• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.427-434
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• 2022

Atrial fibrillation treatment includes 3D RFCA and Cryo-balloon ablation. Both procedures have in common that they enter after understanding the structure of the heart using angiography equipment. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the effect of exposure according to the procedure time can be a threat to both the patient and the operator, so this study aims to confirm the relationship between the total ablation time and the effect of radiation exposure. We used follow-up data (retrospective) from 41 patients who underwent coronary angiography and arrhythmia at the same time from March 2019 to July 2022. The range for total ablation time was based on the recorded data from the start to the end of the total ablation. The end point of 3D RFCA was when the ablation was completed for 4 pulmonary veins, and in the case of Cryo-balloon ablation, the data that succeeded in electrical insulation were included. As a result of analyzing the total ablation time, the time taken for Cryo-balloon ablation was 1037.29±103.66 s, which was 2448.61 s faster than 3D RFCA using 3485.9±405.71 s, and was statistically significant. (p<0.05) As a result of analyzing the total fluoroscopy time, the exposure time for 3D RFCA was 2573.75±239.08 s, which was less by 1717.15 s than the exposure time for Cryo-balloon ablation, 4290.9±420.42 s, and was statistically significant. In the case of total area dose product, 3D RFCA was 59.04±13.1 uGy/m², which was lower than Cryo-balloon ablation 980.6±658.07 uGy/m² by 921.56 uGy/m², which was statistically significant. As the insulation time of the Cryo-balloon ablation is shorter than that of the 3D RFCA, the method using the Cryo-balloon ablation is considered to be effective when the patient's condition is not good and a quick procedure is required. However, in patients with permanent Atrial fibrillation, there is a high probability of structural changes in the heart, so it is considered that 3D RFCA is better than Cryo-balloon ablation, which is difficult to manipulate.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2023

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a polar literacy education program for elementary and middle school students, and to derive implications for new education to respond to climate change. We developed modular education programs based on the seven principles of polar literacy established by the Polar-ICE team. We divided them into two courses, one emphasizing science concepts and another emphasizing humanities and sociological issues. We then selected and structured detailed programs suitable for the two courses. These two courses were applied to 26 elementary and middle school students for approximately 69 hours in a Saturday science class hosted by the Department of Science Education at a university in Seoul. The 26 students were divided into three groups. Two groups completed the science education program for polar literacy and a humanities and social studies education program for polar literacy, respectively. The third group, the control group, received general science education unrelated to polar literacy. Before and after running the programs, all three groups responded to a polar literacy test and questionnaires that used vocabulary and presented scenes associated with polar regions. The test results were expressed using Wilcoxon signed ranks, which is a non-parametric test method, and improvements made upon completion of the program were analyzed. From a cognitive aspect, all three groups showed improvement after completing the program in the knowledge area; however, the experimental groups showed a greater degree of improvement than the control group, and there was a clear difference in the contents or materials explicitly covered. From an affective aspect, the difference between before and after the program was minor, but the group that focused on humanities and social issues showed a statistically significant improvement. Regarding changes in polar imagery, the two experimental groups tended to diverge from monotonous images to more diverse images compared to the control group. Based on the above results, we suggested methods to increase the effectiveness of polar literacy education programs, the importance of polar literacy as appropriate material for scientific thinking and earth system education, measures to improve attitudes related to the polar region, and the need to link to school curriculums.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.117-131
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• 2020

Although most species in genus Zostera inhabit shallow coastal areas and bays with weak wave energy, the Asian eelgrass, Zostera asiatica is distributed in deep water depth (8-15 m) unlike other seagrasses on the eastern coast of Korea. To examine factors limiting distribution Z. asiatica in relatively deep coastal areas, a transplantation experiment was conducted on October 2011, in which Z. asiatica shoots were transplanted from the reference site (donor meadow, ~9 m) to the shallow transplant site (~3 m). We compared shoot density, morphology, and productivity of Z. asiatica as well as environmental factors (underwater irradiance, water temperature, and nutrients) between the reference and transplant sites from October 2011 to September 2012. Shoot density and shoot height of transplants dramatically decreased within a few months after transplantation, but were similar with Z. asiatica in the reference site during spring. Shoot productivity were significantly higher in the transplant site than in reference site because of high light availability and nutrient concentrations. Transplants showed photoacclimatory responses such as higher rETR_max and E_k and lower photosynthetic efficiency in the transplant site than those in the reference site. Most of Z. asiatica transplant in the shallow transplant site disappeared in summer, which may be due to the high wave energy and physical damages induced by typhoons (TEMBIN and SANBA) in August and September 2012. According to the results of this study, Z. asiatica could not survive in shallow areas despite of more favorable light and nutrient conditions. Thus, Z. asiatica may restrictively occur in deep areas to avoid the intense physical stresses in the shallow area on the east coast of Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.27-47
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• 2014

This research was conducted on the purpose of seeking the measures of how to cope with the changing industry of Topokki franchises. Despite of the fact the number of Kukdae Topokki's stores is quite smaller than that of its competitors, such as Jaws Topokki and Addal Topokki, Kukdae Topokki is recognized as one of the front-runners in the industry. But the competition in the topokki industry has become fiercer, as the market became saturated. To find a desirable solutions, this study analyzes past-to-current status of the Topokki industry by dividing it into 4 stages and provides few strategies that Kukdae Topokki can apply to the 4th stage where 'brand awareness' is very important. To this end, few drawbacks of Kukdae Topokki are proposed as the following. First, the brand image that Kukdae Topokki pursue does not correspondent with the image in consumer's mind. Second, Kukdae Topokki has selected the wrong targeting group. It aims for the image of 'retro' to target people in their 30-40s. However, most of the consumers are people in their 20-30s. Third, the taste of Kukdae Topokki is not uniform among franchises. Fourth, the awareness and accessability are low. To provide a proactive actions for the next stages, several solutions are proposed as following. First, By managing consistent Kukdae Topokki's Brand Touch point, consumers may have a strong image on the brand by communicating with consumers consistently at all touch points. Second, instead of the existing guide from the head office(franchiser), a standardized criteria for the usage of materials and periodical education for franchisee are needed. Third, to raise the awareness of Kukdae Topokki, open many branches in the area where the main consumers(20-30s women) are mostly spread out.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.311-323
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• 2023

In order to reduce disaster damage by localized heavy rains, floods, and urban inundation, it is important to know in advance whether natural disasters occur. Currently, heavy rain watch and heavy rain warning by the criteria of the Korea Meteorological Administration are being issued in Korea. However, since this one criterion is applied to the whole country, we can not clearly recognize heavy rain damage for a specific region in advance. Therefore, in this paper, we tried to reset the current criteria for a special weather report which considers the regional characteristics and to predict the damage caused by rainfall after 1 hour. The study area was selected as Gyeonggi-province, where has more frequent heavy rain damage than other regions. Then, the rainfall inducing disaster or hazard-triggering rainfall was set by utilizing hourly rainfall and heavy rain damage data, considering the local characteristics. The heavy rain damage prediction model was developed by a decision tree model and a random forest model, which are machine learning technique and by rainfall inducing disaster and rainfall data. In addition, long short-term memory and deep neural network models were used for predicting rainfall after 1 hour. The predicted rainfall by a developed prediction model was applied to the trained classification model and we predicted whether the rain damage after 1 hour will be occurred or not and we called this as 1ST-Model. The 1ST-Model can be used for preventing and preparing heavy rain disaster and it is judged to be of great contribution in reducing damage caused by heavy rain.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.17-24
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• 2023

A post-processing technique for the measurement signal of a solenoid-type sensor is introduced. The solenoid-type sensor nondestructively evaluates an external tendon of prestressed concrete using the total flux leakage (TFL) method. The TFL solenoid sensor consists of primary and secondary coils. AC electricity, with the shape of a sinusoidal function, is input in the primary coil. The signal proportional to the differential of the input is induced in the secondary coil. Because the amplitude of the induced signal is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the tendon, sectional loss of the tendon caused by ruptures or corrosion can be identified by the induced signal. Therefore, it is important to extract amplitude information from the measurement signal of the TFL sensor. Previously, the amplitude was extracted using local maxima, which is the simplest way to obtain amplitude information. However, because the sampling rate is dramatically decreased by amplitude extraction using the local maxima, the previous method places many restrictions on the direction of TFL sensor development, such as applying additional signal processing and/or artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the proposed method uses amplitude demodulation to obtain the signal amplitude from the TFL sensor, and the sampling rate of the amplitude information is same to the raw TFL sensor data. The proposed method using amplitude demodulation provides ample freedom for development by eliminating restrictions on the first coil input frequency of the TFL sensor and the speed of applying the sensor to external tension. It also maintains a high measurement sampling rate, providing advantages for utilizing additional signal processing or artificial intelligence. The proposed method was validated through experiments, and the advantages were verified through comparison with the previous method. For example, in this study the amplitudes extracted by amplitude demodulation provided a sampling rate 100 times greater than those of the previous method. There may be differences depending on the given situation and specific equipment settings; however, in most cases, extracting amplitude information using amplitude demodulation yields more satisfactory results than previous methods.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

Skin sanitizers are effective in killing or removing pathogenic microbial contaminants from the skin of food handlers, and the progressive growth of consumer interest in personal hygiene tends to drive product diversification. This review covers the advances in the application of efficacy tests for hand sanitizers to suggest future perspectives to establish an assessment system that is optimized to each product type (gel, liquid, and wipes). Previous research on the in vivo simulative test of actual consumer use has adopted diverse experimental conditions regardless of the product type. This highlights the importance of establishing optimal test protocols specialized for the compositional characteristics of sanitizers through the comparative analysis of test methods. Although the operational conditions of the mechanical actions associated with wiping can affect the efficacy of the removal and/or the inactivation of target microorganisms from the skin's surface, currently there is a lack of standardized use patterns for the exposure of hand sanitizing wipes to skin. Thus, major determinants affecting the results from each step of the overall assessment procedures [pre-treatment - exposure of sanitizers - microbial recovery] should be identified to modify current protocols and develop novel test methods. The ex vivo test, designed to overcome the limited reproducibility of in vivo human trials, is also expected to replicate the environment for the contact of sanitizers targeting skin microorganisms. Recent progress in the area of skin microbiome research revealed distinct microbial characteristics and distribution patterns after the application of sanitizers on hands to establish the test methods with the perspectives on the antimicrobial effects at the community level. The future perspectives presented in this study on the improvement of efficacy test methods for hand sanitizers can also contribute to public health and food safety through the commercialization of effective sanitizer products.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.264-276
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• 2023

Purpose: Food environmental factors related to food insecurity affect household food intake in several socio-ecological aspects. This study explores the relationship between food environment factors and food insecurity in households with married immigrant women. Methods: From November 2018 to February 2020, a survey was conducted enrolling 249 married immigrant women residing in the metropolitan areas of South Korea. In the final analysis, 229 subjects were divided into 2 groups classified as food security (n = 154) and food insecurity (n = 75), as assessed by the score of food security. Three aspects of food environments were measured: built·natural, political·economic, and socio-cultural Results: Food environments were significantly different between food security and food insecurity groups, as follows: the number of foods market and their distance from the home and food status for the last week at home in the built·natural domain; monthly cost of food purchase and experience for food assistance in the political·economic domain; total score of social support, parenting, and cooking skills in the socio-cultural domain. A stepwise multivariate linear regression model showed a negative association between the food insecurity score with social support from family and food inventory status in the last week. After adjusting for confounders, a positive association was obtained between the experience of a food support program. The final regression model explains about 30% of the relationship obtained in the three food environment domains and food insecurity (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Not only economic factors, which are common determinants of household food insecurity, but socio-cultural factors such as social support also affect household food insecurity. Therefore, plans for implementing a food assistance program to improve food insecurity for households with immigrant women should consider financial support as well as other comprehensive aspects, including socio-cultural domain such as social support from family and community.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1B
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• pp.51-60
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• 2006

Water quality improvement in mattress/filter system using porous material like slag from industrial activity and zeolite that has been studied for environment improvement and pollution abatement is very useful in polluted stagnant stream channel. Slag is consisted of CaO, $SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$ and $Fe_2O_3$. Slag with large specific surface area of porosity has been used such as sludge settling and adsorptive materials. Because slag is porous, it can be used for purification filter. As slag is used as filled materials of mattress/filter system and the system has good advantages for the waste water treatment, water recycling, and the improvement of water quality at the same time and so on. Because zeolite has much advantage of cation exchange, adsorption, catalyst and dehydration characteristics, It is used for environment improvement of livestock farms, treatment of artificial sewage and waste water, improvement of drinking water quality, radioactive waste disposal and radioactive material pollution control. In this study, according to verifying effects of water quality improvement of fill materials by porosity that 38.6%, 45.8% and 49.8% respectively in the stagnant stream channel, water quality monitoring of inflow and outflow was conducted on pH, DO, BOD, COD, SS, T-N and T-P. Mattress/filter system was able to accelerate water quality improvement by biofilter as waste water flows through gap of mattress/filter fill materials and by contact catalysis, absorption, catabolism by biofilm. Mattress/filter system used slag and zeolite forms biofilm easily and accelerates adsorption of organic matter. As a result, mattress/filter system increases water self-purification and accelerates water quality improvement available for stream water clean-up.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1B
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• pp.11-22
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• 2009

Long-term rainfall-runoff modeling is a key element in the Earth's hydrological cycle, and associated with many different aspects such as dam design, drought management, river management flow, reservoir management for water supply, water right permission or coordinate, water quality prediction. In this regard, hydrologists have used the hydrologic models for design criteria, water resources assessment, planning and management as a main tool. Most of rainfall-runoff studies, however, were not carefully performed in terms of considering reservoir effects. In particular, the downstream where is severely affected by reservoir was poorly dealt in modeling rainfall-runoff process. Moreover, the effects can considerably affect overall the rainfallrunoff process. An objective of this study, thus, is to evaluate the impact of reservoir operation on rainfall-runoff process. The proposed approach is applied to Anseong watershed, where is in a mixed rural/urban setting of the area and in Korea, and has been experienced by flood damage due to heavy rainfall. It has been greatly paid attention to the agricultural reservoirs in terms of flood protection in Korea. To further investigate the reservoir effects, a comprehensive assessment for the results are discussed. Results of simulations that included reservoir in the model showed the effect of storage appeared in spring and autumn when rainfall was not concentrated. In periods of heavy rainfall, however, downstream runoff increased in simulations that do not consider reservoir factor. Flow duration curve showed that changes in streamflow depending upon the presence or absence of reservoir factor were particularly noticeable in ninety-five day flow and low flow.