• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5907-5912
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• 2015

Purpose: To evaluate and update evidence for prognostic effects of kidney-sparing (KS) management and nephroureterectomy (NU) for upper tract urothelial carcinomas. Materials and Methods: Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were retrieved for the identification of comparative studies of kidney-sparing procedure and nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma prior to December 2014. The data were extracted independently by 2 reviewers and the quality of the included studies was assessed. Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13 were used to perform the meta-analysis. Results: Twenty-three observational studies including 1,587 KS and 3,996 NU were evaluated. The results of the meta-analysis showed that nephroureterectomy had no significant benefit with regard to intravesical recurrence (IRFS), metastasis (MFS), cancer specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) except the total tumor recurrence (RFS) when compared with kidney sparing management. The respectively pooled outcomes were HR 1.36 (0.69-2.68, P=0.38) for IRFS, 1.09 (0.59-2.01, P=0.78) for MFS, 1.17 (0.77-1.79, P=0.47) for CSS, 1.50 (0.90-2.48, P=0.12) for OS and 1.61 (1.03-2.51, P=0.04) for RFS. Conclusions: On the whole, kidney-sparing management had equivalent prognostic effect on upper tract urothelial carcinoma as the standard nephroureterectomy except in tumor recurrence. However, the results should be interpreted with caution for lack of stage and grade stratification and multi-center randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify our results.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.3-9
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• 2013

Various data like digital maps(1/1,000 or 1/5,000), field surveying, online materials and literatures are used for the preliminary investigation for urban development such as the feasibility evaluation, the profitability analysis, the zoning proposal, the zoning designation, and the land replotting planning. There are a couple of urban development methods like an expropriation, a replotting, a mixed-used method. The replotting method requires the consideration of land replotting types based on topography and building condition, which is not easy to gather data for the preliminary investigation maintaining the security of development planning. There are limitations of a preliminary investigation using aerial photos to detect topographic and building changes at specific period. GIS data combined with high-resolution imagery has advantages over the current dataset, which come from easy acquisition of various spatial resolution satellite images, wide swath coverage, the choice of imagery resolution satisfying a usage purpose, economic benefit comparing to aerial photos, and the calculation of distance and area on imagery from image modeling. For these reasons, the proposed method in this study enables to perform the more appropriate preliminary investigation using more accurate information.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.806-813
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• 2020

Objective : Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common disease, and lumbar discectomy (LD) is a common neurosurgical procedure. However, there is little previous data on return to work (RTW) after LD. This study investigated the period until the RTW after LD prospectively. Clinically, the pain state at the time of RTW also checked. RTW failure rate 6 months after surgery also investigated. Methods : Patients with daily/regular jobs undergoing LD between September 2014 and December 2018 were enrolled. Pain was assessed by the Oswestri Disability Index (ODI) and the Numeric Rate Scale (NRS). Employment type was divided into self-employed, regular and contracted. Monthly telephone interviews were conducted to check RTW status and self-estimated work capability after surgery. Results : Sixty-seven patients enrolled in this study. Three patients failed to RTW, and three others resigned within 6 months after surgery. The preoperative NRS and ODI were 7.2±1.2 and 22.1±7.9, respectively. The average time to RTW was 5.1±6.0 weeks. At RTW, NRS was 1.5±1.8 and ODI was 6.3±3.9. Amongst patients that successfully returned to work were 16 self-employed workers, 42 regular employees, and three contracted workers. The time to RTW of self-employed, regular, and contracted workers were 5.9±8.8, 4.2±4.3 and 13.3±2.3 weeks, respectively (p=0.011). Thirty-six of the patients that returned to work self-reported a 22.8±15.6% reduction in work capability at 6 months. Conclusion : RTW may vary depending on the employment status. In this study, we found that while employment type may affect the length to RTW, most patients were able to RTW and >40% of patients reported no loss of work capabilities 6 months postoperatively, hopefully alleviating some patient hesitation towards LD.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1818-1827
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• 2018

Objective: The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of the pathologies that caused the condemnation of pig carcasses in an area of intensive pig farming and Mediterranean climatology and to evaluate their influence in a risk-based inspection procedure for slaughterhouses. Methods: A retrospective observational investigation was carried out from 2002 to 2016 into the pathological processes that caused the condemnation of pig carcasses in a slaughterhouse from South-eastern Spain. The seasonal effect on the causes of condemnation carcass was reported. Negative binomial model was used to evaluate the effect of season on the rate of antemortem rejections and post-mortem condemnations. Histopathological examinations were performed to confirm the diagnosis. Results: The risk of antemortem rejections (0.0564%) was significantly greater in summer (risk ratio [RR] = 1.57). Autumn was associated with higher rate (RR = 1.69) of the total postmortem condemnations (0.1046%). Significantly higher rates of pronounced anaemia (0.0111%) were observed in summer (RR = 3.20). The main causes of anaemia were observed gastroesophageal ulcers and haemorrhagic enteropathies. Significantly highest risk of erysipelas (0.0074%) were observed in autumn (RR = 5.485). About other zoonosis, only eight cases (0.0013%) of carcasses were declared unfit due to tuberculosis lesions. Porcine muscular cysticercosis was not detected. Nevertheless, nonspecific causes such as generalized infections and emaciation represented the half of the condemned carcasses (50.90%). Conclusion: The pathologies leading to the condemnation of carcasses in this study can be considered representative of the pathologies that affect the pig population from a region with a high intensive production and Mediterranean climatology because this slaughterhouse receives a lot of animals from many farms of different size in a high intensive pig production zone (Mediterranean region). Increased knowledge of environmental factors that may foment the appearance of the diseases is essential for implementing inspection programs based on risk assessment in pig's slaughterhouses.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5921-5926
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• 2014

A large proportion of patients with thyroid nodules in China undergo thyroidectomy in order to get confirmatory histology diagnosis. The financial impact of this modality remains to be investigated. To evaluate rationality of performing thyroidectomy without a routine FNA preoperatively from the economic perspective, we conducted a retrospective, observational study of all archival thyroidectomies with records of cost per stay (CPS), cost per day (CPD) and length of stay (LOS) from 2008 to 2013 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. We compared all the parameters between cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomies. We recruited 6, 140 thyroidectomies with valid records of CPS, CPD and LOS in this period. The CPS of cancer thyroidectomy was significantly higher than non-cancer thyroidectomy. The percentage of cancer thyroidectomy increased from 26.5% to 41.6%. The percentage of annual cost of cancer thyroidectomies rose from 30.2% to 45.2%. The LOS for cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomy decreased while the CPD increased in the past six years. The estimated national cost in 2012 for all thyroidectomies would be USD 1.86 billion with USD 1.09 billion for non-cancer thyroidectomies. We have witnessed great improvement in the healthcare for patients with thyroid nodules in China. However, given limited healthcare resources, currently thyroid FNA for more precise preoperative diagnosis may help to curb the rapidly increasing demand in healthcare costs in the future for nodular thyroid disease in China.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was designed for identification of the main clinicopathological features of cysts in the oral and maxillofacial regions. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted on 164 patients who had been diagnosed with cyst of the jaw, from the database of 168 histopathological diagnoses at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Busan Paik Hospital at Inje University, from January 2009 to December 2011. The subjects were treated and the following variables were recorded: gender, age, clinical signs and symptoms, histopathological distribution, treatment methods, and complications. A descriptive analysis of the study variables was performed using a chi-square test. Results: Among the 164 patients, there were more male than female patients (male-female ratio: 1.7:1). The most predominant ages were the 20s and 40s. Among the classes of pathological cysts, radicular cysts and dentigerous cysts were the most common, with incidences of 56.0% and 35.1%. Thirty-six percent of the patients had no symptoms; and of those who had symptoms, the main signs and symptoms were swelling (24.4%) and pain (17.1%). The most frequent management method was the combination operation, such as enucleation with or without extraction and apicoectomy of the causative teeth. Of the 164 patients, 13 had complications; and one patient who had been treated with enucleation with apicoectomy had a recurrent cyst. Conclusion: Using a chi-square test, no significant differences in prevalence were observed in relation to gender according to age. Comparative analysis of radicular and dentigerous cysts showed a significant difference in their prevalence according to their anatomical location, however, no significant differences in were observed in their incidence rates according to age.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.355-364
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• 2011

Introduction: This study evaluated nerve recovery through retrospective study of patients with lingual nerve damage. Patients and Methods: The patients who visited Seoul National University Dental Hospital for an injury to the lingual nerve from April 1988 to August 2009 were enrolled in this study (n=41). The relevance of various factors including the causes of damage, age, etc. was analyzed by the subjective improvement based upon questionnaires and the clinical records. The evaluation variants were a subjective assessment and neurosensory examination composed of the direction, contact threshold, two-point discrimination, pin prick, thermal discrimination and current perception threshold. Results: The causes of lingual nerve damage were an extraction of the lower third molar (75.6%), local anesthesia (9.7%), incision and drainage (4.88%), trauma (2.44%). The evaluation of subjective prognosis exhibited no difference in sensory improvement depending on the cause, age and gender. Based upon the subjective evaluation, 44.7% of patients showed sensory improvement. The first hospital visit from injury was shorter in the group showing subjective improvement (3.41 months) than those showing no improvement (5.24 months) (P=0.301). Thirty six out of 41 patients were treated with only conservative therapy and 5 patients were treated by surgical intervention. Neurosensory examinations revealed improvement, although not statistically significant, and the degree was higher in the subjectively improved group. The contact threshold discrimination showed the highest correlation with subjective improvement (P=0.069). Most of the sensory recovery was gained within 12 months and the degree of improvement at the tip of the tongue was higher than that of the dorsum (P<0.001). Conclusion: The damaged lingual nerve improved at a rate of 44.7% and mostly within 12 months after the incident. There was no difference between the subjective prognosis and neurosensory examination depending on the cause of damage, age and gender, whereas the contact threshold discrimination was the best variant that reflected the subjective prognosis statistically.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.491-495
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of IT gifted middle school students. The researcher analyzed the observational assessments of 16 gifted noddle school students through 19 education programs conducted from During the latest 3 years at the Science Gifted Children Education Center. The researcher hypothesized that IT gifted children would be outstanding in computer skills and information processing abilities. But they were not much different from gifted children in the other areas. Therefore there are two suggestions resulted from the study. First, it might not be meaningful to sub-categorize the subjects because of their developmental stages. The tenth grade students observed in this study were in their formal operational period by Piaget. Therefore, it would be desirable to teach them integrated areas rather than separated areas. Second, gifted children could be excellent in most areas. Due to their curiosity, task tenacity, and intellectual abilities, they could show excellence in any areas. Therefore, it is important to elaborate the educational programs so that the gifted children can develop their abilities in each areas.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.191-204
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• 2013

In this paper, we investigated the correlation outputs of Daejeon correlator at the viewpoints of the buffer memory setting related to the fine delay tracking and the under/overflow issue in FFT modules, in order to eliminate DC-like component and phase concentration to 0 degree. As the ring buffer memory is being used for the fine delay tracking, the DC-like component in correlation outputs is generated by improper setting of data read/write address, and then that address setting method is modified to exclude a polluted FFT segment in correlation processing when crossing the port/stream boundary. The phase concentration to 0 degree at beginning of bandpass is caused by inadequate scaling factors, which may be the origins of under/overflow occurred at internal computation of FFT stage. With the revised method of the ring buffer memory setting and the scaling factors in FFT, we could obtain higher signal-to-noise ratio and flux density, compared to the previous method, through the correlation processing of true observational data.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2016

Objectives : This study was designed to assess the general distribution, clinical effectiveness of Korean medical treatment on knee pain and the correlation between Korean medical therapy on knee pain and BMI. Methods : This is an observational study. 65 patients admitted to Daejeon Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine with musculoskeletal disorders were observed from July, 2014 to July, 2015. They were analyzed according to sex, age, pain lesion, body mass index(BMI) and treatment efficacy. All patients received a combination of treatments during hospitalization, including acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, herbal medicines and physical therapy. A zero to ten numerating rating scale (NRS) assessing pain, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index(WOMAC) index and Range of Motion(ROM) was used before and after treatments. Statistical correlations among assessment measurements were evaluated by examining the paired t-test and the Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results : The average BMI of all patients was $24.03{\pm}2.95kg/m^2$. According to clinical definition of obesity by Korean Society for the Study of Obesity, 33.8% of all patients was within normal weight, 1.5% was underweight, 33.8% was overweight, 24.6% was obesity and 6.2% was morbid obesity. For knee pain patients, NRS (Numeric Rating Scale) decreased from $6.28{\pm}1.63$ to $3.94{\pm}2.03$(p<0.001). WOMAC index decreased from $48.14{\pm}17.63$ to $40.37{\pm}18.28$(p<0.001). But, there were no significant correlations in statistics among BMI, knee pain index and knee pain index improvement. Conclusions : Korean medical combination treatment might be effective in reducing pain and improving functional disorders for patients with knee pain. This study further confirmed the efficacy of Korean medical treatment on knee pain. But, more studies on correlation between knee pain and obesity and development of assessment measurement are needed.