• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.50-54
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• 2013

Nocardiosis is an uncommon Gram-positive bacterial infection caused by aerobic actinomycetes in the genus Nocardia. Nocardia spp. have the ability to cause localized or systemic suppurative disease in humans and animals. Nocardiosis is typically regarded as an opportunistic infection, but approximately one-third of infected patients are immunocompetent. We report a rare case of pulmonary nocardiosis and a brain abscess caused by Nocardia asteroides in an elderly woman with a history of Crohn's disease. Radiographic imaging revealed a contrast-enhancing lesion with perilesional parenchymal edema that was preoperatively thought to be a neoplasm. The patient experienced aggressive disease progression simulating a metastatic brain tumor. Early diagnosis of norcadiosis, the absence of underlying disease, and the administration of appropriate antibiotics has a positive impact on prognosis. Familiarity with the magnetic resonance and computed tomography findings associated with CNS nocardiosis, such as those presented here, is essential for making an early diagnosis.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.146-152
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• 2011

Purpose: To describe the recent clinical results and complications of total elbow arthroplasty based on the literature review. Materials and Methods: The indications of total elbow arthroplasty include rheumatoid or inflammatory arthritis, posttraumatic arthritis, anklylosed elbow, tumor resection which cannot recover elbow function by other reconstructive procedures, and comminuted distal humerus fracture in elderly patients. Complications are aspetic loosening, infection, prosthesis fracture, periprosthetic fracture, ulnar neuropathy, ectopic ossification, triceps insufficiency, dislocation, and bushing wear. Results and Conclusion: Mean 10 year survival rate following total elbow arthroplasty has been reported 85% on the basis of revision. The prognosis in patients with an inflammatory arthritis is reported to be best, and loosening rate in patients with a posttraumatic arthritis tends to be high. Complication rate is known to be higher than that of other joint arthroplasty. In particular, deep infection occurs in 3~5% of the patients. Total elbow arthroplasty provide satisfactory results when it is performed properly in selected patients who have an elbow joint with irreversible dysfunction and low level activities.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.278-282
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• 2009

Previous studies indicate that BF-7 enhances learning and memory in normal and elderly individuals. Here, we evaluated whether milk containing BF-7 (BF-7 milk) could improve the brain function, with thirty normal university students $(21{\pm}1.2 years)$. Two versions of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test were used under double-blinded conditions to measure the efficacy of BF-7 milk on learning and memory, especially working memory and attention, and on mathematical ability. As a result, BF-7 milk improved the accuracy of the task more than 3-fold. Furthermore, BF-7 milk protected cultured neuronal cells from 3-hydroxykynurenine, a normal endogenous brain stress agent. These results indicate that BF-7 milk enhances memory, attention and mathematical ability in normal persons.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.81-85
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• 2007

Colorectal carcinomas occur primarily in elderly people and are rare in children. Unlike adult colorectal carcinomas, the overall prognosis is very poor because of the usual delay in diagnosis and advanced stages at presentation or initial diagnosis, and a high incidence of aggressive tumor pathology such as mucinous adenocarcinoma. Colon cancer should not be excluded in children only based on age or barium enema results. Therefore, colonoscopy should be performed in pediatric patients with unexplained rectal bleeding and abdominal pain. We report a rare case of a child with a mucinous adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon in a 12-year-old boy, who presented with an abdominal mass and abdominal pain and review the medical literature.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.18 no.5_2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2018

Korea is increasingly vulnerable to disasters due to changes in economic and social structure. In particular, there are a number of disadvantaged people, such as elderly people, disabled people, basic livelihood recipients, foreigners, multicultural families, etc. who are vulnerable to social problems due to aging, polarization and internationalization. These vulnerable people to disaster have difficulties in acquiring disaster information and to respond promptly by self-help. Of course, recent studies on vulnerable people to disaster have been steadily increasing, but discussions about foreigners have been relatively inadequate. This has led to a lack of understanding about the actual situation of disaster and coping methods. Once general situations set in, foreigners staying in Korea will suffer from a vicious cycle of policy-making from the viewpoint of Korean and difficulties in obtaining relevant information. In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews on the recognition and acquisition path of disaster information for foreign workers living in Korea. Based on the results of the interviews, we derived implications for practical information, such as ways to understand and actively utilize information media frequently visited by foreign workers in Korea.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2022

Background: This study was performed to identify the incidence of screw in-type lateral anchor pull-out in patients older than 60 years who underwent rotator cuff repair for large to massive rotator cuff tear (RCT). Methods: We reviewed 25 patients over 60 who were diagnosed with large to massive RCT and underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair in our hospital from March 2017 to February 2021. Preoperative tear size (anterior to posterior, medial to lateral) was measured via preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All 25 patients underwent MRI scanning on postoperative day 1 and at 3 months after surgery. The change of anchor position was measured in axial views on MRI images postoperative day 1 and 3 months after surgery. And it was statistically compared according to bone mineral density (BMD), sex, and number of lateral anchors. Results: Two MRIs (postoperative day 1 and 3 months) in 25 patients were compared. Anchor pull-out occurred in six patients during 3 months (6.7%), and the mean pull-out length difference was 1.56 mm (range, 0.16-2.58 mm). There was no significant difference in the number of pull-out anchors, degree of pull-out difference by comparing BMD (A, BMD≤-2.5; B, BMD>-2.5), sex, or number of anchors used in each surgery (C, two anchors; D, three anchors) (p>0.05). Conclusions: Pull-out of screw in-type anchors was rarely observed and the mean pull-out length difference was negligibly small in our study. The screw in-type lateral anchor seems to be a decent option without concern of anchor pull-out even in elderly patients.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.238-241
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• 2023

Recently deep learning models are widely used for various tasks such as facial recognition and face editing. Their training process often involves a dataset with imbalanced age distribution. It is because some age groups (teenagers and middle age) are more socially active and tends to have more data compared to the less socially active age groups (children and elderly). This imbalanced age distribution may negatively impact the deep learning training process or the model performance when tested against those age groups with less data. To this end, we propose an age-controllable face synthesis technique using a feature decomposition to classify age from facial images which can be utilized to synthesize novel data to balance out the age distribution. We perform extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation on our proposed technique using the FFHQ dataset and we show that our method has better performance than existing method.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.94-106
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• 2022

This study was attempted to investigate relationship between level of frailty and sleep duration in the Korean older adults using data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES VIII-1, 2019). The subjects were 1,690, complex sample frequency, descriptive statistics, cross and logistic regression analysis were performed using SPSS program. As a main result, sleep duration simultaneously adjusted for general, health behavior and disease characteristics did not show significant relationship between frail level, but 'not recommended' sleep duration is significantly decreased 70~74 years old, significantly increased lower level of education, lower level of income, and a lot of perceived stress. Finally, personal and social efforts are required to prevent frailty, improve sleep duration of older adults.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.777-788
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• 2022

This study was attempted to investigate relationship between spousal bereavement and frailty in the Korean older adults using data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES VII-3, 2018). The subjects were 1,609, complex sample frequency, descriptive statistics, cross and logistic regression analysis were performed using SPSS program. As a main result, frailty simultaneously adjusted for general, health behavior and disease characteristics did not show significant relationship between spousal bereavement, but frailty is significantly decreased 65~69, 70~74 years old, better of subjective health perception, no arthritis, significantly increased lower level of income. Finally personal, familiar and social efforts are required to manage the elderly who have lost their spouse.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

Within the urban area, over the past decades unused land and public land such as streams and road sides have given urban residents a space for farming (urban farms). However, because this use is illegal, farming in unused and public lands could cause conflicts between urban farm users and land owners, degrade the quality of the urban landscape and contaminate the environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a way of legalizing these farming practices that have been cultivated in unused urban areas and public lands. This study analyzed the status of distribution and use of the urban farms that have been scattered around urban areas in many different forms. The survey was conducted through on-the-spot investigation and in-person interviews with farm users and those who were operating weekend farms in the Siji region of Daegu Metropolitan City. According to the results of this study, urban farms were mainly found in green areas that were easily accessible from residential districts and prohibited from development. It was also revealed that the nearer to the border of the residential districts the sites of urban farms were, the larger the number of urban farms was. When it comes to the type of land use, although the proportion of urban farms located in farmlands was very high, the proportion of those located on state-owned lands such as roads, railroads and streams was also high, over 1/3 of that of the former sites. Among the users of urban farms, the percentage of users who were farming private-owned land for free was highest and that of state-owned land without permission ranked second. Most people who were farming unused lands or state-owned lands without permission, such as streams, roads, railroads, were the elderly. This shows the potential of farms in urban area as leisure activities spaces for the elderly. Even though this study has limitations in that the survey target area was selected in a certain area and the sizes of all urban farms were not measured by surveying apparatus and instruments, it helps to determine the characteristics of use and distribution associated with the spaces of urban farming, and to raise the importance and necessity of legalizing urban farms cultivated illegally in public land.