• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2019

The goals of this study were to investigate depression and oral health-related quality of life in the military and public and to identify the factors affecting depression. The respondents were 278 soldiers and 228 general people of similar ages. An independent t-test was used to examine the differences between the two groups in the oral health impact profile and Self-rating Depression Scale. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the factors associated with depression in soldiers and the public. The depression level was significantly higher in the general population than in the military personnel (p<0.001). In contrast, the oral health-related quality of life was better in the general population than in the military, but without a statistical significance (p=0.056). Among soldiers, the military rank was the only factor associated with depression, showing a gradient based on the rank. In the general population, the type of work displayed significant associations with depression. As there are some limitations to investigating the factors affecting depression, comparative analyses of the general population groups with similar soldier groups are rare. This study encourages future investigations of the advancements in mental health and improvement programs for oral health in each group.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Information Technology
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.99-112
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• 2019

Cracks on pavement surfaces are critical signs and symptoms of the degradation of pavement structures. Image-based pavement crack detection is a challenging problem due to the intensity inhomogeneity, topology complexity, low contrast, and noisy texture background. In this paper, we address the problem of pavement crack detection and segmentation at pixel-level based on a Deep Neural Network (DNN) using gray-scale images. We propose a novel DNN architecture which contains a modified U-net network and a high-level features network. An important contribution of this work is the combination of these networks afforded through the fusion layer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper introducing this combination for pavement crack segmentation and detection problem. The system performance of crack detection and segmentation is enhanced dramatically by using our novel architecture. We thoroughly implement and evaluate our proposed system on two open data sets: the Crack Forest Dataset (CFD) and the AigleRN dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that our system outperforms eight state-of-the-art methods on the same data sets.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.77-87
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• 2021

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of the tunnel technique for root coverage using a new xenogeneic acellular dermal matrix vs. connective tissue grafting (CTG) for the treatment of multiple maxillary adjacent recessions (recession type 1) at 12 months postoperatively. Methods: This study enrolled 12 patients with at least 3 contiguous, bilateral, symmetrical maxillary gingival recessions (i.e., at least 6 recessions per patient). In total, 74 recessions were treated using the modified coronally advanced tunnel (MCAT) technique combined with a novel porcine-derived acellular dermal matrix (PADM) at 37 test sites or CTG at 37 control sites. The following clinical parameters were measured: recession height, clinical attachment level, width of keratinized tissue, probing depth, recession width, gingival thickness, mean root coverage (MRC), and complete root coverage (CRC). Comparisons between test and control groups were made for pain visual analog scale scores at 14 days. Results: At 12 months, the MCAT with PADM (test) yielded a statistically significant improvement in all clinical parameters studied. MRC was significantly higher on the control sides (80.6%±23.7%) than on the test sides (68.8%±23.4%). Similarly, CRC was 48.7%±6.8% on the control sides (CTG), in contrast to 24.3%±8.2% on the test sides (PADM). Statistically significant differences were observed in favor of the control sides for all clinical parameters studied. Nevertheless, the MCAT in adjunction with PADM was clearly superior at reducing mean and maximum patient-reported postoperative pain intensity and pain duration in the first week after surgery. Conclusions: The use of PADM to treat multiple recessions improved clinical parameters at 12 months, but these outcomes were nevertheless poorer than those observed for CTG. However, PADM reduced morbidity, particularly the pain experienced by patients.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.816-822
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• 2020

This study investigated the antioxidant activity and general and sensory properties of soybean curd supplemented with Codium fragile. The yield of soybean curd containing 0%, 20%, and 40% C. fragile was 113.62, 104.09, and 108.06, respectively. Antioxidant activities and pH were significantly increased (P<0.05) depending on the amount of C. fragile supplemented in soybean curd. Compared to that in additive-free soybean curd (control), the amount of crude ash and protein in soybean curd containing 40% C. fragile was significantly decreased (P<0.05) and increased (P<0.05), respectively. We observed a dose-dependent increase (P<0.05) in the hardness and chewiness of soybean curd concomitant with the amount of C. fragile supplemented. In contrast, we observed no significant difference (P>0.05) in soybean curd's cohesiveness between the groups. As determined by sensory evaluation based on seven-point hedonic scale, soybean curd supplemented with 20% C. fragile received an excellent score (6.55) for color. As the same method, we observed that the flavor and overall acceptability significantly increased (P<0.05) in the C. fragile content increased. Taken together, the antioxidant and sensory assays in our study make a compelling case for the practical development of soybean curd supplemented with C. fragile owing to its good antioxidant activities, general properties, and consumer acceptance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1905-1911
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• 2020

Homoserine dehydrogenase (HSD) catalyzes the reversible conversion of ʟ-aspartate-4-semialdehyde to ʟ-homoserine in the aspartate pathway for the biosynthesis of lysine, methionine, threonine, and isoleucine. HSD has attracted great attention for medical and industrial purposes due to its recognized application in the development of pesticides and is being utilized in the large scale production of ʟ-lysine. In this study, HSD from Bacillus subtilis (BsHSD) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity for biochemical characterization. We examined the enzymatic activity of BsHSD for ʟ-homoserine oxidation and found that BsHSD exclusively prefers NADP+ to NAD+ and that its activity was maximal at pH 9.0 and in the presence of 0.4 M NaCl. By kinetic analysis, Km values for ʟ-homoserine and NADP+ were found to be 35.08 ± 2.91 mM and 0.39 ± 0.05 mM, respectively, and the Vmax values were 2.72 ± 0.06 μmol/min-1 mg-1 and 2.79 ± 0.11 μmol/min-1 mg-1, respectively. The apparent molecular mass determined with size-exclusion chromatography indicated that BsHSD forms a tetramer, in contrast to the previously reported dimeric HSDs from other organisms. This novel oligomeric assembly can be attributed to the additional C-terminal ACT domain of BsHSD. Thermal denaturation monitoring by circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to determine its melting temperature, which was 54.8℃. The molecular and biochemical features of BsHSD revealed in this study may lay the foundation for future studies on amino acid metabolism and its application for industrial and medical purposes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2021

This work describe an efficient method for the shoot induction and plant regeneration of seedling-derived apical bud explants of Tilia mandshurica Rupr. & Maxim. The highest rate of shoot induction (82.2%) was obtained when apical bud explants from juvenile seedlings (5 months old) were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 1.0 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). However, apical bud explants obtained from mature trees (12 years old) did not produce any shoots, even with BAP supplementation. Among the three cytokinins tested for shoot multiplication (BAP, zeatin, and kinetin), BAP was the most effective; the highest number of shoots per explant (2.1) was observed on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L BAP. In contrast, the longest average shoot length (3.0 cm) was observed after growth on MS medium with 2.0 mg/L zeatin. No multiplication occurred when apical bud explants were cultured with kinetin-supplemented media. During rooting of in vitro-elongated shoots, the highest rooting rate (100%) was observed in half-strength MS medium supplemented with 0.5 ~ 1.0 mg/L indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or 3.0 mg/L 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). During the acclimatization process, plantlets that were rooted on the IBA (0.5 mg/L)-supplemented medium had the highest survival rate (100%) and maximum root length (18.5 cm). These findings suggest that a low concentration (0.5 mg/L) of IBA is appropriate for the rooting and acclimatization of T. mandshurica. Plants were successfully transferred to the greenhouse with a 100% survival rate. This protocol will be useful for the large-scale propagation of Tilia species.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.111 no.1
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• pp.108-114
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• 2022

In bamboo, the nutrient status of tissues and associated soil is an important indicator of nutrient uptake by various bamboo species. In this study, the nutrient concentrations of leaves, roots, and mineral soil at 0-10 cm depths were examined in three bamboo stands [Phyllostachys bambusoides S ieb. et Zucc, Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis Stapf ex. Rendle, and Phyllostachys pubescens (Mazel) Ohwi] at a broad regional scale in southern Korea. In the three bamboo species, species-specific differences were observed in the carbon (C) and calcium (Ca) concentrations of leaves and in the nitrogen (N) and magnesium (Mg) concentrations of roots. Ca concentrations in leaves were significantly higher in P. bambusoides (11.94 g Ca kg^-1) than in P. pubescens (7.83 g Ca kg^-1), whereas potassium (K) concentrations were lowest in P. bambusoides among the three bamboo species. N concentrations in the roots were significantly lower in P. pubescens (5.23 g N kg^-1) than in P. nigra var. henonis (7.72 g N kg^-1). In contrast to bamboo tissues, soil nutrients, such as total N, organic C, exchangeable Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺, did not differ significantly among the bamboo species. These results suggest that species-specific practices will be required for nutrient management of bamboo stands because nutrient concentrations vary considerably in the tissues of the three studied species.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.94-99
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• 2022

The discovery of biomarkers related to pattern identification (PI), the core diagnostic theory of Korean medicine (KM), is one of the methods that can provide objective and reliable evidence by applying PI to clinical practice. In this study, 40 diabetic patients and 41 healthy control subjects recruited from the Korean medicine clinic were examined to determine the human electrical response related to the deficiency pattern, a representative pattern of diabetes. Qi-Blood-Yin-Yang deficiency pattern scores, which are representative deficiency patterns for diabetes mellitus, were obtained through a questionnaire with verified reliability and validity, and the human electrical response was measured non-invasively using a bioimpedance meter. In ANCOVA analysis using gender as a covariate, the 5 kHz frequency resistance and 5-250 kHz frequency reactance were significantly lower in the diabetic group than in non-diabetic control group. In addition, the multiple regression analysis showed a positive correlation (R2=0.11~0.19) between the Yang deficiency pattern score and resistance value for the diabetic group; the correlation was higher at higher frequencies of 50kHz (R2=0.18) and 250kHz (R2=0.19) compared to 5kHz(R2=0.11). In contrast, there was no such significant association in the control group. It implies that bioimpedance resistance measured at finite frequencies may be useful in predicting Yang deficiency, which is closely related to diabetic complications by reflecting the decrease in body water content and metabolism. In the future, large-scale planned clinical studies will be needed to identify biomarkers associated with different types of PI in diabetes.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.25-45
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• 2022

Purpose In this paper, we propose the method to extend topic modeling techniques in order to derive data-based research hypotheses when establishing research hypotheses for social sciences, As a concept in contrast to the existing deductive hypothesis establishment methodology for the social science research, the topic modeling technique was expanded to enable the so-called inductive hypothesis establishment methodology, and an analysis case of the Seongsan Ilchulbong online review based on the proposed methodology was presented. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, an extension architecture and extension algorithm in the form of extending the existing topic modeling were proposed. The extended architecture and algorithm include data processing method based on topic ratio in document, correlation analysis and regression analysis of processed data for topics derived by existing topic modeling. In addition, in this paper, an analysis case of the online review of Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak was presented by applying the extended topic modeling algorithm. An exploratory analysis was performed on the Seongsan Ilchulbong online reviews through the basic text analysis. The data was transformed into 5-point scale to enable correlation and regression analysis based on the topic ratio in each online review. A regression analysis was performed using the derived topics as the independent variable and the review rating as the dependent variable, and hypotheses could be derived based on this, which enable the so-called inductive hypothesis establishment. Findings This paper is meaningful in that it confirmed the possibility of deriving a causal model and setting an inductive hypothesis through an extended analysis of topic modeling.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.658-672
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although children of ethnic minority groups are experiencing a transition from a predominance of undernutrition to overnutrition, there is little evidence of a dual-malnutrition burden. Therefore, this study examined the double burden of malnutrition among school-aged ethnic minority children living in mountainous areas and its association with their diets. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2019 to March 2020 in 3 mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam among 1,556 ethnic minority school-aged children. The prevalence of under-nutrition (stunting and thinness) and over-nutrition (overweight and obesity) were measured using the WHO 2006 child growth standards (height-for-age and BMI-for-age Z-score). Nutritional practices were evaluated by the frequency of food consumption based on a 4-level scale. RESULTS: The percentage of children with stunting and thinness were 14.0% and 5.4%, respectively, while the figure for overweight/obesity was 9.4%. The factors positively associated with stunting were living in a family with more than 2 children or being Muong/other ethnicities compared to the Tay ethnicity. Children who consumed fish/shrimps/crabs or milk weekly/daily were less likely to be undernourished compared to those who never consumed these foods. By contrast, children who never consumed foods rich in vitamin A precursors and vitamin A and fruit or consumed daily snacks/junk food were more likely to be overweight/obese. CONCLUSIONS: Undernutrition remains a common issue among school-aged children and adolescents of ethnic minority groups, while over-nutrition exists simultaneously. Public health nutrition programs promoting adequate diets and positive lifestyle changes related to nutrition are essential to tackle the double burden of malnutrition among ethnic minority children.