• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.1015-1029
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• 2020

Purpose: This study assessed the validity of a questionnaire (SEID-Q27) for diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), designed based on the systematic exertion intolerance disorder (SEID) criteria. Methods: Two groups of participants were recruited: 1. a non-CFS control group: adult university personnel with a Chalder fatigue scale (CFQ) score ≥15, and 2. a CFS patient group: patients from an online CFS community diagnosed with CFS (diagnostic code of G93.3) with the symptoms present. The survey ran from September to October, 2020. The validity of the questionnaire was investigated by factor analysis and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: Among the 35 adults surveyed, 30 (86%) participants had CFQ scores ≥15 (15 males and 15 females) and 5 (14%) had a CFS diagnosis (2 males and 3 females). The total mean score was significantly different between the two groups (CFS: 6.8±2.2 vs. control: 4.4±2.4, p<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.827. With a cut-off point 62, the sensitivity was 60%, specificity 97%, and the discriminant ability of the survey was 79%. Conclusions: The SEID -Q27 appears to be a useful instrument for the diagnosis of CFS using SEID criteria. However, further large-scale studies are needed with greater numbers of participants.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.118-128
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• 2021

Purpose: To investigate the value of MR textural analysis, including use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to differentiate malignant from benign soft-tissue tumors on 3T MRI. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 69 patients (25 men, 44 women, ages 18 to 84 years) with pathologically confirmed soft-tissue tumors (29 benign, 40 malignant) who underwent pre-treatment 3T-MRI. We calculated MR texture, including mean, standard deviation (SD), skewness, kurtosis, mean of positive pixels (MPP), and entropy, according to different spatial-scale factors (SSF, 0, 2, 4, 6) on axial T1- and T2-weighted images (T1WI, T2WI), contrast-enhanced T1WI (CE-T1WI), high b-value DWI (800 sec/mm²), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map. We used the Mann-Whitney U test, logistic regression, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for statistical analysis. Results: Malignant soft-tissue tumors had significantly lower mean values of DWI, ADC, T2WI and CE-T1WI, MPP of ADC, and CE-T1WI, but significantly higher kurtosis of DWI, T1WI, and CE-T1WI, and entropy of DWI, ADC, and T2WI than did benign tumors (P < 0.050). In multivariate logistic regression, the mean ADC value (SSF, 6) and kurtosis of CE-T1WI (SSF, 4) were independently associated with malignancy (P ≤ 0.009). A multivariate model of MR features worked well for diagnosis of malignant soft-tissue tumors (AUC, 0.909). Conclusion: Accurate diagnosis could be obtained using MR textural analysis with DWI and CE-T1WI in differentiating benign from malignant soft-tissue tumors.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2021

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of 1 year of training on imaging diagnosis, using static ultrasonography (US) salivary gland images of Sjögren syndrome patients. Materials and Methods: This study involved 3 inexperienced radiologists with different levels of experience, who received training 1 or 2 days a week under the supervision of experienced radiologists. The training program included collecting patient histories and performing physical and imaging examinations for various maxillofacial diseases. The 3 radiologists (observers A, B, and C) evaluated 400 static US images of salivary glands twice at a 1-year interval. To compare their performance, 2 experienced radiologists evaluated the same images. Diagnostic performance was compared between the 2 evaluations using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: Observer A, who was participating in the training program for the second year, exhibited no significant difference in AUC between the first and second evaluations, with results consistently comparable to those of experienced radiologists. After 1 year of training, observer B showed significantly higher AUCs than before training. The diagnostic performance of observer B reached the level of experienced radiologists for parotid gland assessment, but differed for submandibular gland assessment. For observer C, who did not complete the training, there was no significant difference in the AUC between the first and second evaluations, both of which showed significant differences from those of the experienced radiologists. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that the training program effectively helped inexperienced radiologists reach the level of experienced radiologists for US examinations.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2021

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship of semen parameters in samples used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with fertilization and pregnancy rates in infertile couples. Methods: In this prospective study of Infertile couples with male factor infertility that had undergone ICSI, fractions of the same semen samples obtained for microinjection (to ensure the best predictability) were evaluated to determine the semen parameters and sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) on the day of oocyte recovery. Results: In total, 120 couples completed the study and were subdivided into fertilized (n=87) and non-fertilized couples (n=33). The fertilized couples were further classified into pregnant (n=48) and non-pregnant (n=39) couples. Compared to non-fertilized and non-pregnant couples, fertilized and pregnant couples showed statistically significantly higher sperm viability and percentage of normal sperm morphology, as well as significantly lower sperm DFI values. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of data from the 120 ICSI cycles showed that sperm viability, normal sperm morphology percentages, and sperm DFI were significant prognostic indicators of fertilization at cutoff values of 40%, 7%, and 46%, respectively. A sperm DFI of 46% showed sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 90%, respectively, for predicting fertilization, and no clinical pregnancies occurred in couples with a sperm DFI above 46%. Conclusion: Semen parameters from the ICSI day sample, especially sperm viability, normal morphology, and DFI, had an impact on fertilization and pregnancy outcomes in ICSI cycles.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2021

The study has been carried out with an objective to prepare Siberian roe deer habitat potential maps in South Korea based on three geographic information system-based models including frequency ratio (FR) as a bivariate statistical approach as well as convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) as machine learning algorithms. According to field observations, 741 locations were reported as roe deer's habitat preferences. The dataset were divided with a proportion of 70:30 for constructing models and validation purposes. Through FR model, a total of 10 influential factors were opted for the modelling process, namely altitude, valley depth, slope height, topographic position index (TPI), topographic wetness index (TWI), normalized difference water index, drainage density, road density, radar intensity, and morphological feature. The results of variable importance analysis determined that TPI, TWI, altitude and valley depth have higher impact on predicting. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to assess the prediction accuracies of three models. The results showed that all the models almost have similar performances, but LSTM model had relatively higher prediction ability in comparison to FR and CNN models with the accuracy of 76% and 73% during the training and validation process. The obtained map of LSTM model was categorized into five classes of potentiality including very low, low, moderate, high and very high with proportions of 19.70%, 19.81%, 19.31%, 19.86%, and 21.31%, respectively. The resultant potential maps may be valuable to monitor and preserve the Siberian roe deer habitats.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively enrolled gastric cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and curative surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 2004 to 2015 as the study cohort. Patients with the same inclusion criteria treated in 2016-2017 were enrolled as the validation cohort. Kaplan-Meier curves were assessed using the log-rank test to analyze the differences in overall survival (OS). Multivariate survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of ypN and LNR categories for predicting the actual 3-year OS were compared. Results: A total of 265 patients were included in the proposal cohort. The median number of retrieved lymph nodes (rLNs) was 32. The number of positive lymph nodes (pLNs) increased as rLN increased (P=0.037), but the LNR remained relatively constant (P=0.462). The LNR was categorized into 4 groups according to the prognosis: ypNr0, node-negative with rLN>25; ypNr1, node-negative with rLN≤25 or 00.3. In the validation cohort of 43 enrolled patients, there was a clear distinction in OS that significantly (P<0.001) varied depending on the LNR values and LNR was the only independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P<0.001). Conclusions: LNR was an independent prognostic factor for survival of patients with gastric cancer after preoperative chemotherapy and might be an alternative predictor for ypN stage.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2021

Purpose: This study evaluated the influence of a metal artifact reduction (MAR) tool in a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) device on the diagnosis of vertical root fractures (VRFs) in teeth with different root filling materials. Materials and Methods: Forty-five extracted human premolars were classified into three subgroups; 1) no filling; 2) gutta-percha; and 3) metallic post. CBCT images were acquired using an Orthopantomograph 300 unit with and without a MAR tool. Subsequently, the same teeth were fractured, and new CBCT scans were obtained with and without MAR. Two oral radiologists evaluated the images regarding the presence or absence of VRF. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and diagnostic tests were performed. Results: The overall area under the curve values were 0.695 for CBCT with MAR and 0.789 for CBCT without MAR. The MAR tool negatively influenced the overall diagnosis of VRFs in all tested subgroups, with lower accuracy (0.45-0.72), sensitivity (0.6-0.67), and specificity (0.23-0.8) than were found for the images without MAR. In the latter group, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values were 0.68-0.77, 0.67-083, and 0.53-087, respectively. However, no significant difference was found between images with and without MAR for the no filling and gutta-percha subgroups (P>0.05). In the metallic post subgroup, CBCT showed a significant difference according to MAR use (P<0.05). Conclusion: The OP 300 MAR tool negatively influenced the detection of VRFs in teeth with no root canal filling, gutta-percha, or metallic posts. Teeth with metallic posts suffered the most from the negative impact of MAR.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.1173-1181
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• 2020

Recently, as local heavy rains occur frequently in a short period of time, economic and social impacts are increasing beyond the simple primary damage. In advanced meteorologically advanced countries, realistic and reliable impact forecasts are conducted by analyzing socio-economic impacts, not information transmission as simple weather forecasts. In this paper, the degree of flooding was derived using the Spatial Runoff Assessment Tool (S-RAT) and FLO-2D models to calculate the threshold rainfall that can affect human walking, and the threshold rainfall of the concept of Grid to Grid (G2G) was calculated. In addition, although it was used a lot in the medical field in the past, a quantitative accuracy analysis was performed through the ROC analysis technique, which is widely used in natural phenomena such as drought or flood and machine learning. As a result of the analysis, the results of the time period similar to that of the actual and simulated immersion were obtained, and as a result of the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve, the adequacy of the fair stage was secured with more than 0.7.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to use 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) to quantify taste-active and bioactive compounds in chicken breasts and thighs from Korean native chicken (KNC) [newly developed KNCs (KNC-A, -C, and -D) and commercial KNC-H] and white-semi broiler (WSB) used in Samgye. Further, each breed was differentiated using multivariate analyses, including a machine learning algorithm designed to use metabolic information from each type of chicken obtained using 1H-13C heteronuclear single quantum coherence (2D NMR). Breast meat from KNC-D chickens were superior to those of conventional KNC-H and WSB chickens in terms of both taste-active and bioactive compounds. In the multivariate analysis, meat portions (breast and thigh) and chicken breeds (KNCs and WSB) could be clearly distinguished based on the outcomes of the principal component analysis and partial least square-discriminant analysis (R2=0.945; Q2=0.901). Based on this, we determined the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for each of these components. AUC analysis identified 10 features which could be consistently applied to distinguish between all KNCs and WSB chickens in both breast (0.988) and thigh (1.000) meat without error. Here, both 1H NMR and 2D NMR could successfully quantify various target metabolites which could be used to distinguish between different chicken breeds based on their metabolic profile.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.59-70
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• 2020

Obtaining external forced convection heat transfer from bubble boiling and validating it with experimental results using cryogenic liquids are suggested to derive total heat transfer coefficient with pool boiling condition in the case of coil type heat exchanger with a bundle of tubes and to overcome the limitation of using the empirical correlation. Experiment is conducted with pool boiling heat transfer of saturate liquid nitrogen with helical coil type heat exchanger using liquid oxygen as hot stream fluid. Experimentally measured heat transfer coefficient is well-agreed with the estimated curve considering nucleate boiling and forced convection induced by bubble rise.