• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2010

Current trend of aging society suggests that many patients are at risk for various preoperative preparations and postoperative complications during and following invasive dental procedures, due to an acquired medically compromised conditions from systemic disease and/or from medications. The medical history is critical for the identification of patients potentially at risk for medically compromised and old aged patients' factors from dental treatment. The proper dental management requires an understanding of certain principles of pathophysiology for these medical conditions and some standard laboratory tests. Polypharmacy in old age, besides representing a risk in and of itself, points to the potential risk the underlying diseases that necessitated the drugs can present in the dental office. These diseases and medications can also present a risk to oral health. A sequence for categorizing drugs in a medication list is presented here to aid in the identification of potential risks in the dental treatment and management of patients with complex medical histories and drug regimens. Specific patient populations, such as pediatric, may have specific drugs or additional criteria that need to be considered. Practitioners must use the health history and the medication list in concert, using one to make sense of the other and utilizing all the information available from reviewing each one carefully in order to manage their increasingly complex patients safely and effectively.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.107-116
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• 2024

In this study, we analyzed the use of general radiography imaging and effective dose in inpatients. Our aim is to help reduce national medical radiation exposure doses and develop rational health-care financial policies. The effective dose for each general radiography was calculated using the ALARA-GR program for 53 types (total: 260 codes) general radiography codes selected from 'National Health Insurance Care Benefit Cost'. The usage of general radiography was analyzed in the 2018 inpatient patient data of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, and the effective dose for each general radiography was analyzed. 89.00% of inpatients undergo general radiography imaging at least once, with an average of 12.63 scans per person and an effective dose of 1.00 mSv. Those who received support from Medical Aid showed a higher value compared to those who were insured by National Health Insurance, with 17.39 cases and 1.43 mSv (p<.001). Chest had the highest usage rate at 23.12% for general radiography imaging, while L-spine had the highest effective dose at 24.53%. It is estimated that 420 inpatients patients undergo 121 to 820 general radiography imaging procedures per year, and 233 inpatients are estimated to have an annual effective dose of >20.00~58.25 mSv. Rational use of health-care finances and the practice of medical radiation safety management are essential for the well-being of individuals, the enhancement of quality of life, and the improvement of health-care quality.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1001-1010
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• 1999

This study was undertaken to investigate the causal perceptions and health seeking behaviors of Rheumatoid arthritis patients, define and understand the typology, and find the relationship between causal perceptions and health seeking behavioral types. There were six types(Physical Fatigue, Dispensation of Nature, Causality to Environment, Conscience of Guilty, Rationally perceiving, Psychological Stress) of subjective opinion about Causal Perceptions of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients. And there were four types(Oriental medical Treatment, Information Seeking, Dietary Control. Western Medical Treatment) of subjective opinion about Health Seeking Behaviors. In the relationship between types of the causal perceptions and health seeking behaviors, oriental medical treatment and information seeking type were common health seeking behaviors of all six causal perception types. Only difference for internal causal perception types was related to hospital instructions and external causal perception types were related to dietary control. The result of this study can help health care providers, especially nurses to understand the types of causal perceptions and health seeking behaviors of Rheumatoid arthritis patients to gain treatment compliance from patients according to their causal perceptions of the illness, and use it to develop educational nursing intervention to aid health care.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.99-104
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• 2008

As a part of improving early response system for senior emergency patients in rural areas in preparation for accelerated transition of Korea into aged society, this study seeks to make effective use of town broadcasting equipments and improve conventional educational ways for the first aid for senior people to boost up availability of private rescue personnel, so that it can contribute to improving capacity to early response to potential occurrence of emergency situations. In addition, this study focuses on profiling current activities of 119 geriatric Emergency Medical Services available in Korea, and also exploring possible ways to improve emergency services for senior safety which can play useful roles of social safeguard in imminent aged society as well as efficient ways to build up infrastructure for senior safety on the basis of opening up senior safety center.

• Biomedical Engineering Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2018

When focusing using an ultrasonic transducer array, a main lobe is formed in the focal region of an ultrasound field, but side lobes also arise around the focal region due to the leakage. Since the side lobes cannot be completely eliminated in the focusing process, they are responsible for subsequent ultrasound image quality degradation. To improve ultrasound image quality, a signal processing strategy to reduce side lobes is definitely in demand. To this end, quantitative determination of main and side lobes is necessary. We propose a theoretically and actually error-free method of exactly discriminating and separately computing the main lobe and side lobe parts in ultrasound image by computer simulation. We refer to images constructed using the main and side lobe signals as the main and side lobe images, respectively. Since the main and side lobe images exactly represent their main and side lobe components, respectively, they can be used to evaluate ultrasound image quality. Defining the average brightness of the main and side lobe images, the conventional to side lobe image ratio, and the main to side lobe image ratio as image quality metrics, we can evaluate image characteristics in speckle images. The proposed method is also applied in assessing the performance of side lobe suppression filtering. We show that the proposed method may greatly aid in the evaluation of medical ultrasonic images using computer simulations, albeit lacking the use of actual experimental data.

• Journal of Korea Artificial Intelligence Association
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2024

Kodály hand signs are symbols that intuitively represent pitch and note names based on the shape and height of the hand. They are an excellent tool that can be easily expressed using the human body, making them highly engaging for children who are new to music. Traditional hand signs help beginners easily understand pitch and significantly aid in music learning and performance. However, Kodály hand signs have distinctive features, such as the ability to indicate key changes or chords using both hands and to clearly represent accidentals. These features enable the effective use of Kodály hand signs. In this paper, we aim to investigate the changes in recognition rates according to the complexity of scales by creating a device for learning Kodály hand signs, teaching simple Do-Re-Mi scales, and then gradually increasing the complexity of the scales and teaching complex scales and children's songs (such as "May Had A Little Lamb"). The learning device utilizes accelerometer and bending sensors. The accelerometer detects the tilt of the hand, while the bending sensor detects the degree of bending in the fingers. The utilized accelerometer is a 6-axis accelerometer that can also measure angular velocity, ensuring accurate data collection. The learning and performance evaluation of the Kodály learning device were conducted using Python.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.479-492
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• 2020

Background: As the prevalence of hypertension is increasing in Korea, the government is seeking policy actions to manage patients with hypertension more efficiently. In this paper, we aimed to identify factors associated with the use of medical care at hospitals among outpatients with hypertension. Methods: We analyzed a total of 15,040 cases of 3,877 outpatients with hypertension obtained from the Korea Medical Panel database from 2010 to 2016. The dependent variable was whether a patient with hypertension visited a hospital or not; and independent variables were the patient's various socio-demographic, health-related, and heath-status characteristics. We conducted a generalized linear mixed model analysis with logit link for all the cases and then conducted it stratified by gender. Results: As a result of a multivariable analysis, women were less likely than to visit at a hospital (odds ratio [OR], 0.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.32-0.61) and people aged 65 years and older than those aged less than 65 years (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.89). Residents in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam were more likely than those in than Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Jeju to visit a hospital (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.05-1.86). The likelihood of visiting a hospital was high in people belonging to a group of: the highest level of annual household income (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.30-2.29); Medical care aid recipients (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.34-2.83); people having three or more complex chronic diseases (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.19-2.11); people having diabetes (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.41-2.32); or people having ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease (OR, 6.80; 95% CI, 5.28-8.76). Also, we found that factors associated with the use of medical care at hospitals among outpatients with hypertension differed between genders. Conclusion: A variety of factors seem to be associated with the use of medical care at hospitals among outpatients with hypertension. Future research needs to find a way to help patients with hypertension visit an appropriate medical institution between clinics and hospitals.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.276-283
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• 2017

Background: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) has rapidly increased. Even though e-cigarettes are actually not smoking cessation alternative supplies, some people perceive them as smoking cessation alternative supplies. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between e-cigarette experiences and smoking cessation behaviors among Korean adults. Methods: Cross-sectional data was collected from 7,550 participants of Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2014. A total of 867 participants who were current smokers were enrolled in this study. Multi-variable logistic regression analysis were performed to identify the relationship between the smoking cessation behavior and the e-cigarette experience. Results: The e-cigarette experience rate of current smokers was 22.1%. The e-cigarette experience rate was higher in groups with the higher income, the higher education level, and the white collar jobs. Smokers with experience of smoking cessation (odds ratio [OR], 3.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.67 to 5.76) and with intention to smoking cessation in the future (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.43) were more likely to experience the e-cigarette. Especially, smokers who used smoking cessation alternative supplies were more likely to experience the e-cigarette than smokers who did not use it (OR, 2.87; 95% CI, 1.59 to 5.18). Conclusion: We confirmed that e-cigarette experiences were associated with smoking cessation experience, smoking cessation plan, and use of smoking cessation aid among smokers in Korea. Additional studies should be continued to confirm whether e-cigarette are continuously influencing the smoking cessation of current smokers in South Korea as one of the smoking cessation alternative supplies.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.59-70
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• 2024

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic (the form of coronaviruses) developed at the end of 2019 and spread rapidly to almost every corner of the world. It has infected around 25,334,339 of the world population by the end of September 1, 2020 [1] . It has been spreading ever since, and the peak specific to every country has been rising and falling and does not seem to be over yet. Currently, the conventional RT-PCR testing is required to detect COVID-19, but the alternative method for data archiving purposes is certainly another choice for public departments to make. Researchers are trying to use medical images such as X-ray and Computed Tomography (CT) to easily diagnose the virus with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based software. Method: This review paper provides an investigation of a newly emerging machine-learning method used to detect COVID-19 from X-ray images instead of using other methods of tests performed by medical experts. The facilities of computer vision enable us to develop an automated model that has clinical abilities of early detection of the disease. We have explored the researchers' focus on the modalities, images of datasets for use by the machine learning methods, and output metrics used to test the research in this field. Finally, the paper concludes by referring to the key problems posed by identifying COVID-19 using machine learning and future work studies. Result: This review's findings can be useful for public and private sectors to utilize the X-ray images and deployment of resources before the pandemic can reach its peaks, enabling the healthcare system with cushion time to bear the impact of the unfavorable circumstances of the pandemic is sure to cause

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.394-401
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• 2018

Objectives: Augmented reality (AR) technology has become rapidly available and is suitable for various medical applications since it can provide effective visualization of intricate anatomical structures inside the human body. This paper describes the procedure to develop an AR app with Unity3D and Vuforia software development kit and publish it to a smartphone for the localization of critical tissues or organs that cannot be seen easily by the naked eye during surgery. Methods: In this study, Vuforia version 6.5 integrated with the Unity Editor was installed on a desktop computer and configured to develop the Android AR app for the visualization of internal organs. Three-dimensional segmented human organs were extracted from a computerized tomography file using Seg3D software, and overlaid on a target body surface through the developed app with an artificial marker. Results: To aid beginners in using the AR technology for medical applications, a 3D model of the thyroid and surrounding structures was created from a thyroid cancer patient's DICOM file, and was visualized on the neck of a medical training mannequin through the developed AR app. The individual organs, including the thyroid, trachea, carotid artery, jugular vein, and esophagus were localized by the surgeon's Android smartphone. Conclusions: Vuforia software can help even researchers, students, or surgeons who do not possess computer vision expertise to easily develop an AR app in a user-friendly manner and use it to visualize and localize critical internal organs without incision. It could allow AR technology to be extensively utilized for various medical applications.