• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2024

Objectives: Adjusting for potential confounders is crucial for producing valuable evidence in outcome studies. Although numerous studies have been published using the Korea National Health Insurance Claim Database, no study has critically reviewed the methods used to adjust for confounders. This study aimed to review these studies and suggest methods and applications to adjust for confounders. Methods: We conducted a literature search of electronic databases, including PubMed and Embase, from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022. In total, 278 studies were retrieved. Eligibility criteria were published in English and outcome studies. A literature search and article screening were independently performed by 2 authors and finally, 173 of 278 studies were included. Results: Thirty-nine studies used matching at the study design stage, and 171 adjusted for confounders using regression analysis or propensity scores at the analysis stage. Of these, 125 conducted regression analyses based on the study questions. Propensity score matching was the most common method involving propensity scores. A total of 171 studies included age and/or sex as confounders. Comorbidities and healthcare utilization, including medications and procedures, were used as confounders in 146 and 82 studies, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first review to address the methods and applications used to adjust for confounders in recently published studies. Our results indicate that all studies adjusted for confounders with appropriate study designs and statistical methodologies; however, a thorough understanding and careful application of confounding variables are required to avoid erroneous results.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.36-41
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aimed to generate virtual mandibular left first molar teeth using deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (DCGANs) and analyze their matching accuracy with actual tooth morphology to propose a new paradigm for using medical data. Methods: Occlusal surface images of the mandibular left first molar scanned using a dental model scanner were analyzed using DCGANs. Overall, 100 training sets comprising 50 original and 50 background-removed images were created, thus generating 1,000 virtual teeth. These virtual teeth were classified based on the number of cusps and occlusal surface ratio, and subsequently, were analyzed for consistency by expert dental technicians over three rounds of examination. Statistical analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 23.0 (IBM), including intraclass correlation coefficient for intrarater reliability, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey's post-hoc analysis. Results: Virtual mandibular left first molars exhibited high consistency in the occlusal surface ratio but varied in other criteria. Moreover, consistency was the highest in the occlusal buccal lingual criteria at 91.9%, whereas discrepancies were observed most in the occusal buccal cusp criteria at 85.5%. Significant differences were observed among all groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the classification of the virtually generated left mandibular first molar according to several criteria, DCGANs can generate virtual data highly similar to real data. Thus, subsequent research in the dental field, including the development of improved neural network structures, is necessary.

• Language and Information
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.49-68
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• 2005

Application of chunking to English and some other European languages has shown that it is a viable parsing mechanism for natural languages. Although a small number of attempts have been made to apply chunking to the analysis of the Korean language, it still is not clear enough what criteria there are to identify appropriate units of chunking, and how efficient and valid the chunking algorithms would be when applied to some authentic Korean texts. The purpose of this research is to provide an alternative set of algorithms for chunking Korean, and to implement them, and to test them against some English-Korean parallel corpora, which is English and Korean bibles matched sentence by sentence. It is shown in the paper that aligning related texts and identifying matched phrases between the two languages can be achieved through appropriate chunking and matching algorithms defined on the morphologically-tagged parallel corpus. Chunking and matching processes are based on the content words rather than the function words, and the matching itself is done in terms of the transfer dictionary. The implementation is done in C and XML, and can be accessed through the Internet.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.129-133
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a fast motion estimation algorithm which is important in the performance of video encoding. Conventional fast motion estimation algorithms have serious problems of low prediction quality in some frames and still much computation. In the paper, we propose an algorithm that reduces unnecessary computations only, while keeping prediction quality almost similar to that of the full search. The proposed algorithm uses distribution of probability of motion vectors, divides search range into several groups according to its importance, and applies adaptive block matching criteria for each group of search range. The proposed algorithm takes only 3~5% in computational amount and has decreased prediction quality about 0~0.01dB compared with the fast full search algorithm.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1-17
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• 2021

Identifying the exact train and the type of train boarded by passengers is practically cumbersome. Previous studies identified the trains boarded by each passenger by matching the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) data and the train schedule diagram. However, this approach has been shown to be inefficient as the exact train boarded by a considerable number of passengers cannot be accurately determined. In this study, we demonstrate that the AFC data - diagram matching technique could not estimate 28% of the train type selected by passengers using the Seoul Metro line no.9. To obtain more accurate results, this paper developed a two-step method for estimating the train type boarded by passengers by applying the AFC data - diagram matching method followed by a mixture distribution analysis. As a result of the analysis, we derived reasonable express train use/non-use passenger classification points based on 298 origin-destination pairs that satisfied the verification criteria of this study.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.19-28
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• 2020

Purpose: In this study, we would like to confirm that the transfer of young workers may be a means of enhancing their internal satisfaction, not to get a better job, by setting work-related characteristics that are highly relevant to job-related factors. Research design, data, and methodology: In this study, preparation for turnover was set as dependent variables to identify factors related to the turnover of young people, and the type of business, employment type, debt status, job satisfaction, job difficulty compared to education level, job difficulty, job degree, job major agreement, debt status, and other demographic social characteristics were selected as independent variables. Results: The characteristics related to personal criteria in job-seeking process were significant in the form of business, employment type, job satisfaction, work difficulty compared to the level of education, work difficulty compared to the level of technology, job major matching, and debt status. Conclusions: This study confirmed that young people's turnover may not simply be a means to get a better job, but to increase satisfaction in the internal aspects of their jobs, and that for young people, a job is an important development process that represents their identity and needs to be approached from a life-cycle perspective.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.57 no.8
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• pp.357-362
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• 2014

Purpose: The incidence of Kawasaki disease (KD) is rare in young infants (less than 3 months of age), who present with only a few symptoms that fulfill the clinical diagnostic criteria. The diagnosis for KD can therefore be delayed, leading to a high risk of cardiac complications. We examined the clinical characteristics and measured the serum levels of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels of these patients for assessing its value in the early detection of KD. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of young infants diagnosed with KD from 2004 to 2012. The control group included 20 hospitalized febrile patients. Laboratory data, including NT-proBNP were obtained for each patient in both groups. Results: Incomplete KD was observed in 21/24 patients (87.5%). The mean fever duration on admission was $1.36{\pm}1.0$ days in the KD group. Common symptoms included erythema at the site of Bacille Calmette-Guerin inoculation (70.8%), skin rash (50.0%), changes of oropharyngeal mucosa (29.1%), and cervical lymphadenopathy (20.8%). The mean number of major diagnostic criteria fulfilled was $2.8{\pm}1.4$. Five KD patients (20.8%) had only one symptom matching these criteria. The incidence of coronary artery complications was 12.5%. The mean serum NT-proBNP level in the acute phase, in the KD and control groups, were $4,159{\pm}3,714pg/mL$ and $957{\pm}902pg/mL$, respectively, which decreased significantly in the convalescent phase. Conclusion: Incomplete KD was observed in 87.5% patients. Serum NT- proBNP might be a valuable biomarker for the early detection of KD in febrile infants aged <3 months.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 2013

Linear and nonlinear time history analyses have been becoming more common in seismic analysis and design of structures with advances in computer technology and earthquake engineering. One of the most important issues for such analyses is the selection of appropriate acceleration time histories and matching these histories to a code design acceleration spectrum. In literature, there are three sources of acceleration time histories: artificial records, synthetic records obtained from seismological models and accelerograms recorded in real earthquakes. Because of the increase of the number of strong ground motion database, using and scaling real earthquake records for seismic analysis has been becoming one of the most popular research issues in earthquake engineering. In general, two methods are used for scaling actual earthquake records: scaling in time domain and frequency domain. The objective of this study is twofold: the first is to discuss and summarize basic methodologies and criteria for selecting and scaling ground motion time histories. The second is to analyze scaling results of time domain method according to ASCE 7-05 and Eurocode 8 (1998-1:2004) criteria. Differences between time domain method and frequency domain method are mentioned briefly. The time domain scaling procedure is utilized to scale the available real records obtained from near fault motions and far fault motions to match the proposed elastic design acceleration spectrum given in the Eurocode 8. Why the time domain method is preferred in this study is stated. The best fitted ground motion time histories are selected and these histories are analyzed according to Eurocode 8 (1998-1:2004) and ASCE 7-05 criteria. Also, characteristics of both near fault ground motions and far fault ground motions are presented by the help of figures. Hence, we can compare the effects of near fault ground motions on structures with far fault ground motions' effects.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2015

Phenomenology has been developed by philosophers like Kant and Husserl since the late 18th century. Jaspers, a German psychiatrist, adopted it into psychopathology studies and accumulated data by closely observing and recording the patients' symptoms and signs. Among descriptions done even before the psychopathology or diagnostic criteria of disorders in the field of child psychiatry was established, we can find exact and valuable descriptions matching the autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The diagnostic criteria of modern childhood psychiatric disorders were established based on these grounds. Phenomenological/descriptive methods in various psychiatric fields lead to medical study methods for social phenomenon such as oiettolie, hikikomori, and internet game addiction. Since Romanian orphans were adopted to the western world, descriptive studies along with neurobiological studies on the influence of stimulus deprivation on emotional and physical development are being conducted. While phenomenology, which was adopted by Jaspers to verify psychopathology, was developed mainly by observation and description, recent studies are explaining such descriptive phenomena even at the synapse level due to advances in neurobiology. Although phenomenological/descriptive psychiatry, describing precise and detailed experiences of patients, is less applied nowadays among modern study methods, we must remember that such descriptions may lead to biological studies and provide evidence to improve the accuracy of choosing and applying treatment methods.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.274-281
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• 2016

Background: Whole-body counters are widely used to evaluate internal contamination of the internal presence of gamma-emitting radionuclides. In internal dosimetry, it is a basic requirement that quality control procedures be applied to verify the reliability of the measured results. The implementation of intercomparison programs plays an important role in quality control, and the accuracy of the calibration and the reliability of the results should be verified through intercomparison. In this study, we evaluated the reliability of 2 whole-body counting systems using 2 calibration methods. Materials and Methods: In this study, 2 whole-body counters were calibrated using a reference male bottle manikin absorption (BOMAB) phantom and a Radiation Management Corporation (RMC-II) phantom. The reliability of the whole-body counting systems was evaluated by performing an intercomparison with International Atomic Energy Agencyto assess counting efficiency according to the type of the phantom. Results and Discussion: In the analysis of counting efficiency using the BOMAB phantom, the performance criteria of the counters were satisfied. The relative bias of activity for all radionuclides was -0.16 to 0.01 in the Fastscan and -0.01 to 0.03 in the Accuscan. However, when counting efficiency was analyzed using the RMC- II phantom, the relative bias of $^{241}Am$ activity was -0.49 in the Fastscan and 0.55 in the Accuscan, indicating that its performance criteria was not satisfactory. Conclusion: The intercomparison process demonstrated the reliability of whole-body counting systems calibrated with a BOMAB phantom. However, when the RMC-II phantom was used, the accuracy of measurements decreased for low-energy nuclides. Therefore, it appears that the RMC-II phantom should only be used for efficiency calibration for high-energy nuclides. Moreover, a novel phantom capable of matching the efficiency of the BOMAB phantom in low-energy nuclides should be developed.