• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.484-493
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• 2012

Since the 1980s, there have been many research activities devoted to quantitatively characterizing and imaging human tissues based on sound speed, attenuation coefficient, density, nonlinear B/A parameter, etc., but those efforts have not yet reached the stage of commercialization. However, a new imaging technology termed elastography, which was proposed in the early 1980s, has recently been implemented in commercial clinical ultrasound scanners, and is now being used to diagnose prostates, breasts, thyroids, livers, blood vessels, etc., more quantitatively as a complementary adjunct modality to the conventional B-mode imaging. The purpose of this article is to introduce and review various elastographic algorithms for use in quasistatic or static compression type elasticity imaging modes. Most of the algorithms are based on the crosscorrelation or autocorrelation function methods, and the fundamental difference is that the time shift is estimated by changing the lag variable in the former, while it is directly obtained from the phase shift at a fixed lag in the latter.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.10
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• pp.1577-1583
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• 2018

Tumor-treating fields therapy involves placing pads onto the patient's skin to create a low- intensity (1 - 3 V/cm), intermediate frequency (100 - 300 kHz), alternating electric field to treat cancerous tumors. This new treatment modality has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA to treat patients with both newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma. To deliver the prescribed electric field intensity to the tumor while minimizing exposure of organs at risk, we developed an optimization method for the electric field distribution in the body and compared the electric field distribution in the body before and after application of this optimization algorithm. To determine the electric field distribution in the body before optimization, we applied the same electric potential to all pairs of electric pads located on opposite sides of models. We subsequently adjusted the intensity of the electric field to each pair of pads to optimize the electric field distribution in the body, resulting in the prescribed electric field intensity to the tumor while minimizing electric fields at organs at risk. A comparison of the electric field distribution within the body before and after optimization showed that application of the optimization algorithm delivered a therapeutically effective electric field to the tumor while minimizing the average and the maximum field strength applied to organs at risk. Use of this optimization algorithm when planning tumor-treating fields therapy should maintain or increase the intensity of the electric field applied to the tumor while minimizing the intensity of the electric field applied to organs at risk. This would enhance the effectiveness of tumor-treating fields therapy while reducing dangerous side effects.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

There is no effective treatment modality available against different forms of leishmaniasis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to improve the penetration and efficacy of selenium and glucantime coupled with niosomes and compared them with their simple forms alone on in vitro susceptibility assays. In this study, the niosomal formulations of selenium and in combination with glucantime were prepared. The size and morphology of the niosomal formulations were characterized and the effectivity of the new formulation was also evaluated using in vitro MTT assay, intra-macrophage model, and gene expression profile. From the results obtained, no cytotoxicity effect was observed for niosomal and simple forms of drugs, as alone or in combination. Niosomal formulations of the drugs significantly showed more inhibitory effects ($P{\leq}0.001$) than the simple drugs when the selectivity index was considered. The gene expression levels of Interleukin (IL-10) significantly decreased, while the level of IL-12 and metacaspase significantly increased ($P{\leq}0.001$). The results of the present study showed that selenium plus glucantime niosome possess a potent anti-leishmanial effect and enhanced their lethal activity as evidenced by the in vitro experiments.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.604-621
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• 2021

Examination of the concurrent evolution of communication tools and eating behaviors over recent decades reveals that social media and other forms of digital content have become powerful new driving forces for nutritional choices and food consumption. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect between goal orientation of message (promotion versus prevention) and the type of message (text versus image) on effectiveness of the message. The findings showed that individuals exposed to a promotion-focused message similarly responded to the message regardless of the type of the message. By contrast, those who exposed to a prevention-focused message showed significantly more positive responses to the message posted on the text-based social media than the message on the image-based social media. The findings indicated that, if presented effectively, social media could be harnessed to promote healthier eating habits and behaviors, prevent those which can be harmful, and ultimately improve an individual's daily food consumption and overall quality of life.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.198-206
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• 2021

Objective : The low-profile Neuroform Atlas stent can be deployed directly without an exchange maneuver by navigating into the Gateway balloon. This retrospective study assessed the safety and efficacy of Neuroform Atlas stenting as a rescue treatment after failure of mechanical thrombetomy (MT) for large artery occlusion. Methods : Between June 2018 and December 2019, a total of 31 patients underwent Neuroform Atlas stenting with prior Gateway balloon angioplasty after failure of conventional MT caused by residual intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS). Primary outcomes were successful recanalization and patency of the vessel 24 hours after intervention. Secondary outcomes were vessel patency after 14 days and 3-month modified Rankin Scale. Peri-procedural complications, intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and 3-month mortality were reviewed. Results : With a 100% of successful recanalization, median value of stenosis was reduced from 79.0% to 23.5%. Twenty-eight patients (90.3%) showed tolerable vessel patency after 14 days. New infarctions occurred in three patients (9.7%) over a period of 14 days; two patient (6.5%) underwent stent occlusion at 24 hours, and the other patient (3.2%) with delayed stent occlusion had a non-symptomatic dot infarct. There were no peri-procedural complications. Two patients (6.5%) developed an ICH immediately after the procedure with one of them is symptomatic. Conclusion : Neuroform Atlas stenting seems to be an effective and safe rescue treatment modality for failed MT with residual ICAS, by its high successful recanalization rate with tolerable patency, and low peri-procedural complication rate. Further multicenter and randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm our findings.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.311-321
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• 2021

Indocyanine green (ICG) is a dye approved for use in clinical diagnostics. ICG remains in the intravascular space following intravenous administration, due to its ability to rapidly bind to the plasma proteins, and its therapeutic potential has been studied in well-vascularized cutaneous tumors. Here we have evaluated the clinical response of a subconjunctival tumor to photothermal therapy (PTT) using an ICG-enhanced near-infrared diode laser and its adverse effects, in a rabbit. 22 male New Zealand white rabbits with subconjunctival tumors were enrolled (control group 6, laser-only group 8, laser-with-ICG group 8). Rabbits in the laser-with-ICG group received ICG (twice, 2 mg/kg each time, intravenously) directly followed by irradiation with a diode laser (λ = 810 nm). Rabbits in the laser-only group were irradiated with the diode laser. ICG angiography, ultrasonography, and pathologic examination were performed to evaluate PTT response at specific time points (0, 2, and 4 weeks after PTT). Two weeks after initial treatment, the eight rabbits treated by laser with ICG showed a 100% response rate. There was no clinical response in both laser-only and control groups. ICG-PTT is a potential and effective palliative therapeutic modality for subconjunctival tumors.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.281-288
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• 2022

Malaria continues to be one of the most crucial infectious burdens in endemic areas worldwide, as well as for travelers visiting malaria transmission regions. It has been reported that 8-aminoquinolines are effective against the Plasmodium species, particularly primaquine, for anti-hypnozoite therapy in P. vivax malaria. However, primaquine causes acute hemolytic anemia in individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. Therefore, G6PD deficiency testing should precede hypnozoite elimination with 8-aminoquinoline. Several point-of-care devices have been developed to detect G6PD deficiency. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of a novel, quantitative G6PD diagnostics based on a metagenomic blue fluorescent protein (mBFP). We comparatively evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the G6PD diagnostic modality with standard methods using 120 human whole blood samples. The G6PD deficiency was spectrophotometrically confirmed. The performance of the G6PD quantitative test kit was compared with that of a licensed control medical device, the G6PD strip. The G6PD quantitative test kit had a sensitivity of 95% (95% confidence interval (CI): 89.3-100%) and a specificity of 100% (95% CI: 94.3-100%). This study shows that the novel diagnostic G6PD quantitative test kit could be a cost-effective and time-efficient, and universally mandated screening tool for G6PD deficiency.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.283-297
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• 2014

The future of human life is expected to be innovative by increasing social, economic, political and personal, including all areas of life across the multi-disciplinary skills. Particularly, in the field of robotics and next-generation games with robots, by multidisciplinary contributions and interaction, convergence between technology is expected to accelerate more and more. The purpose of this study is that by new interface model beyond the technical limitations of the "human-robot interface technology," until now and time and spatial constraints and through fusion of various modalities which existing human-robot interface technologies can't have, the research of more reliable and easy free "human-robot interface technology". This is the research of robot game system which develop and utilizing real time synchronization engine linking between biped humanoid robot and the behavior of the position value of mobile device screen's 3D content (contents), robot (virtual robots), the wireless protocol for sending and receiving (Protocol) mutual information and development of a teaching program of "Direct Teaching & Play" by the study for effective teaching.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2009

This paper presents an improved method measuring inter-utterance similarity in an example-based dialogue system, which searches the most similar utterance in a dialogue database to generate a response to a given user utterance. Unlike general inter-sentence similarity measures, the inter-utterance similarity measure for example-based dialogue system should consider not only word distribution but also various linguistic features, such as affirmation/negation, tense, modality, sentence type, which affects the natural conversation. However, previous approaches do not sufficiently reflect these features. This paper proposes a new utterance similarity measure by analyzing and reflecting various linguistic features to improve performance in accuracy. Also, by considering substitutability of the features, the proposed method can utilize limited number of examples. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 10%p improvement in accuracy compared to the previous method.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2001

Objective: To compare the clinical utility of contrast-enhanced color Doppler US in the differentiation of retinal detachment (RD) from vitreous membrane (VM) with that of various conventional US modalities, and to analyze the enhancement patterns in cases showing an enhancement effect. Materials and Methods: In 32 eyes examined over a recent two-year period, RD (n=14) and VM (n=18) were confirmed by surgery (n=28) or clinical follow-up (n=4). In all cases, gray-scale, color Doppler, and power Doppler US were performed prior to contrast injection, and after the intravenous injection of Levovist (Schering, Berlin) by hand for 30 seconds at a dose of 2.5 g and a concentration of 300 mg/mL via an antecubital vein, contrast-enhanced color Doppler US was performed. At Doppler US, the diagnostic criterion for RD and VM was whether or not color signals were visualized in membranous structures. Results: Diagnostic accuracy was 78% at gray-scale US, 81% at color Doppler US, 59% at power Doppler US, and 97% at contrast-enhanced color Doppler US. The sensitivity of color Doppler US to color signals in RD increased from 57% to 93% after contrast enhancement. The enhancement patterns observed were signal accentuation (n=3), signal extension (n=2), signal addition (n=3), and new signal visualization (n=5). Conclusion: Contrast-enhanced color Doppler US was the most accurate US modality for differentiating RD from VM, showing a significantly increased signal detection rate in RD.