• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4253-4264
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• 2022

Since the implementation of the phosphate project in Bled El-Hadba (BEH) deposit, western region of Tébessa, no detailed study has been conducted to assess the natural radioactivity distribution and the associated radiological risk parameter for this open-pit mine. For the sake of determining a credible premining reference database for the region of interest, 21 samples were collected from different geological layers of the above-mentioned deposit. Gamma Spectrometry was applied for measuring radioactivity using a high resolution HPGe semiconductor detector. The obtained activity results have shown a significant broad variation in the radioactive contents for the different phosphate samples. The total average concentrations (in Bq·kg^-1) for ²²⁶Ra, ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K computed for the different type of phosphate layers were found to be 570 ± 169, 788 ± 280, 52 ± 18, 66 ± 6 and 81 ± 18 respectively. The mean activity concentrations of the measured radionuclides were compared to other regional and worldwide deposits. The ratios between the detected radioisotopes have been calculated for spatial distribution of natural radionuclides in the study area. Based on the aforementioned activity concentrations, the corresponding radiation hazard parameters were assessed. Correlations between the obtained parameters were drawn and a multivariate statistical analysis (Pearson Correlation, Cluster and Factor analysis) was carried out in order to identify the existing relationships.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.335-340
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• 2022

After detection of red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) at Gamman port in Busan in September of 2017, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency has surveilled invasive ants in the area with a high invasion risk of ants. However, existing surveillance traps have several limitations such as captured ants could escape easily or it is very hard to set up the trap on a hard ground like concrete or asphalt. To solve these problems, we developed a new trap using multiple narrow tubes to attract ants to the inside of the trap and make it hard for ants to escape. The new trap can be easily set up under various conditions. The new trap has more than four times ant capturing efficacy compared to conventional pitfall traps. Our results confirmed that the new trap could prevent captured ants from escaping. We hope that this newly developed trap would contribute to the prevention of invasive ants.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.516-516
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• 2022

Agricultural reservoirs are critical water resources structures to ensure continuous water supplies for rice cultivation in Korea. Climate change has increased the risk of reservoir failure by exacerbating discrepancies in upstream runoff generation, downstream irrigation water demands, and evaporation losses. In this study, the variations in water balance components of 400 major reservoirs during 1973-2017 were examined to identify the reservoirs with reliable storage capacities and resilience. A conceptual lumped hydrological model was used to transform the incident rainfall into the inflows entering the reservoirs and the paddy water balance model was used to estimate the irrigation water demand. Historical climate data analysis showed a sharp warming gradient during the last 45 years that was particularly evident in the central and southern regions of the country, which were also the main agricultural areas with high reservoir density. We noted a country-wide progressive increase in average annual cumulative rainfall, but the forcing mechanism of the rainfall increment and its spatial-temporal trends were not fully understood. Climate warming resulted in a significant increase in irrigation water demand, while heavy rains increased runoff generation in the reservoir watersheds. Most reservoirs had reliable storage capacities to meet the demands of a 10-year return frequency drought but the resilience of reservoirs gradually declined over time. This suggests that the recovery time of reservoirs from the failure state had increased which also signifies that the duration of the dry season has been prolonged while the wet season has become shorter and/or more intense. The watershed-irrigated area ratio (W-I_ratio) was critical and the results showed that a slight disruption in reservoir water balance under the influence of future climate change would seriously compromise the performance of reservoirs with W-I_ratio< 5.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.2-5
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• 2022

Human organs in the body have a complex structure, and in particular, the small intestine is about 7m long, so endoscopy is not easy and the risk of endoscopy is high. Currently, the test is performed with a capsule endoscope, and the test time is very long. The doctor connects the removed storage device to the computer to store the patient's capsule endoscope image and reads it using a program, but the capsule endoscope test results in a long image length, which takes a lot of time to read. In addition, in the case of the small intestine, there are many curves due to villi, so the occlusion area or light and shade of the image are clearly visible during the examination, and there may be cases where lesions and abnormal signs are missed during the examination. In this paper, we provide a method of assisting small intestine capsule endoscopic lesion examination using artificial neural networks to shorten the doctor's image reading time and improve diagnostic reliability.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.168-175
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• 2011

Construction accidents are major problem in Turkish Construction industry and especially fatally rates are very high. Current legislative system on occupational safety in Turkey enforces employers to implement safety measures as well as safety management systems. However level of consciousness in the industry is unsatisfactory and safety are perceived as extra cost and unnecessary expenditure. Moreover, especially in small residential building constructions which have a big share in the industry and unfortunately safety measures to mitigate or abate construction risks do not exist. The study focuses on small residential building construction sites and in the scope of this study, thirty building projects are examined. For each building project, project cost including labour and material costs, service and consultancy costs for mechanical, electrical systems as well as architectural and structural services, costs for supervision and finally general expenditures for construction site facilities were calculated. On the other hand, occupational safety costs for personal protective equipment, collective protective measures, consultancy and training were determined. Work breakdown structures were established and for each work item firstly occupational risks were evaluated and furthermore according to risk scores safety measures to be implemented were defined and related costs were calculated. The study gave results for total safety cost on average, in terms of percentage of total project cost (3.73% of total project cost), safety cost per man-hour (0.40 USD) and safety cost in terms of unit construction area (11.60 USD per square meter). Since safety management is a part of whole project management process, study gives suggestions and techniques to calculate safety costs and implement safety measures as a part of project management service for professionals. Authors believe that suggested approach may easily developed by the usage of more data to establish a model for estimation not only for building construction sites but also for all construction projects.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2024

The aim of this review is to consolidate findings from clinical investigations spanning the past decade regarding the impact of acupuncture on Parkinson's disease (PD). The objective is to assess the efficacy of acupuncture as a therapeutic approach to PD, with the intention of informing future clinical practices and advancing the foundation for subsequent research endeavors in this area. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify clinical trials exploring the effects of acupuncture on PD between January 2014 and August 2023. Databases search included PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, OASIS, KISS, KMBASE, RISS, and ScienceON. Quantitative evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was systematically reviewed, and the methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using Cochrane's risk of bias tool. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager (RevMan) 5.4.1 software. The systematic review encompassed a total of 38 RCTs involving 2,786 participants. Meta-analysis of 12 studies revealed that individuals treated with a combination of acupuncture and Western medicine exhibited notable improvements compared to those receiving Western medicine alone or sham acupuncture alongside Western medicine. However, the overall quality of the RCTs was deemed low, and no serious adverse events were reported. Across clinical investigations conducted in the past decade, acupuncture appears to hold promise as a complementary treatment for PD patients when administered alongside Western medicine. Nevertheless, this study identifies certain limitations that warrant consideration in future research endeavors. Enhanced emphasis on conducting high-quality RCTs is imperative to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in managing PD.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.158-168
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• 2024

There is hardly any person in modern times who has not taken soft drinks instead of drinking water. The rate of people taking soft drinks being surprisingly high, researchers around the world have cautioned from time to time that these drinks lead to weight gain, raise the risk of non-communicable diseases and so on. Therefore, in this work an image-based tool is developed to monitor the nutritional information of soft drinks by using deep convolutional neural network with transfer learning. At first, visual saliency, mean shift segmentation, thresholding and noise reduction technique, collectively known as 'pre-processing' are adopted to extract the location of drinks region. After removing backgrounds and segment out only the desired area from image, we impose Discrete Wavelength Transform (DWT) based resolution enhancement technique is applied to improve the quality of image. After that, transfer learning model is employed for the classification of drinks. Finally, nutrition value of each drink is estimated using Bag-of-Feature (BoF) based classification and Euclidean distance-based ratio calculation technique. To achieve this, a dataset is built with ten most consumed soft drinks in Bangladesh. These images were collected from imageNet dataset as well as internet and proposed method confirms that it has the ability to detect and recognize different types of drinks with an accuracy of 98.51%.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2024

Objective : Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS) is an effective and noninvasive treatment for high-risk arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Since differences in GKRS outcomes by nidus type are unknown, this study evaluated GKRS feasibility and safety in patients with brain AVMs. Methods : This single-center retrospective study included patients with AVM who underwent GKRS between 2008 and 2021. Patients were divided into compact- and diffuse-type groups according to nidus characteristics. We excluded patients who performed GKRS and did not follow-up evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging or digital subtraction angiography within 36 months from the study. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to characterize associations of nidus type with obliteration rate and GKRS-related complications. Results : We enrolled 154 patients (mean age, 32.14±17.17 years; mean post-GKRS follow-up, 52.10±33.67 months) of whom 131 (85.1%) had compact- and 23 (14.9%) diffuse-type nidus AVMs. Of all AVMs, 89 (57.8%) were unruptured, and 65 (42.2%) had ruptured. The mean Spetzler-Martin AVM grades were 2.03±0.95 and 3.39±1.23 for the compact- and diffuse-type groups, respectively (p<0.001). During the follow-up period, AVM-related hemorrhages occurred in four individuals (2.6%), three of whom had compact nidi. Substantial radiation-induced changes and cyst formation were observed in 21 (13.6%) and one patient (0.6%), respectively. The AVM complete obliteration rate was 46.1% across both groups. Post-GKRS complication and complete obliteration rates were not significantly different between nidus types. For diffuse-type nidus AVMs, larger AVM size and volume (p<0.001), lower radiation dose (p<0.001), eloquent area location (p=0.015), and higher Spetzler-Martin grade (p<0.001) were observed. Conclusion : GKRS is a safe and feasible treatment for brain AVMs characterized by both diffuse- and compact-type nidi.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1118-1138
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• 2023

Objectives: Sarcopenia is an age-associated skeletal muscle disorder that can profoundly impact the health of elderly people. However, the efficacy of herbal medicine in sarcopenia is uncertain. This review aims to investigate evidence of the effect of herbal medicine on sarcopenia. Methods: We systematically searched 12 electronic databases for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Only trials that met the inclusion criteria were selected, and the characteristics of the included studies were extracted and synthesized in a narrative manner. The quality of the included studies was assessed using Cochrane's Risk of Bias (RoB) 2.0 tool. Results: 7 RCTs involving 672 participants with sarcopenia met the inclusion criteria. The intervention combining herbal medicine and conventional treatment (i.e., exercise, nutritional support) had a significant therapeutic effect compared with the conventional treatment, showing improvement in muscle strength (i.e., grip strength), muscle mass (i.e., appendicular skeletal muscle mass index), and physical function (i.e., gait speed, short physical performance battery, and timed up and go test). However, the methodological quality of the included RCTs was relatively low due to their high RoB, making it difficult to evaluate the efficacy of herbal medicine in sarcopenia. In terms of safety, several adverse events were reported. Conclusion: This review suggests that herbal medicine has a positive effect on muscle strength, muscle mass, and physical performance in elderly patients with sarcopenia, but there is a clear need for further research in this area.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2024

Objectives: The effectiveness and efficiency of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in reducing the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among men who have sex with men (MSM) relies on how widely it is adopted and adhered to, particularly among high-risk groups of MSM. The meta-analysis aimed to collect and analyze existing evidence on various factors related to PrEP adherence in MSM, including demographic characteristics, sexual behaviors, substance use, and psychosocial factors. Methods: The meta-analysis followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The search included articles published between January 2018 and December 2022, obtained from the PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases. The studies that were included in the analysis reported the proportion of MSM who demonstrated adherence to PrEP and underwent quality appraisal using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: Of the 268 studies initially identified, only 12 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final meta-analysis. The findings indicated that education (odds ratio [OR], 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 2.40), number of sexual partners (OR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.31), engaging in sexual activities with an human immunodeficiency virus-positive partner (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.26), substance use (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.99), and lower levels of depression (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.82) were associated with higher rates of PrEP adherence among MSM. Conclusions: Despite these findings, further research is necessary to investigate PrEP adherence more comprehensively. The findings of this meta-analysis can be utilized to inform interventions aimed at improving PrEP adherence among MSM and provide directions for future research in this area.