreases at the cavity section due to the flexural vibration behavior of the plate. In addition, the amplitude corresponding to the first natural frequency decreases as the measurement location becomes farther from the cavity center and significantly decreases at the measurement locations near the rebars. This study demonstrates that a microphone may be useful to detect cavities behind concrete walls.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.155-164
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• 2022

This study was conducted for safety evaluation on 130 pet food products, which are distributed in Gwangju, South Korea. The microbial contamination part and the usage of food additives part were mainly investigated. The five microorganisms that we tested were total viable cell counts (TVC), Coliforms, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., pathogenic Escherichia coli and there were 15 products that exceed the microbial criteria or detected food poisoning bacteria. Specifically, Coliforms (13 products, 10%), TVC (9 products, 6.9%), Salmonella spp. (2 products, 1.5%), and E. coli (2 products, 1.5%) were followed. On the other hand, food additives such as preservatives, antioxidants and sodium nitrite were detected in 61 products. Among the preservatives, sorbic acid and benzoic acid were detected in 58 (44.6%) products. In antioxidants, Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was detected in 3 (2.3%) products. In addition, preservatives and antioxidants were detected in 8 of 20 products labeled as 'additive-free'. Microbial contamination tended to occur mainly in small-scale individual homemade feed stores, while food additives were all detected in pet shops and supermarkets. Currently, the criteria for microorganisms and food additives for pet foods are insufficient in Korea. So, it is necessary to establish detailed feed standards and specifications for companion animals.