• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.94-112
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• 2019

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the quality of life (QOL) of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) between patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) and patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and to compare personal characteristic factors relating to the quality of life in patients with ESRD. Method: This study used a descriptive research design. The sample was recruited using purposive sampling that included 76 ESRD patients receiving either HD or CAPD at a dialysis clinic in Phraphutthabat Hospital, Saraburi Province, Thailand. Data was collected using the Quality of Life Questionnaire for Chronic Kidney Disease ($KDQOL-SF^{TM}$) version 1.3. Independent t-test and ANOVA procedures were used to analyze study data. Results: The results revealed that the HD patients had a moderate level of QOL. The highest scoring dimension of QOL was the encouragement of staff at the dialysis unit and patient satisfaction with the treatment (${\bar{X}}=100$, SD=.00), followed by social support (${\bar{X}}=89.29$, SD =16.88) and cognitive function (${\bar{X}}=88.57$, SD=11.82). On the other hand, the lowest scoring QOL dimension was physical problems (${\bar{X}}=50$, SD=51.89), and pain (${\bar{X}}=50$, SD=39.03), followed by work status (${\bar{X}}=53.57$, SD=45.84) and burden from kidney disease (${\bar{X}}=58.48$, SD=31.07). The CAPD patients also had a moderate QOL. The highest scoring QOL dimension was the encouragement of staff in the renal unit and patient satisfaction with the treatment (${\bar{X}}=100$, SD=.00), followed by social support (${\bar{X}}=95.61$, SD=14.20) and cognitive function (${\bar{X}}=88.83$, SD=13.52). The worst scoring QOL dimensions were work status (${\bar{X}}=44.44$, SD=42.72), general health (${\bar{X}}=53.61$, SD=39.05), and pain (${\bar{X}}=62.70$, SD=41.14). The difference overall and in each dimension of QOL in ESRD patients who were treated with HD and CAPD was not statistically significantly different. The QOL was not significantly different among patients with different personal characteristics except for income and duration of treatment; in those cases, the difference in QOL was statistically significant (p=.05). Conclusion: The overall QOL and life expectancy of patients with ESRD treated with HD and CAPD are not affected by gender, age, marital status, education, occupation, or type of health coverage. QOL was not significantly different, except for patients with different incomes and duration of renal replacement therapy, whose QOL was significantly different. The QOL of patients receiving dialysis should be studied to develop a QOL program for patients with chronic kidney disease who receive dialysis.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.277-306
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• 2017

This article empirically explores the impact of minijobs in the wake of the Hartz reform in Germany on women's employment relationship. Theoretically it is of great significance to examine whether the minijobs play an active role as a bridge in leading the minijobbers to regular, socially secured jobs or not. Several interviews as well as secondary data I could get during my sabbatical in 2015 were used to test the theory. One of the main findings was the fact that the minijob labor market opened doors wide for women in Germany, particularly for career-interrupted women, students or pensioners. However, the minijob can easily become a trap of lowest income and poverty for women. Most women minjobbers cannot go over to regular, socially secured jobs. Especially in terms of collective industrial relations, it considerably damages the power of industrial unions and the legal binding force of collective agreement. In conclusion, this study makes it clear that the labor market segmentation theory rather than the transitional labor market theory is valid in accounting for the reality of minijob in Germany. In other words, the minijob in Germany has a Toijan Horse Effect. It also suggests, from a practical viewpoint, that German industrial unions or works councils organize the minijobbers and that the coverage of collective agreements be extended to the minijobbers. Consequently, the time-selective part-timer model put into practice in Korea in 2014 is not only invalid but also undesirable.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.16-31
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• 2021

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of clinical practice for gout in Korean Medicine (KM). Methods : On-line survey was adopted for this study, targeted at KM Doctors who were registered in the Association of Korean Medicine. The questionnaire included the general status of treatment, pattern identification and treatment method according to three stages given: acute, chronic and asymptomatic hyperuricemia stage. Results : Data from a total of 384 respondents was analyzed. Participants who responded most were in their 40s, working in KM clinics located in Seoul. Acupuncture and herbal medicines were the top priority treatments in preparing recommendations in clinical practice guidelines for gout, and where clinical trials were considered essential. As of the past year, the average number of first visits per month was 86.7%, and the average treatment duration was less than 1 month, accounting for 72.9%. As for the diagnostic method used for gout patients, the "diagnosed by clinical pattern" response was the highest, and the "blood and urine test" response was the highest as the diagnostic equipment used. As for the evaluation scale being used, the "VAS/NRS" response was the highest. Regardless of the gout stage, acupuncture was the most commonly used treatment method for gout patients, and bee venom pharmacopuncture was the highest for the pharmacopuncture used. In the case of herbal medicine, it was found that a wider variety of herbal medication uninsured in health insurance and herbal prescription were used for the staged treatment of gout than herbal medication in national health insurance coverage. In clinical practice, "acupuncture treatment three times a week" was the most common, and the "acupoints in the limb" were the most frequently used; LR3 and SP3 were the most frequently used acupoints. Conclusions : It is suggested that this survey should be helpful to develop clinical practice guideline for gout that reflects actual clinical practice.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.479-485
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• 2022

At the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, physical human phantoms were developed to evaluate various radiation protection quantities, based on the mesh-type reference computational phantoms of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The physical human phantoms were fabricated such that a radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter (RPLGD) with a Tin filter, namely GD-352M, could be inserted into them. A Tin filter is used to eliminate the overestimated signals in low-energy photons below 100 keV. The measurement uncertainty of the RPLGD reader system based on GD-352M should be analyzed for obtaining reliable protection quantities before using it for practical applications. Generally, the measurement uncertainty of RPLGD systems without Tin filters is analyzed for quality assurance of radiotherapy units using a high-energy photon beam. However, in this study, the measurement uncertainty of GD-352M was analyzed for evaluating the protection quantities. The measurement uncertainty factors in the RPLGD include the reference irradiation, regression curve, reproducibility, uniformity, energy dependence, and angular dependence, as described by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These factors were calculated using the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement method, applying ISO/ASTM standards 51261(2013), 51707(2015), and SS-ISO 22127(2019). The measurement uncertainties of the RPLGD reader system with a coverage factor of k = 2 were calculated to be 9.26% from 0.005 to 1 Gy and 8.16% from 1 to 10 Gy. A blind test was conducted to validate the RPLGD reader system, which demonstrated that the readout doses included blind doses of 0.1, 1, 2, and 5 Gy. Overall, the E_n values were considered satisfactory.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_2
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• pp.1623-1631
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• 2022

Since oil spills can be a significant threat to the marine ecosystem, it is necessary to obtain information on the current contamination status quickly to minimize the damage. Satellite-based detection of marine oil spills has the advantage of spatiotemporal coverage because it can monitor a wide area compared to aircraft. Due to the recent development of computer vision and deep learning, marine oil spill detection can also be facilitated by deep learning. Unlike the existing studies based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, we conducted a deep learning modeling using PlanetScope optical satellite images. The blind test of the DeepLabV3+ model for oil spill detection showed the performance statistics with an accuracy of 0.885, a precision of 0.888, a recall of 0.886, an F1-score of 0.883, and a Mean Intersection over Union (mIOU) of 0.793.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2022

Compared to the continuous increase of domestic nano-satellite development cases, the initial communication success rate is relatively low. In a situation where communication cases of LEO satellites using commercial satellite communication networks are increasing recently. In this situation, the SNIPE project developed by the KASI(Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute), KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute), and Yonsei University apply an Iridium module for communication test to the SNIPE nano-satellites. Therefore, in this paper, the visibility analysis of the iridium module on the SNIPE satellite was analyzed under considering the orbital and communication environment of the iridium satellite constellation and the attitude control mode. In the case of LEO satellites, the communication possibility was limited due to the relatively small iridium communication coverage for high altitude and the high doppler shift considered in the iridium communication network. For this reason, in this paper, it could be simulated that there was a more performance difference according to the difference in relative RAAN(Right Ascension of Ascending Node) angle with the Iridium constellation. Finally, by checking the visibility of communication module under the tumbling situation that occurred during the initial deployment of the nano-satellite, the possibility of using the iridium communication technology was analyzed.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.350-358
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• 2023

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) is a viral infectious disease that occurs in children under 5 years of age. Its main causes are coxsackievirus (CV) and enterovirus (EV). Since there are no efficient therapeutics for HFMD, vaccines are effective in preventing the disease. To develop broad coverage against CV and EV, the development of a bivalent vaccine form is needed. The Mongolian gerbil is an efficient and suitable animal model of EV71 C4a and CVA16 infection used to investigate vaccine efficacy following direct immunization. In this study, Mongolian gerbils were immunized with a bivalent inactivated EV71 C4a and inactivated CVA16 vaccine to test their effectiveness against viral infection. Bivalent vaccine immunization resulted in increased Ag-specific IgG antibody production; specifically, EV71 C4a-specific IgG was increased with medium and high doses and CVA16-specific IgG was increased with all doses of immunization. When gene expression of T cell-biased cytokines was analysed, Th1, Th2, and Th17 responses were found to be highly activated in the high-dose immunization group. Moreover, bivalent vaccine immunization mitigated paralytic signs and increased the survival rate following lethal viral challenges. When the viral RNA content was determined from various organs, all three doses of bivalent vaccine immunization were found to significantly decrease viral amplification. Upon histologic examination, EV71 C4a and CVA16 induced tissue damage to the heart and muscle. However, bivalent vaccine immunization alleviated this in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that the bivalent inactivated EV71 C4a/CVA16 vaccine could be a safe and effective candidate HFMD vaccine.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1D
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• pp.195-202
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• 2006

The infiltration route analysis is a military application using geospatial information technology. The result of the analysis would present vulnerable routes for potential enemy infiltration. In order to find the susceptible routes, optimal path search algorithms (Dijkstra's and $A^*$) were used to minimize the cost function, summation of detection probability. The cost function was produced by capability of TOD (Thermal Observation Device), results of viewshed analysis using DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and two related geospatial information coverages (obstacle and vegetation) extracted from VITD (Vector product Interim Terrain Data). With respect to 50m by 50m cells, the individual cost was computed and recorded, and then the optimal infiltration routes was found while minimizing summation of the costs on the routes. The proposed algorithm was experimented in Daejeon region in South Korea. The test results show that Dijkstra's and $A^*$ algorithms do not present significant differences, but A* algorithm shows a better efficiency. This application can be used for both infiltration and surveillance. Using simulation of moving TOD, the most vulnerable routes can be detected for infiltration purpose. On the other hands, it can be inversely used for selection of the best locations of TOD. This is an example of powerful geospatial solution for military application.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.279-284
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• 2012

Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of glass fiber pre-impregnated with light-curing resin on the fracture strength and fracture modes of a maxillary complete denture. Materials and methods: Maxillary acrylic resin complete dentures reinforced with glass fiber pre-impregnated with light-curing resin (SES MESH, INNO Dental Co., Yeoncheongun, Korea) and without reinforcement were tested. The reinforcing material was embedded in the denture base resin and placed different regions (Control, without reinforcement; Group A, center of anterior ridge; Group B, rugae area; Group C, center of palate; Group D, full coverage of denture base). The fracture strength and fracture modes of a maxillary complete denture were tested using Instron test machine (Instron Co., Canton, MA, USA) at a 5.0 mm/min crosshead speed. The flexure load was applied to center of denture with a 20 mm diameter ball attachment. When fracture occurred, the fracture mode was classified based on fracture lines. The data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA at the significance level of 0.05. Results: There were non-significant differences (P>.05) in the fracture strength among test groups. Group A showed anteroposterior fracture and posterior fracture mainly, group B, C and control group showed partial fracture on center area mostly. Most specimen of group D showed posterior fracture. Conclusion: The location and presence of the fiber reinforcement did not affect the fracture strength of maxillary complete denture. However, reinforcing acrylic resin denture with glass fiber has a tendency to suppress the crack.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2002

A field survey and experiment was conducted from 1996 to 1998 to develop rational technology for turfgrass vegetation of runway side of Incheon International Airport on the reclaimed tidal land in Young-Jong Island. Backfill of the experimental site was finished on August 1995. The experimental site was 8 ha located in the middle of the construction place for the main parking lot in front of the terminal building construction. The experimental field was drained by main open ditch, and divided three main plots, no subsurface tile drain, subsurface tile drain spacing with 22.5m, and with 45 m, respectively. The 17 sub plots were designed to test the effect of soil covering with red earth loam by 5 cm and 20 cm depth, application of chemical compound fertilizers and livestock manures, dressing of artifical soils and hydrophylic soil conditioners. The tested turfgrasses were three transplanting indigenous turfgrasses, Zoysia koreana, Zoysia sinica and Zoysia japonica, and two hydroseeding mixed exotic turgrasses, cool type I(tall fescue 30%, kentucky blue grass 40%, perenial ryegrass 30%), and cool type II(tall fescue 40%, perenial ryegrass 20%, fine fescue 20%, alkaligrass 20%). The soil backfilled with dredged seasand was sand textured with high salt concentration and low fertility. The soil showed high pH, low organic matter and low available phophate contents. The percolation rate was fast with high hydraulic conductivity. Desalinization was fast after installation of the main open drainage system. No subsurface tile drainage effect was found showing little difference in turfgrass growth. The covering and visual growth of turfgrasses were the best in the 20-cm soil covering with compound fertilizer treatment. The covering and visual growth of turfgrasses were satisfactory in the 5 cm soil covering with compound fertilizer treatment and with livestock manure treatments. The hydrophillic soil conditioner treatments were effective but expensive at present. The coverage and visual quality of turfgrasses were good for Zoysia koreana and Zoysia japonica. The coverages of turfgrasses by the hydroseeding with the mixed exotic turfgrasses were less than transplanting of native turfgrasses. In conclusion, for the runway side vegetation purposes, the subsurface tile drainage might not necessary as main open ditch drainage be sufficient due to fast percolation rate of the backfilled dredged seasand. The 5 cm soil covering with red earth might be sufficient for the runway side, but the 20 cm soil covering might be necessary for the runway side where high density of turfgrass coverage was necessary to protect from the airplance air blow.