• 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.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.172-181
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• 2023

In this study, real-time damage evaluation of cable-stayed bridges was conducted for cable damage. ICP type acceleration sensors were used for real-time damage assessment of cable-stayed bridges, and Kinetic Energy Optimization Techniques (KEOT) were used to select the optimal conditions for the location and quantity of the sensors. When a structure vibrates by an external force, KEOT measures the value of the maximum deformation energy to determine the optimal measurement position and the quantity of sensors. The damage conditions in this study were limited to cable breakage, and cable damage was caused by dividing the cable-stayed bridge into four sections. Through FE structural analysis, a virtual model similar to the actual model was created in the real-time damage evaluation method of cable. After applying random oscillation waves to the generated virtual model and model structure, cable damage to the model structure was caused. The two data were compared by defining the response output from the virtual model as a corruption-free response and the response measured from the real model as a corruption-free data. The degree of damage was evaluated by applying the data of the damaged cable-stayed bridge to the Improved Mahalanobis Distance (IMD) theory from the data of the intact cable-stayed bridge. As a result of evaluating damage with IMD theory, it was identified as a useful damage evaluation technology that can properly find damage by section in real time and apply it to real-time monitoring.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_3
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• pp.1721-1730
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• 2023

As awareness of the problem of global warming emerges around the world, the role of carbon sinks in settlement is increasingly emphasized to achieve carbon neutrality in urban areas. In order to manage carbon sinks in settlement, it is necessary to identify the current status of carbon sinks. Identifying the status of carbon sinks requires a lot of manpower and time and a corresponding budget. Therefore, in this study, a map predicting the location of trees was created using already established tree location information and Sentinel-2 satellite images targeting Seoul. To this end, after constructing a tree presence/absence dataset, structured data was generated using 16 types of vegetation indices information constructed from satellite images. After learning this by applying the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model, a tree prediction map was created. Afterward, the correlation between independent and dependent variables was investigated in model learning using the Shapely value of Shapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP). A comparative analysis was performed between maps produced for local parts of Seoul and sub-categorized land cover maps. In the case of the tree prediction model produced in this study, it was confirmed that even hard-to-detect street trees around the main street were predicted as trees.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.spc1
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• pp.1049-1058
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• 2023

The flow passing through river-crossing structures such as weirs and low-fall dams is dominated by rapidly varied flow including hydraulic jump. The intense unsteadiness of flow velocity and free surface profile affects the stability of such hydraulic structures. In particular, the steady hydraulic jump generated at high Froude number conditions includes remarkably air entrainment, making the flow characteristics more complicated. In this study, a large-eddy simulation was performed for turbulence effect and the hybrid VoF technique to simulate the steady hydraulic jump at the Froude number of 7.3 and the Reynolds number of 15,700. The results of the numerical simulation showed that the instantaneous maximum pressure and time-average pressure distribution calculated on the bottom surface downstream of the structure could be reasonably well reproduced being in good agreement with the experimental values. However, the instantaneous minimum pressure distribution in the direct downstream of the structure shows the opposite pattern to the target experimental measurement value. However, the numerical simulation performed in this study is considered to reasonably predict the minimum pressure distributions observed in various experiments conducted at similar conditions. The vertical distributions of flow velocity and air concentration computed in the center of the hydraulic jump were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results measured under similar conditions, showing self-similarity. These results show that the large eddy simulation and hybrid VoF techniques applied in this study can reproduce the hydraulic jump with strong air entrainment and the resulting intense free surface and pressure fluctuations at high Froude number conditions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2023

Impact investment involves investing in companies that pursue both social value and financial returns. It focuses on addressing various social problems through innovative solutions while generating profits. The domestic impact investment ecosystem has experienced significant growth with the support of the government and public institutions. In 2021, it witnessed a 3.5-fold increase over three years, reaching a total of 700 billion won in operating assets. In order to foster qualitative growth alongside this quantitative expansion, it is crucial to conduct research specifically on impact investment, which sets it apart from conventional venture investment. This study aims to empirically analyze the unique factors that influence impact investment decisions. Firstly, the factors affecting investment decisions were identified through a literature analysis. Then, a consultation and Delphi survey involving 11 representatives and evaluators from impact investment companies was conducted to determine the major investment determinants. Subsequently, an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) survey was carried out with 10 impact investment evaluators to ascertain the relative importance of these factors. The analysis revealed the following order of importance for the top factors: market>entrepreneur(team)>product/service>finance. Furthermore, the importance of specific factors was identified in the following order: market competition and entry barriers>new market creation>market growth and potential expansion>team expertise and capabilities. Unlike previous studies that primarily focus on general startup investment factors, this research demonstrates that impact investment places greater emphasis on market-related factors and considers the sustainability and profitability of the business model to be more important than the social impact of social ventures.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1764-1776
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• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to validate a deep learning-based fully automatic calcium scoring (coronary artery calcium [CAC]_auto) system using previously published cardiac computed tomography (CT) cohort data with the manually segmented coronary calcium scoring (CAC_hand) system as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: We developed the CAC_auto system using 100 co-registered, non-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT scans. For the validation of the CAC_auto system, three previously published CT cohorts (n = 2985) were chosen to represent different clinical scenarios (i.e., 2647 asymptomatic, 220 symptomatic, 118 valve disease) and four CT models. The performance of the CAC_auto system in detecting coronary calcium was determined. The reliability of the system in measuring the Agatston score as compared with CAC_hand was also evaluated per vessel and per patient using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman analysis. The agreement between CAC_auto and CAC_hand based on the cardiovascular risk stratification categories (Agatston score: 0, 1-10, 11-100, 101-400, > 400) was evaluated. Results: In 2985 patients, 6218 coronary calcium lesions were identified using CAC_hand. The per-lesion sensitivity and false-positive rate of the CAC_auto system in detecting coronary calcium were 93.3% (5800 of 6218) and 0.11 false-positive lesions per patient, respectively. The CAC_auto system, in measuring the Agatston score, yielded ICCs of 0.99 for all the vessels (left main 0.91, left anterior descending 0.99, left circumflex 0.96, right coronary 0.99). The limits of agreement between CAC_auto and CAC_hand were 1.6 ± 52.2. The linearly weighted kappa value for the Agatston score categorization was 0.94. The main causes of false-positive results were image noise (29.1%, 97/333 lesions), aortic wall calcification (25.5%, 85/333 lesions), and pericardial calcification (24.3%, 81/333 lesions). Conclusion: The atlas-based CAC_auto empowered by deep learning provided accurate calcium score measurement as compared with manual method and risk category classification, which could potentially streamline CAC imaging workflows.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 2024

When constructing on soft ground, managing ground settlement and safety is crucial. However, there often exists a significant disparity between the actual behavior of the ground and the design plans. In this study, we aimed to compare and analyze the difference between the predicted settlement based on theoretical formulas and the measured settlement during construction, in order to predict settlement. For this purpose, we analyzed settlement data from 18 construction sites. The results indicated that the back analysis settlement values were similar to the measured settlement values, whereas the design settlement values were significantly higher compared to the measured settlement values. Specifically, the design settlement values were 1.2 to 1.4 times higher than those derived from back analysis using measured values. The RMSE analysis revealed a value of 0.6212m for the design settlement and 0.1697m for the back analysis settlement. The difference between the back analysis settlement and the measured settlement was more than 70% lower than the difference between the design settlement and the measured settlement. This indicates that the back analysis settlement values exhibit lower error rates compared to the design settlement values.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2024

The digital phase-locked loop(DPLL) is one of the circuits composed of a digital detector, digital loop filter, voltage-controlled oscillator, and divider as a fundamental circuit, widely used in many fields such as electrical and circuit fields. A state estimator using various mathematical algorithms is used to improve the performance of a digital phase-locked loop. Traditional state estimators have utilized Kalman filters of infinite impulse response state estimators, and digital phase-locked loops based on infinite impulse response state estimators can cause rapid performance degradation in unexpected situations such as inaccuracies in initial values, model errors, and various disturbances. In this paper, we propose a two-layer Frobenius norm-based finite impulse state estimator to design a new digital phase-locked loop. The proposed state estimator uses the estimated state of the first layer to estimate the state of the first layer with the accumulated measurement value. To verify the robust performance of the new finite impulse response state estimator-based digital phase locked-loop, simulations were performed by comparing it with the infinite impulse response state estimator in situations where noise covariance information was inaccurate.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1260-1268
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• 2022

Objective: To propose standardized MRI-proton density fat fraction (PDFF) cutoff values for diagnosing hepatic steatosis, evaluated using contemporary PDFF measuring methods in a large population of healthy adults, using histologic fat fraction (HFF) as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: A retrospective search of electronic medical records between 2015 and 2018 identified 1063 adult donor candidates for liver transplantation who had undergone liver MRI and liver biopsy within a 7-day interval. Patients with a history of liver disease or significant alcohol consumption were excluded. Chemical shift imaging-based MRI (CS-MRI) PDFF and high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo MR spectroscopy (HISTO-MRS) PDFF data were obtained. By temporal splitting, the total population was divided into development and validation sets. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the MRI-PDFF method. Two cutoff values with sensitivity > 90% and specificity > 90% were selected to rule-out and rule-in, respectively, hepatic steatosis with reference to HFF ≥ 5% in the development set. The diagnostic performance was assessed using the validation set. Results: Of 921 final participants (624 male; mean age ± standard deviation, 31.5 ± 9.0 years), the development and validation sets comprised 497 and 424 patients, respectively. In the development set, the areas under the ROC curve for diagnosing hepatic steatosis were 0.920 for CS-MRI-PDFF and 0.915 for HISTO-MRS-PDFF. For ruling-out hepatic steatosis, the CS-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 2.3% (sensitivity, 92.4%; specificity, 63.0%) and the HISTO-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 2.6% (sensitivity, 88.8%; specificity, 70.1%). For ruling-in hepatic steatosis, the CS-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 3.5% (sensitivity, 73.5%; specificity, 88.6%) and the HISTO-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 4.0% (sensitivity, 74.7%; specificity, 90.6%). Conclusion: In a large population of healthy adults, our study suggests diagnostic thresholds for ruling-out and ruling-in hepatic steatosis defined as HFF ≥ 5% by contemporary PDFF measurement methods.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.531-550
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• 2023

Purpose: The unique nature of life-and-death healthcare services sets them apart from other service industries. While many studies exist on the relationship between healthcare services and customer satisfaction, most of them focus on mildly ill patients, ignoring the differences between critically ill and non-seriously ill patients. This study discusses the actual quality of healthcare services for patients who are facing life-threatening illnesses and are on life support, as well as their right to protection and dignity. Methods: The survey conducted to 149 patients with the four major illnesses: cancer, heart disease, brain disease and rare and incurable disease, those who have experiences with senior general hospitals. Results: The basic statistics of this study are adequate to represent the four major critical illnesses, and the reliability and validity of this study's hypotheses, which were measured by multiple items, were analyzed, and the internal consistency was judged to be high. In addition, it was found that the convergent validity was good and the discriminant validity was also secured. When examining the goodness of fit of the hypotheses, the SRMR, which is the standardized root mean square of residuals that measures the difference between the covariance matrix of the data variables and the theoretical covariance matrix structure of the model, met the optimal criteria. Conclusion: The academic implications of this study are differentiated from other studies by moving away from evaluating the quality of healthcare services for mildly ill patients and focusing on the rights and dignity of patients with life-threatening illnesses in four senior general hospitals. In terms of academic implications, this study enriches the depth of related studies by demonstrating the right to protection and dignity as a factor of patient-centeredness based on physical environment quality, interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are presented as sub-factors of healthcare quality. We found that the three quality factors classified by Brady and Cronin (2001) are optimized for healthcare quality assessment and management, and that the results of patients' interaction quality assessment can be used to provide a comprehensive quality rating for hospitals. Health and human rights are inextricably linked, so assessing the degree to which rights and dignity are protected can be a superior and more comprehensive measurement tool than traditional health level measures for healthcare organizations. Practical implications: Improving the quality of the physical environment and the quality of outcomes is an important challenge for hospital managers who attract patients with life and death conditions, but given the scale and economics of time, money, and human inputs, improving the quality of interactions and defining them as performance indicators in hospital quality management is an efficient way to create maximum value in the short term.