• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.343-350
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• 2006

Medical magnetic stimulator generates strong magnetic field pulses. Clinical applications of the magnetic pulse are the stimulation of nervous system and the contraction of muscle. The unique source of the strong magnetic pulse is a capacitor-inductor resonator and this inductor generates a strong sinusoidal magnetic pulse by discharging the capacitor with high initial voltage. Continuous muscle contraction needs sequential generation of the magnetic pulses. However, to keep the magnitude of sequential pulses identical, an expensive high-voltage power supply have to support voltage drop of the capacitor between the pulses. A protection circuit between the supply and the resonator is necessary to protect the supply from reverse current caused by capacitor voltage reversal. In this paper, a new circuit structure of the magnetic stimulator adopting a low-frequency fly-back switching is proposed. The new circuit supports sequential pulse generation and allows the reverse current without damage. Performance of the new circuit is examined and a low-cost magnetic stimulator for urinary incontinence therapy is being developed using the presented method.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7757-7759
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• 2013

Physicians, in order to study the causes of cancer, detect cancer earlier, prevent or determine the effectiveness of treatment, and specify the reasons for the treatment ineffectiveness, need to access accurate, comprehensive, and timely cancer data. The cancer care environment has become more complex because of the need for coordination and communication among health care professionals with different skills in a variety of roles and the existence of large amounts of data with various formats. The goals of health care systems in such a complex environment are correct health data management, providing appropriate information needs of users to enhance the integrity and quality of health care, timely access to accurate information and reducing medical errors. These roles in new systems with use of agents efficiently perform well. Because of the potential capability of agent systems to solve complex and dynamic health problems, health care system, in order to gain full advantage of E- health, steps must be taken to make use of this technology. Multi-agent systems have effective roles in health service quality improvement especially in telemedicine, emergency situations and management of chronic diseases such as cancer. In the design and implementation of agent based systems, planning items such as information confidentiality and privacy, architecture, communication standards, ethical and legal aspects, identification opportunities and barriers should be considered. It should be noted that usage of agent systems only with a technical view is associated with many problems such as lack of user acceptance. The aim of this commentary is to survey applications, opportunities and barriers of this new artificial intelligence tool for cancer care information as an approach to improve cancer care management.

• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2015

Microalgae research is gaining momentum because of their potential biotechnological applications, including the generation of biofuels. Genome sequencing analysis of two model microalgal species, polar free-living Coccomyxa sp. C-169 and symbiotic Chlorella sp. NC64A, revealed insights into the factors responsible for their lifestyle and unravelled biotechnologically valuable proteins. However, genome sequence analysis under-explored cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s), heme-thiolate proteins ubiquitously present in species belonging to different biological kingdoms. In this study we performed genome data-mining, annotation and comparative analysis of P450s in these two model algal species. Sixty-nine P450s were found in two algal species. Coccomyxa sp. showed 40 P450s and Chlorella sp. showed 29 P450s in their genome. Sixty-eight P450s (>100 amino acid in length) were grouped into 32 P450 families and 46 P450 subfamilies. Among the P450 families, 27 P450 families were novel and not found in other biological kingdoms. The new P450 families are CYP745-CYP747, CYP845-CYP863, and CYP904-CYP908. Five P450 families, CYP51, CYP97, CYP710, CYP745, and CYP746, were commonly found between two algal species and 16 and 11 P450 families were unique to Coccomyxa sp. and Chlorella sp. Synteny analysis and gene-structure analysis revealed P450 duplications in both species. Functional analysis based on homolog P450s suggested that CYP51 and CYP710 family members are involved in membrane ergosterol biosynthesis. CYP55 and CYP97 family members are involved in nitric oxide reduction and biosynthesis of carotenoids. This is the first report on comparative analysis of P450s in the microalgal species Coccomyxa sp. C-169 and Chlorella sp. NC64A.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.23 no.4 s.32
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• pp.416-427
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• 1990

Unfortunately, we have poor knowledge of medical technology in North Korea. This study has thus attempted to identify the level and status of medical technology development through analyzing the contents of medical textbooks currently in use. This study has assumed that three factors are influencing the level and status of medical technology in a society ; the level of socio-economic development in general, the level of scientific technology revolution and health policy. Forty textbooks are collected for this purpose. The main findings are summarized as follows : 1) North Korea s strengths in that (1) its herb drugs, which are in a broad use, are cheaper, more safe and more attainable than bio-equivalent chemical ones, and (2) the development of its medical technology was carried out with emphasis on the practical and basic health needs. 2) North Korea has weaknesses in that (1) its medical diagnostic method largely depends on manual procedures, (2) the R & D investment in the development of chemical drugs, especially antibiotics, is very small, (3) the amount of medical equipments is in a absolute shortage, and (4) the medical technology is destitute of specialty, caused mainly by the overemphasis on Juche-Uihak or herb medicine. 3) Medical technology has two faces, positive and negative so that it cannot be successfully evaluated by one. It eventually acts a positive function for public health through developments of drug, equipment and new medical treatment method. But it is also true that it has negative effects such as the dehumanization of high cost medical technology, cost hike due to over-investments in expensive equipment and the absence of wholistic care from overspecialization. 4) We have to consider economic status and the social needs of medical care in order to evaluate the medical technology of a society. It is also the case with North Korea. A whole picture of the North Korean medical technology could be understood only if further comprehensive studies of medical technology are to be carried out for North Korea.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.245-261
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• 1998

This study aims to describe the overall aspects of future technologies in Korea based on the new taxonomy of technology foresight ; Theme, Area and Paradigm. This taxonomy is designed to overcome and supplement several studies on technology foresights which are judged not to capture the whole aspects of future technologies. Future technologies in Korea will be influenced by the Information and Communication Technology Paradigm over 20-30 years, and by the Biotechnology Paradigm after that period. Expansion of researches in electronics, information and communication is noticeable features in engineering. The application of biotechnology technique and health/environment technologies are emerging in bioscience area. Also there appear new areas related to the trends of engineering and bioscience in natural science. Current research patterns focusing physics, chemistry and engineering in Korea should be changed to those of the advanced countries which emphasize bioscience. Time lag to the world frontier is over 5-6 years, but the lag is expected to be reduced. The shortage of manpower and research funds are pointed as the biggest barrier for the realization of future technologies.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.483-494
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• 2009

Damage detection has been proven to be a challenging task in structural health monitoring (SHM) due to the fact that damage cannot be measured. The difficulty associated with damage detection is related to electing a feature that is sensitive to damage occurrence and evolution. This difficulty increases as the damage size decreases limiting the ability to detect damage occurrence at the micron and submicron length scale. Damage detection at this length scale is of interest for sensitive structures such as aircrafts and nuclear facilities. In this paper a new photonic sensor based on photonic crystal (PhC) technology that can be synthesized at the nanoscale is introduced. PhCs are synthetic materials that are capable of controlling light propagation by creating a photonic bandgap where light is forbidden to propagate. The interesting feature of PhC is that its photonic signature is strongly tied to its microstructure periodicity. This study demonstrates that when a PhC sensor adhered to polymer substrate experiences micron or submicron damage, it will experience changes in its microstructural periodicity thereby creating a photonic signature that can be related to damage severity. This concept is validated here using a three-dimensional integrated numerical simulation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.2693-2698
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• 2013

As our country is currently facing "aging society," people demands for qualitively and quantitatively better social welfare services. In particular, the abruptly rapid increase in the elderly population requires various welfare services and medical care related to the elderly. It is urgent to resolve these demands. Also, IT technology in Korea is developing rapidly, and U-Health, a part of the Ubiquitous field is under the actively ongoing researches. In this paper, we studied the Elderly care system model suing U-Health technology. We designed the care system of the residential environment designed specific for the elderly. Additionally, based on that design, we studied the elderly care system using the ubiquitous technology. Since this elderly care system combines the existing community-based model and IT technology in conjunction with other mobile devices, we may supply a new care service application, thus solving the problems of the existing care and medical services.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.10-25
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to get the difference of the castability in the production of partial denture between Precious Metal Alloys and Base Metal Alloys accompanied with the frequency of reuse. As materials for an experiment, we selected Baker-444 and Soo-444 and Soo-sung as Precious Metal Alloys, New Crown and Chrome Cobalt as Base Metal Alloys. And we tired to case all of them seven times. The experimental results were as follows : 1) In the probability of segments, Baker-444 showed 100$\pm$0.00%, Soo-sung 97.24$\pm$1.58%, New Crown 95.63$\pm$4.28%, and Chrome Cobalt 91.03$\pm$7.76%. Consequently, Precious Metal Alloys were decidely superior to Base Metal Alloys in the castability. 2) In the view of the acheived result, burn-out temperature and smocking time had greatly affected the castability. 3) After casting, Precious Metal Alloys were much less than Base Metal Alloys in the quantity of consumption. It made much difference from the the compiled stastics(p<0.01)

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2010

As information technology had shown tremendous development in late 20th century, various service opportunities appeared in many industries. Also, new types of service are becoming available such as, reservation, teleconsultation, telemedicine. In health care industry, in which, many hospitals are faced operational difficulties and competing impetuously, a web site has become a effective tool to attract patients and transfer tremendous health information to the patients. This study is based on many previous researches on online service quality, try to figure out e-service quality factors of health information sites, and the factors' effect on users' satisfaction on the web site via providing knowledge and trust on the web site. As a result, usability, site aesthetic, responsiveness and security are the 4 factors to measure e-service quality of health information web site. All factors except site aesthetic have significant effects on providing knowledge, security only effects on trust on the web site.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 2010

This paper provided a brief summary of the current strategic goals, activities, and impacts of the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) occupational injury research program. Three primary drivers (injury database, stakeholder input, and staff capacity) were used to define NIOSH research focuses to maximize relevance and impact of the NIOSH injury-prevention-research program. Injury data, strategic goals, program activities, and research impacts were presented with a focus on prevention of four leading causes of workplace injury and death in the US: motor vehicle incidents, falls, workplace violence, and machine and industrial vehicle incidents. This paper showcased selected priority goals, activities, and impacts of the NIOSH injury prevention program. The NIOSH contribution to the overall decrease in fatalities and injuries is reinforced by decreases in specific goal areas. There were also many intermediate outcomes that are on a direct path to preventing injuries, such as new safety regulations and standards, safer technology and products, and improved worker safety training. The outcomes serve as an excellent foundation to stimulate further research and worldwide partnership to address global workplace injury problems.