• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.66 no.6
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• pp.726-734
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• 2023

Objective : Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) patients using antithrombotic agents (AT) at high risk for cardiovascular disease are increasing. The authors aimed to analyze the factors influencing outcome by targeting patients using AT and to establish a desirable treatment strategy. Methods : A retrospective analysis was performed on data from 462 patients who underwent burr hole trephination (BHT) surgery for CSDH at five hospitals from March 2010 to June 2021. Outcomes included incidence of postoperative acute bleeding, recurrence rate, and morbidity or mortality rate. Patients were divided into the following four groups based on their history of AT use : no AT. Only antiplatelet agents (AP), only anticoagulants (AC), both of AP and AC. In addition, a concurrent literature review was conducted alongside our cohort study. Results : Of 462 patients, 119 (119/462, 25.76%) were using AT. AP prescription did not significantly delay surgery (p=0.318), but AC prescription led to a significant increase in the time interval from admission to operation (p=0.048). After BHT, AP or AC intake significantly increased the period required for an in-dwelling drain (p=0.026 and p=0.037). The use of AC was significantly related to acute bleeding (p=0.044), while the use of AP was not (p=0.808). Use of AP or AC had no significant effect on CSDH recurrence (p=0.517 and p=1.000) or reoperation (p=0.924 and p=1.000). Morbidity was not statistically correlated with use of either AP or AC (p=0.795 and p=0.557, respectively), and there was no significant correlation with mortality for use of these medications (p=0.470 and p=1.000). Conclusion : Elderly CSDH patients may benefit from maintenance of AT therapy during BHT due to reduced thromboembolic risk. However, the use of AC necessitates individualized due to potential postoperative bleeding. Careful post-operative monitoring could mitigate prognosis and recurrence impacts.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2023

Recently, water shortages have occurred due to climate change, and the need for water management of agricultural water has increased due to the occurrence of algal blooms in reservoirs. Existing algae prevention is operated by putting many people on site and misses the optimal spraying time due to movement through boats. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to block contamination in advance and move within time to uniformly spray complex microorganisms uniformly. Control drones are used for pesticide spraying and can be applied to algae prevention work by utilizing control drones. In this paper, basic research for the establishment of a marine control system was conducted for application to the reservoir environment, and as one of the results, the characteristics of a drone nozzle, a core technology that can be used for control drones, were calculated. In particular, it was found that the existing agricultural control drones had a disadvantage that the concentration was non-uniform within the suggested spraying interval, and to compensate for this, nozzle positioning and nozzle spraying uniformity were calculated. Based on the experimental results, we develop a core algorithm for establishing an algal bloom monitoring system in the reservoir environment and propose a precision control technology that can be used for marine control work in the future.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.467-474
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• 2023

Objectives: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious public health issue that places a heavy financial, social, and health-related burden on individuals, families, and healthcare systems. Self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is extensively used for monitoring the general population's health conditions and measuring the effectiveness of interventions. Therefore, this study investigated HRQoL and associated factors among patients with type 2 DM at a primary healthcare center in Indonesia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Klaten District, Central Java, Indonesia, from May 2019 to July 2019. In total, 260 patients with DM registered with National Health Insurance were interviewed. HRQoL was measured with the EuroQol Group's validated Bahasa Indonesia version of the EuroQoL 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) with the Indonesian value set. Multivariate regression models were used to identify factors influencing HRQoL. Results: Data from 24 patients were excluded due to incomplete information. Most participants were men (60.6%), were aged above 50 years (91.5%), had less than a senior high school education (75.0%), and were unemployed (85.6%). The most frequent health problems were reported for the pain/discomfort dimension (64.0%) followed by anxiety (28.4%), mobility (17.8%), usual activities (10.6%), and self-care (6.8%). The average EuroQoL 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) index score was 0.86 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 0.88). In the multivariate ordinal regression model, a higher education level (coefficient, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.14) was a significant predictor of the EQ-5D-5L utility score. Conclusions: Patients with diabetes had poorer EQ-5D-5L utility values than the general population. DM patients experienced pain/discomfort and anxiety. There was a substantial positive relationship between education level and HRQoL.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.366-375
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• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the radiological tumor response patterns and compare the response assessments based on immune-based therapeutics Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (iRECIST) and RECIST 1.1 in metastatic clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (mccRCC) patients treated with programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors. Materials and Methods: All mccRCC patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors at Henan Cancer Hospital, China, between January 2018 and April 2019, were retrospectively studied. A total of 30 mccRCC patients (20 males and 10 females; mean age, 55.6 years; age range, 37-79 years) were analyzed. The target lesions were quantified on consecutive CT scans during therapy using iRECIST and RECIST 1.1. The tumor growth rate was calculated before and after therapy initiation. The response patterns were analyzed, and the differences in tumor response assessments of the two criteria were compared. The intra- and inter-observer variabilities of iRECIST and RECIST 1.1 were also analyzed. Results: The objective response rate throughout therapy was 50% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 32.1-67.9) based on iRECIST and 30% (95% CI: 13.6-46.4) based on RECIST 1.1. The time-to-progression (TTP) based on iRECIST was longer than that based on RECIST 1.1 (median TTP: not reached vs. 170 days, p = 0.04). iRECIST and RECIST 1.1 were discordant in 8 cases, which were evaluated as immune-unconfirmed PD based on iRECIST and PD based on RECIST 1.1. Six patients (20%, 6/30) had pseudoprogression based on iRECIST, of which four demonstrated early pseudoprogression and two had delayed pseudoprogression. Significant differences in the tumor response assessments based on the two criteria were observed (p < 0.001). No patients demonstrated hyperprogression during the study period. Conclusion: Our study confirmed that the iRECIST criteria are more capable of capturing immune-related atypical responses during immunotherapy, whereas conventional RECIST 1.1 may underestimate the benefit of PD-1 inhibitors. Pseudoprogression is not rare in mccRCC patients during PD-1 inhibitor therapy, and it may last for more than the recommended maximum of 8 weeks, indicating a limitation of the current strategy for immune response monitoring.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.288-297
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• 2024

Objectives: This study explored the prevalence and predictors of alcohol and cannabis co-use among 9263 Filipino adolescents, using data from the 2019 Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional secondary analysis of the GSHS, targeting adolescents aged 13-17 years and excluding cases with incomplete data on alcohol and cannabis use. Our analysis employed the bivariate chi-square test of independence and multivariable logistic regression using Stata version 18 to identify significant predictors of co-use, with a p-value threshold set at 0.05. Results: The weighted prevalence of co-users was 4.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4 to 5.3). Significant predictors included male sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 4.50; 95% CI, 3.31 to 6.10; p<0.001) and being in a lower academic year, specifically grade 7 (aOR, 4.08; 95% CI, 2.39 to 6.99; p<0.001) and grade 8 (aOR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.30 to 3.72; p=0.003). Poor sleep quality was also a significant predictor (aOR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.29 to 2.44; p<0.001), as was a history of attempted suicide (aOR, 5.31; 95% CI, 4.00 to 7.06; p<0.001). Physical inactivity was associated with lower odds of co-use (aOR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.62; p<0.001). Additionally, non-attendance of physical education classes (aOR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.06 to 2.05; p=0.021), infrequent unapproved parental checks (aOR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.80; p=0.024), and lower parental awareness of free-time activities (aOR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.45 to 0.87; p=0.005) were associated with higher odds of co-use. Factors not significantly linked to co-use included age group, being in grade 9, always feeling lonely, having no close friends, being bullied outside school, and whether a parent or guardian understood the adolescent's worries. Conclusions: The findings highlight the critical need for comprehensive interventions in the Philippines, addressing not only physical inactivity and parental monitoring but also focusing on sex, academic grade, participation in physical education classes, sleep quality, and suicide attempt history, to effectively reduce alcohol and cannabis co-use among adolescents.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.327-338
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• 2024

Objectives: Estimating the number of deaths caused by smoking is crucial for developing and evaluating tobacco control and smoking cessation policies. This study aimed to determine smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) in Korea in 2020. Methods: Four large-scale cohorts from Korea were analyzed. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to determine the hazard ratios (HRs) of smoking-related death. By conducting a meta-analysis of these HRs, the pooled HRs of smoking-related death for 41 diseases were estimated. Population-attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated based on the smoking prevalence for 1995 in conjunction with the pooled HRs. Subsequently, SAM was derived using the PAF and the number of deaths recorded for each disease in 2020. Results: The pooled HR for all-cause mortality attributable to smoking was 1.73 for current men smokers (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.53 to 1.95) and 1.63 for current women smokers (95% CI, 1.37 to 1.94). Smoking accounted for 33.2% of all-cause deaths in men and 4.6% in women. Additionally, it was a factor in 71.8% of men lung cancer deaths and 11.9% of women lung cancer deaths. In 2020, smoking was responsible for 53 930 men deaths and 6283 women deaths, totaling 60 213 deaths. Conclusions: Cigarette smoking was responsible for a significant number of deaths in Korea in 2020. Monitoring the impact and societal burden of smoking is essential for effective tobacco control and harm prevention policies.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.4 no.3 s.8
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• pp.33-43
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• 2005

Traffic condition monitoring system serves as the foundation for all intelligent transportation system operation. Loop detectors and Video Image Processing are the most widely common technology approach to condition monitoring in korea Highways. Lane Usage is defined as the proportion of total link volume served by each lane. In this research, the lane Usage(LU) of two lane link for one day. Interval is 56% : 44%. The LU of three lane link is 39% : 37% : 24%. The LU of four lane link is 25% : 29% : 26% : 21%. These analysis reveal that each lane distributions of link are not same. This research investigates the general concept of lane usage by using collected loop detector data and the investigated that lane distribution is different by traffic lane and lane usage is consistent by time of day.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 1999

The long term trend of studensts' science achievement is a very important factor to check the effectiveness of science educational policy. However, up to date no such effort to understand the trend of Korean students' science achievement has been put into action. Recently, the Science Education Center in Korea National University of Education has been attempted to collect nation wide data for students' science achievement. The first part of the effort was to develop item pools. This study was the second part to collect nation wide data and to check any change during the two year time interval. In this study, the item pools developed by Kwon et. al.(1998) were used with some modification. The data were collected two times; February 1997 and March 1999. The subjects collected nationally were 8,766 students in 1997 and were 4,398 in 1999. The subjects were collected randomly but stratified by region and sex. As the results, the trends of achievement change during the two years were different from elementary to high school. The achievement scores were decreased in elementary schools and increased in high school. In case of middle schools, the change was not significant. However, even in elementary schools the knowledge on theory was increased significantly while knowledge on facts and principles were decreased. In contrast, the knowledge on fact showed the most increase in high schools. In this study, the data were analysed in light of region, sex, behavioral objective levels(ability) and context of test items. The science achievement monitoring system developed by the Science Education Center in Korea National University of Education can be an effective tool for monitoring students' achievement on the national level.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.19-31
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• 2013

To figure out the decay characteristics of naturally occurring radionuclides, eight sampled groundwaters from a monitoring borehole having high levels of uranium and radon concentrations in a two mica granitic area have analyzed by liquid scintillation counters (LSC) for over 1 year. In December 2011, three groundwater samples (DJ1, DJ2, DJ3) were obtained from each aquifer system located at -20 m, -40 m, -60 m of the monitoring borehole below the ground surface, respectively. Five samples (DJ4, DJ5, DJ6, DJ7, DJ8) were additionally gained from each aquifer positioned -20 m, -40 m, -60 m, -100 m, -105 m of the borehole in February 2012, respectively. Temporal variation characteristics of uranium and radon concentrations have showed over maximum 2.1 times and 1.4 times fluctuations of the values in the same sampling intervals over time, respectively. The intervals of -40 m and -105 m in the borehole have the highest values of uranium and radon concentrations, respectively. This may imply that the concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides such as uranium and radon in groundwater have been changed over time and indicate that the qualities of groundwaters from the aquifers developed at each interval in the borehole are different each other. This discrepancy, moreover, could be caused by behaviour differences between uranium which is in ionic status having a half life of 4.6 billion years and is transported along with the flowing groundwater, and radon which is in gaseous status having a 3.82 day's half life in the aquifer systems. Physicochemical characteristics of groundwaters from the aquifer systems could be identified by the results of the on-situ measuring items such as pH and Eh, and the major ionic contents. The CPM values of eight groundwater samples analysed by LSC over one year have shown not to follow the theoretical decay curve of the radon. The CPM values of the samples have ranged from 2 to 7.5 after it had passed two months when the theoretical CPM values of the radon started zero since the initial analysis. Alpha and beta particle spectrums have shown the peaks of radium-226, however they have not revealed any peaks of radon and it's daughter products such as polonium-218 and 214, bismuth-214 for the late stage of the analysis. This implies that the groundwater from the borehole may contain radium-226 having a half life of 1,600 years which decays continuously.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.230-240
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• 2017

BACKGROUND: To evaluate residues of environmentally concerned pesticides in water system, this monitoring was conducted over three rivers. The residual characteristics and discharging condition of these residues on water system was investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Total twenty nine sampling sites were selected through main streams and branch streams of Keum, Mangyung and Dongjin rivers, and the water samples from them were regularly collected one month interval, especially biweekly from May to August in 2002. Of the pesticides monitored, six fungicides which include hexaconazole, isoprothiolane and iprobenfos were detected with frequencies of 0.3-50.9% and in their residue level of $0.1-4.7{\mu}g/L$. Sixteen insecticides which include nine organophosphoruses, three carbamates, endosulfan, cypermethrin, buprofezin and fipronil were detected with frequencies of 0.3-32.5% and in their residue level of $0.01-2.8{\mu}g/L$. Nine herbicides which include alachlor molinate, anilofos, butachlor, dimepiperate, metolachlor, oxadiazon, pretilachlor and thiobencarb were detected with frequencies of 0.8-22.9% and in their residue level of $0.01-9.07{\mu}g/L$. CONCLUSION: Detection frequencies and residue levels of insecticides and herbicides were the highest in waters sampled in May and June. Almost pesticides detected were for the paddy rice and their residue levels were very low to compare with standard values.