• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.49-56
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• 2012

Methylphenidate is a widely used stimulant for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition to core symptoms of attention and behavioral symptoms, methylphenidate is even effective for executive functions. However, abuse and misuse of stimulants, including methylphenidate, for the purpose of cognitive enhancement is an issue of concern worldwide. Some prejudices and misunderstandings against methylphenidate are popular ; however, little attention has been given to the neuropsychiatric evidence of methylphenidate for enhancement of cognitive function among healthy populations. In this article, our aim was to conduct a review of previous studies investigating the effect of methylphenidate in healthy populations. Findings from several recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of methylphenidate for enhancement of cognitive function in healthy populations. The mechanisms of cognitive enhancement are thought to be associated with motivation and the reward circuit in the brain. However, when considering the risk to benefit, an official discussion of the use of methylphenidate among healthy members of the population would be premature. Instead, investigation of epidemiological studies of the prevalence of misuse of stimulants among healthy members of the population, particularly adolescents and college students, is needed. In addition, based on achievements reported in previous studies, investigation of the effect of an approach using non-pharmacological enhancing motivation, which will in turn result in increased cognitive function would be helpful.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.402-411
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a cognitive enhancement program combined Silbot on cognitive function, depression, and dementia prevention behavior in the elderly complaining of subjective memory decline. The subjects were 170 elderly people living in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, and the study was performed at a welfare center. A total of 20 sessions program using Silbot and physical activity was developed and applied, and were evaluated using the Korean version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (K-MoCA), Geriatric depression Scale(GDS) , and Dementia Prevention Behavior before and after intervention. As a result of the study, the cognitive enhancement program combined Silbot showed statistically significant changes in cognitive function (t=-4.49, p<.001) and depression (t=2.58, p=.023) in the elderly. Therefore, it is expected that the cognitive enhancement program using Silbot will be a useful program that can enhance the cognitive function of the elderly and reduce depression.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.113-122
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a mobile application on quality of life, wellness, and preventive behaviors against dementia among older adults who use senior citizen centers. Methods: Seventy-two older adults who used senior citizen centers were allocated to an intervention group (n = 36) and a control group (n = 36). The experimental treatment involved a cognitive enhancement program for preventing dementia using a mobile application for 12 sessions over 6 weeks. Data were analyzed using the t-test, chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, paired t-test, and independent t-test. Results: The cognitive enhancement program based on a mobile application was effective for wellness (t = -3.87, p < .001) and preventive behaviors against dementia (t = -3.98, p < .001) for older adults who used a senior center. Conclusion: The mobile application-based cognitive enhancement program developed in this study is recommended as an effective intervention for dementia prevention in older adults.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2009

Background: The purpose of this study was to find out the effects of the hand movement exercise program on the cognitive function of the older with dementia. Methods: A total of twenty-four subjects were divided into two research groups and one control group, respectively. Each exercise was conducted in twelve weeks: three times a week, twice a day for fifteen minutes. Enhancement of cognitive function in each exercise program was evaluated four times using MMSE-KC, the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State. Results: As for enhancement of cognitive function, the hand movement exercise program represented an increase of $1.63{\pm}.92$ over those before study, showing significant differences (p<.05); the large muscle exercise program, $.75{\pm}.89$; and the activities of daily living program, $.00{\pm}2.14$, showing no significant differences. Conclusion: Hand Movement Exercise Program can be inferred from the results that consistent exercise program is more effective than any other ways for enhancement of cognitive function of the older with dementia.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1365-1372
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• 2011

This paper proposes a cognitive contrast enhancement algorithm based on the non-linear masking to advance low cognitive contrast in dark regions of images. In order to improve brightness in dark regions of an image, we propose a new contrast enhancement algorithm based on the non-linear masking using regional adaptive parameters of an image. For performance evaluation of the proposed method, chromaticity and saturation comparison as a quantitative assessment and z-score comparison as a qualitative assessment were executed between test images and their simulated images by SSR, MSR, a conventional non-linear masking and the proposed method, respectively. As a result, the proposed method showed low chromaticity and saturation difference and improved cognitive contrast for the three methods.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.382-399
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• 2019

This study suggests how to use tablet PC application to improve the cognitive functions of the elderly. As a part of lifelong education, this study analyzes cases of developing and applying smart application programs to contribute to the enhancement of science education as an elderly education. For the research, we set the direction of the program and developed the programs 'Coloring,' 'Building lights,' 'Matching shapes,' and 'Pressing button' accordingly. As a result of applying the program to nine participants, each program has a positive effect on the improvement of cognitive function of the elderly. This shows the possibility of using smart applications as a cognitive function enhancement program for the elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.724-735
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• 2010

Purpose: In this study a cognitive enhancement group training program of 10 sessions was provided for communitydwelling elders and the effects on cognitive function, depression and quality of life were tested. Methods: A quasi-experimental study using a nonequivalent control group, pre-post design was used. The participants were 87 elders whose cognitive function was within the normal range. Of these elders, 45 were assigned to the experimental group and 42 to the control group. The intervention was conducted once a week for 10 weeks. Chi-square test, t-test, paired t-test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze the data. Results: After the program, the cognitive function (t=-2.85, p=.006), depression (z=2.82, p=.005) and quality of life (t=2.79, p=.007) of the experimental group was significantly better than those of the control group. Especially, immediate recall (z=2.45, p=.014) and concentration (z=2.58, p=.010) in the subcategory of cognitive function were significantly better than that of the control group. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the cognitive enhancement group training program was effective in enhancing the cognitive function, depression and quality of life for elders and could therefore be considered as a positive program for emotional and cognitive support for community-dwelling elders.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.48
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• pp.243-270
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy to prevent relapse of substance abuse. A total of 8 substance abusing adult clients participated in the program. All the clients were charged with substance use at the time of implementing the program. Two master's level social workers operated the program, which was implemented in a probation office in Seoul. This study included Beliefs about substance use, abstinence self-efficacy, and coping skills as dependent variables in order to investigate the effectiveness. Cognitive-behavioral therapy emphasizes the enhancement of these cognitive and behavioral skills to prevent relapse of substance use. Research hypotheses were partially supported. That is, clients participated in the program had more negative attitude toward substance use and had more effective problem-focused coping skills. Although a research hypothesis of the enhancement of clients' self efficacy was not supported, their mean scores at the final post test were lower than scores at pretest. This study suggests that more studies be needed to in order to confirm the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy with substance abusing clients.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2010

Purpose: The aim of this study was to gauge the social willingness to pay for cognitive enhancement program for elders. Methods: The subjects of this study were 77 subjects >65-years-of-age. The data were collected by direct interviews. The measures of willingness to pay were open-ended question and referendum format. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, $x^2$-test, and multiple regression. Results: Respondents were willing to pay 18,573 won for one use of a cognitive enhancement program for elders. The Monthly income was the only factor that statistically significantly affected willingness to pay. Conclusion: The findings will contribute to policy formulation regarding community based nursing program for elders.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.51-71
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• 2014

This paper presents an image enhancement method in real road traffic scenes. The images captured by the camera on the car cannot keep the color constancy as illumination or weather changes. In the real environment, these problems are more worse at back light conditions and at night that make more difficult to the applications of the vision-based intelligent vehicles. Using the existing image enhancement methods without considering the position and intensity of the light source and their geometric relations the image quality can even be deteriorated. Thus, this paper presents a fast and effective method for image enhancement resembling human cognitive system which consists of 1) image preprocessing, 2) color-contrast evaluation, 3) alpha blending of over/under estimated image and preprocessed image. An input image is first preprocessed by gamma correction, and then enhanced by an Automatic Color Enhancement(ACE) method. Finally, the preprocessed image and the ACE image are blended to improve image visibility. The proposed method shows drastically enhanced results visually, and improves the performance in traffic sign detection of the vision based intelligent vehicle applications.