• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.174-183
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• 2009

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to develop and examine the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis, and to identify the effect when combined with a supportive follow up phone-calls. Method: The design for this study was a 3*2 quasi-experimental design. Sixty-six participants were recruited in W-city, and assigned to Exp 1 group (n=21) or Exp 2 group (n=24) according to supportive follow-up phone call method, or to the control group (n=21). Fifty-two subjects (17 and 20 in Exp 1 and 2, and 15 in the control group) completed pretest and posttest. Both experimental groups participated in the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis once a week for 8 weeks. Exp 1 received automated follow up phone-calls made up in KT-SHUT program, and Exp 2 received follow up phone-calls made up by researchers. The control group received no education and no phone call. Measures used to examine the effect self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis were joint flexibility, hand muscle strength, balance with closed eyes and self-efficacy. The final analysis of the post-test measures was conducted by ANCOVA with age and self efficacy as covariates. Results: Both experimental group had significantly increased right shoulder flexibility (p=.002), left shoulder flexibility (p=.000), right hand grip (p=.024), and self efficacy (p=.008) compared with the control group. But there were no significant differences between two experimental groups in any physical indicators and self efficacy. Conclusion: Automated follow up phone-call would be helpful in managing the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis as well as researcher's phone call. The automated follow up phone-call program which was a new method could be recommended for use to encourage home exercise practice and the program participation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2005

Purpose : We performed the study to evaluate the value of the follow-up echocardiogram performed 6 months to 1 year after the onset of Kawasaki disease(KD), as recommended by American Heart Association(AHA) guidelines, when echocardiograms in the convalescent period were normal. Methods : Patients were selected from 147 cases diagnosed with KD at Pusan Paik hospital from January 2000 to October 2003. A total of 45 KD patients belonged to AHA risk level I and II were performed follow-up echocardiography. The patient's medical records and echocardiogram were reviewed. Additionally, we sought the opinion of pediatric cardiologists on the subject by means of a multiple-choice survey. Results : 37 children were belonged to AHA risk level I and the remaining 8 patients were belonged to risk level II. Of these 45 children, none were noted to have abnormalities on later follow-up echocardiogram. In the results of questionnaire, 37 percent of the participants advocate no follow-up after convalescent period for risk level I, and 33.3 percent favor periodic follow-up with echocardiography for risk level II up to one year. But there were no consensus about the diagnostic criteria of coronary abnormalities and how to follow-up these patients. Conclusion : All children with KD should have an echocardiogram at present and a follow-up study 6 to 8 weeks after the onset of fever. However, additional echocardiographies are not justified if the 6- to 8-week follow-up echocardiogram is normal. We would recommend that the more reasonable diagnostic criteria for coronary abnormalities and the Korean guidelines for long-term cardiovascular management and follow-up of KD need to be established.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.161-169
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• 2011

International Organization for Standardization has recently published ISO 9001:2008 which is the basic requirements for a quality management system that an organization must fulfil to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products that enhance customer satisfaction and meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Not many empirical researches based on ISO 9001:2008 have been done up until now. In this article we outline transitional features for ISO 9000 quality management system (QMS) since its first publication in 1987. In order to effectively maintain ISO 9001:2008 QMS certification and continuously enhance quality management activities, we perform statistical analysis for the minor nonconformity data generated from follow-up audits for subcontractors of shipbuilding industry based on ISO 9001:2008 requirements. A Kruskal-Wallis test is used to show relationships between the minor nonconformity data and three classification criteria: the type of business, the size of business, and the number of follow-up audits.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.59-78
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• 1994

In some observational studies, we have often random censoring model. However, the data available may be partially observable censored data consisting of the observed failure times and only those nonfailure times which are subject to follow up. In this paper, we present an extension of the problem of partially parametric estimation of the survival function to such partially observable censored data. The proposed estimator treats the observed failure times nonparametrically and uses a parametric model only for those nonfailure times which are subject to follow-up. We discuss the motivation and construction of the proposed estimator and investigate the limiting properties of the proposed estimator such as asymptotic normality. Also, when the assumed parametric model is exponential, the asymptotic variance of the estimator is obtained. Furthermore, an example is given to compare the proposed estimator with the modified Kaplan Meier(MKM) estimator. From the results, it is shown that the relative efficiency of the proposed estimator is higher than that of the MKM estimator in the follow-up study with increasing time.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.69.2-69.2
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• 2013

The direct detection of gravitational wave has a very important meaning as a basis for verification of the theory of relativity. Several laser interferometer detectors have attempted to detect GW directly (e.g. LIGO, VIRGO), but positional accuracy of GW detector is too wide (about 10~100sq deg) to find which objects emit GW. One of the main sources of GW is gamma-ray burst which can be detected even in electromagnetic wave. Then to verify Gamma-ray burst object as a GW source, we proceed EM follow-up observation with wide field of view. A first program initiating EM follow-ups to possible transients GW events has been developed and exercised by LIGO and VIRGO community in association with several partners. Using QUEST optical data, we tested the method of cross-convolution recommended by EM follow-up community. We will describe the results of that test.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the 2-year follow-up results of patients with a trimalleolar fracture, who had undergone an anterior incision cannulated screw fixation of the posterior malleolar fragment, which had more than 25% of articular involvement or had no cortical continuity with the distal tibia. Materials and Methods: Among 28 patients with a trimalleolar fracture who had undergone fixation of the posterior malleolar fragment between February 2005 and February 2010, 14 patients, who underwent an anterior incision cannulated screw fixation of posterior malleolar fragment and were followed-up for more than 2 years, were selected. The postoperative clinical and radiological findings immediately and at the 1- and 2-year follow-up were compared. The clinical findings were evaluated as American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score. The radiological assessment was evaluated as the maintenance of reduction, period to bone union, and the presence of nonunion, malunion, and complications. Results: The clinical outcome by mean AOFAS score revealed 83.0 points in the group with preoperative displacement below 2 mm and 80.7 points in the group with preoperative displacement above 2 mm postoperatively. The mean AOFAS score was 91.7 and 93.1 points in the group with preoperative displacement below 2 mm on 1- and 2-year follow-up, respectively, and 89.8 and 91.7 points in group with the preoperative displacement above 2 mm on 1- and 2-year follow-up, respectively. After a 2-year follow-up among 14 cases selected for this study, 13 cases showed an excellent reduction state and only 1 case (7.1%) showed a displacement of more than 2 mm. No complication were encountered in the group with preoperative displacement below 2 mm. On the other hand, among 8 patients in the group with preoperative displacement above 2 mm, there were 3 with limitations of the range of motion of the ankle joint (37.5%) and 1 post-traumatic arthritis (12.5%) at the 2-year follow-up. Conclusion: Anterior incision cannulated screw fixation of the posterior malleolar fragment could be a valuable method for the treatment of trimalleolar fractures that provides satisfactory results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2711-2717
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• 2016

Background: Through search the possible randomized control trials, we make a renewed meta-analysis in order to assess the impact of aspirin in preventing the recurrence of colorectal adenoma. Materials and Methods: The Medicine/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chinese biomedical literature service system (SinoMed) databases were searched for the related randomized controlled trials until to the April 2016. Three different authors respectively evaluated the quality of studies and extracted data, and we used the STATA software to analyze, investigate heterogeneity between the data, using the fixed-effects model to calculate and merge data. Results: 7 papers were included the renewed meta-analysis, among these studies, two pairs were identified as representing the same study population, with the only difference being the duration of follow-up. Thus there were only five papers included our meta-analysis, and one Chinese paper were also included the work. Results were categorized by the length of follow-up, different kinds of people, varied dose of oral aspirin. The relative of adenoma in patients taking aspirin vs placebo were 0.73 (95% CI 0.55-0.98, P=0.039) with 1 year follow up; 0.84 (95% CI 0.72-0.98, P=0.484) with greater than 1 year follow up; for the advanced adenoma, the RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.49-0.94, P=0.582),for one year; RR=0.75 (95% CI 0.52-1.07, P=0.552) for greater one year. Furthermore the white population could divided into two subgroups according to the different length of follow-up time. When the length of follow-up time less than 3-year, The RR of two subgroups respective were RR=0.86 (95% CI 0.76-0.98, P=0.332), $I^2=0%$, RR=0.68 (95% CI 0.47-0.98, P=0.552), $I^2=64.6%$, But with the extension of follow-up time greater than 2-year, with the white, oral aspirin without considering dose had no efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, the RR was 0.86 (95% CI 0.71-1.05, P=0.302), $I^2=16.4%$. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that oral aspirin is associated with a remarkable decrease in the recurrence of any adenoma and advanced adenomas in patients follow-up for 1 year without concerning the dose of aspirin, but with the extension of follow-up time for greater than 1 year, oral aspirin can be effective on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, but for the advanced adenoma, the result indicated that oral aspirin had no efficacy, According to the inclusion of ethnic groups, we also divided relevant papers into two subgroups as the yellow and white group. Then the follow-up time was less than 3 years, oral aspirin without considering the dose, had an significant efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma. But with the follow-up greater than 2 years, oral aspirin had no effect in the white.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.166-170
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• 2007

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical and radiologic results of the Ludloff osteotomy for moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity retrospectively. Materials and Methods: Between January 2003 and October 2006, 33 patients (42 feet) who had undergone with Ludloff osteotomy combined with distal soft tissue procedure were followed up for more than one year. The average follow-up period was 14.6 months and the average age at the time of surgery was 47.7 years (26-70 years). The American Othopeaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score was used for clinical outcome assessments. We analyzed the hallux valgus angle (HVA), the first-second intermetatarsal angle (IMA) and the degrees of the tibial sesamoid subluxation in preoperative and the last follow-up radiographs. Results: The AOFAS score improved from a preoperative average of 45.6 points to an average 84.3 points at the last follow-up. HVA and IMA were 34.8 and 14.5 degrees preoperatively, 17.2 and 5.9 degrees at the last follow-up. The tibial sesamoid position improved from a preoperative average of grade 2.5 to the last follow-up average of grade 1.2. Conclusion: Ludloff osteotomy produced satisfactory results for moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.186-193
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• 2015

Background Polyurethane coating of breast implants has been shown to reduce capsular contracture in short-term follow-up studies. This 30-year study is the longest examination of the use of polyurethane-coated implants and their correlation with capsular contracture. Methods This study evaluates the senior surgeon's (F.D.P.) experience with the use of polyurethane-coated implants in aesthetic breast augmentation in 382 patients over 30 years. Follow-up evaluations were conducted for six months after surgery. After the six-month follow-up period, 76 patients returned for reoperation. The gross findings, histology, and associated capsular contracture were noted at the time of explantation. Results No patient during the six-month follow-up period demonstrated capsular contracture. For those who underwent reoperation for capsular contracture, Baker II/III contractures were noted nine to 10 years after surgery and Baker IV contractures were noted 12 to 21 years after surgery. None of the explanted implants had macroscopic evidence of polyurethane, which was only found during the first five years after surgery. The microscopic presence of polyurethane was noted in all capsules up to 30 years after the original operation. Conclusions An inverse correlation was found between the amount of polyurethane coating on the implant and the occurrence of capsular contracture. Increasingly severe capsular contracture was associated with a decreased amount of polyurethane coating on the surface of the implants. No contracture occurred in patients whose implants showed incomplete biodegradation of polyurethane, as indicated by the visible presence of polyurethane coating. We recommend research to find a non-toxic, non-biodegradable synthetic material as an alternative to polyurethane.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2007

Objective : The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of bone cement augmentation of pedicular screwing in severe osteoporotic spondylolisthetic patients. Methods : Twenty patients with spondylolisthesis (8 : spondylolytic spondylolisthesis 12 : degenerative spondylolisthesis) who had undergone pedicular screwing and interbody fusion for osteoporotic lumbar spine (T-score on bone mineral density<-3.0) from 2002 to 2005 were reviewed. Mean age was 62.3 years with 3 male and 17 female patients. Average follow-up period was 14 months. Average T-score on bone mineral density (BMD) was -3.62. After decompression of neural elements, about 6cc of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) was injected into the each vertebral body through transpedicular route. All patients underwent one level interbody fusion and pedicular screw fixation. Clinical outcome was assessed using Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) on the last clinical follow-up. In addition, a modified MacNab's grading criteria was used to objectively assess patient's outcome postoperatively. Radiographic analysis of sagittal contour was assessed preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and at final follow-up including fusion rate. Results : Eighteen of 20 patients were graded as excellent or good according to the modified MacNab's criteria. An significant improvement of ODI was achieved in both groups. Mean sagittal angle at the preoperative state, postoperative state and at the last follow-up state was $11.0^{\circ},\;20.1^{\circ}$ and $18.3^{\circ}$, respectively, with mean sagittal angle correction gain $7.3^{\circ}$. Firm fusion was achieved in all patients. There were one compression fracture above the fused segment after 6 months follow-up and one case of seroma. But there were no postoperative complications related to bone cement leakage and pedicular screwings such as screw pullout or screw cut-up. Conclusion : Bone cement augmentation of pedicular screwing can be an effective procedure for osteoporotic lumbar spine in spondylolisthetic patients.