• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.36-39
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• 2022

Background: Acupotomy is a type of acupuncture where a scalpel-shaped needle (miniscalpel needle) is used instead of a normal acupuncture needle to exfoliate adhesion sites or to relax entrapped regions. This study aimed to identify the descriptive characteristics of patients who received acupotomy treatment at a single Korean Medicine Clinic. Methods: This retrospective review analyzed the medical charts of patients who had received acupotomy at least once from August 2017 to December 2019 at a single Korean Medicine Clinic. The demographic characteristics, chief complaints, acupotomy treatment sites, and principal diagnosis codes were analyzed. Results: We identified 551 outpatients; the average age was 52 ± 14.26 years and 49.9% were male. The patients underwent an average of 8.47 sessions of acupotomy. Altogether, 35.91% of the acupotomy treatments were administered to the spinal regions, of which 60.01% were in the lumbar region. The codes related to the lumbar spinal condition/disease which were used most frequently. The chief complaints were dizziness, lumbar spinal stenosis, and Dupuytren's contracture in patients over 60 years of age. Conclusion: This is the 1^st analysis of acupotomy treatment patterns in Korea to date. Acupotomy is primarily administered in the treatment of spinal conditions/diseases, especially for those involving the lumbar region. Future studies are necessary to determine the clinical outcomes of patients who receive acupotomy treatment and the safety of this treatment.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.211-227
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• 2023

To investigate the non-Gaussian feature of fluctuating wind pressures on rectangular high-rise buildings, wind tunnel tests were conducted on scale models with side ratios ranging from 1/9~9 in an open exposure for various wind directions. The high-order statistical moments, time histories, probability density distributions, and peak factors of pressure fluctuations are analyzed. The mixed normal-Weibull distribution, Gumbel-Weibull distribution, and lognormal-Weibull distribution are adopted to fit the probability density distribution of different non-Gaussian wind pressures. Zones of Gaussian and non-Gaussian are classified for rectangular buildings with various side ratios. The results indicate that on the side wall, the non-Gaussian wind pressures are related to the distance from the leading edge. Apart from the non-Gaussianity in the separated flow regions noted by some literature, wind pressures behind the area where reattachment happens present non-Gaussian nature as well. There is a new probability density distribution type of non-Gaussian wind pressure which has both long positive and negative tail found behind the reattachment regions. The correlation coefficient of wind pressures is proved to reflect the non-Gaussianity and a new method to estimate the mean reattachment length of rectangular high-rise building side wall is proposed by evaluating the correlation coefficient. For rectangular high-rise buildings, the mean reattachment length calculated by the correlation coefficient method along the height changes in a parabolic shape. Distributions of Gaussian and non-Gaussian wind pressures vary with side ratios. It is inappropriate to estimate the extreme loads of wind pressures using a fixed peak factor. The trend of the peak factor with side ratios on different walls is given.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.2768-2787
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• 2023

As an important research direction of the application of computer science in the medical field, the automatic generation technology of radiology report has attracted wide attention in the academic community. Because the proportion of normal regions in radiology images is much larger than that of abnormal regions, words describing diseases are often masked by other words, resulting in significant feature loss during the calculation process, which affects the quality of generated reports. In addition, the huge difference between visual features and semantic features causes traditional multi-modal fusion method to fail to generate long narrative structures consisting of multiple sentences, which are required for medical reports. To address these challenges, we propose a multi-feature optimization Transformer (MFOT) for generating radiology reports. In detail, a multi-dimensional mapping attention (MDMA) module is designed to encode the visual grid features from different dimensions to reduce the loss of primary features in the encoding process; a feature pre-fusion (FP) module is constructed to enhance the interaction ability between multi-modal features, so as to generate a reasonably structured radiology report; a detail enhanced attention (DEA) module is proposed to enhance the extraction and utilization of key features and reduce the loss of key features. In conclusion, we evaluate the performance of our proposed model against prevailing mainstream models by utilizing widely-recognized radiology report datasets, namely IU X-Ray and MIMIC-CXR. The experimental outcomes demonstrate that our model achieves SOTA performance on both datasets, compared with the base model, the average improvement of six key indicators is 19.9% and 18.0% respectively. These findings substantiate the efficacy of our model in the domain of automated radiology report generation.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.115-126
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate plantar foot pressure and static balance according to the type of insole in the elderly. Methods: Thirteen elderly (mean age: $67.08{\pm}2.25years$, mean height: $159.63{\pm}9.64cm$, mean body weight: $61.48{\pm}9.06kg$) who had no previous injury experience in the lower limbs and a normal gait pattern participated in this study. Three models of insoles of the normal, 3D, and triangle types were selected for the test. The Pedar-X system and Pedar-X insoles, 3.3 km/h of walking speed, and a compilation of 20 steps walking stages were used to analyze foot-pressure distribution. Static balance test was conducted using Gaitview AFA-50, and balance (opening eyes, closing eyes) was inspected for 20 s. One-way ANOVA was conducted to test the significance of the results with the three insoles. p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean foot pressure under the forefoot regions was the lowest with the 3D insole during treadmill walking (p<.05). The mean value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (left: p<.05, right: p<.01). The mean value under the rearfoot was the lowest with the 3D insole (p<.001). The maximum foot pressure value under the foot regions was the lowest on both sides of the forefoot with the 3D insole. A statistically significant difference was seen only in the left foot (p<.01). The maximum value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (p<.001). No statistically significant difference was detected on the values under the rearfoot. In the case of vertical ground reaction force (GRF), statistically significant difference was seen only in the left side rearfoot (p<.01). However, static balance values (ENV, REC, RMS, Total Length, Sway velocity, and Length/ENV) did not show significant differences by the type of insole. Conclusion: These results show that functional insoles can decrease plantar pressure and GRF under the forefoot and rearfoot. Moreover, functional insoles can dislodge the overload of the rearfoot and forefoot to the midfoot. However, functional insoles do not affect the static balance in the elderly.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.741-747
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• 2007

In the azoospermic patients, there are many of undiagnosed factors related to genetic bases. Among them, Klinefelter's syndrome (47,XXY; KS) and Y-chromosomal microdeletion with normal karyotype(46,XY; YMNK) are the most frequent causes of male infertility. This research focused on the comparative analysis of YMNK (n = 66) and K5 (n = 30) patients suffered from male infertility in Korean population. We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach including 19 pairs of sequence-tagged site (STS) primers for detecting the Y-chromosomal microdeletion on AZFa, b, c regions, indicating that Y chromosomal microdeletions were almost evenly occurred in AZF all regions in Korean population. Comparative analysis indicated that 34.9% YMNK and 73.4% KS patients harbored the microdeleted Y-chromosome. It seems to be high instability of Y-chromosome in KS patients than that of YMNK infertility patients. Taken together, genome instability containing microdeletion could bring male infertility with the disturbance of normal spermatogenesis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.563-568
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• 2023

DNA methylation regulates gene expression and contributes to tumorigenesis in the early stages of cancer. In colorectal cancer (CRC), CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is recognized as a distinct subset that is associated with specific molecular and clinical features. In this study, we investigated the genome-wide DNA methylation patterns among patients with CRC. The methylation data of 1 unmatched normal, 142 adjacent normal, and 294 tumor samples were analyzed. We identified 40,003 differentially methylated positions with 6,933 (79.8%) hypermethylated and 16,145 (51.6%) hypomethylated probes in the genic region. Hypermethylated probes were predominantly found in promoter-like regions, CpG islands, and N shore sites; hypomethylated probes were enriched in open-sea regions. CRC tumors were categorized into three CIMP subgroups, with 90 (30.6%) in the CIMP-high (CIMP-H), 115 (39.1%) in the CIMP-low (CIMP-L), and 89 (30.3%) in the non-CIMP group. The CIMP-H group was associated with microsatellite instability-high tumors, hypermethylation of MLH1, older age, and right-sided tumors. Our results showed that genome-wide methylation analyses classified patients with CRC into three subgroups according to CIMP levels, with clinical and molecular features consistent with previous data.

• BMB Reports
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.161-166
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• 2024

Aberrant DNA methylation plays a critical role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), which has high incidence and mortality rates in Korea. Various CRC-associated methylation markers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis have been developed; however, they have not been validated for Korean patients owing to the lack of comprehensive clinical and methylome data. Here, we obtained reliable methylation profiles for 228 tumor, 103 adjacent normal, and two unmatched normal colon tissues from Korean patients with CRC using an Illumina Infinium EPIC array; the data were corrected for biological and experiment biases. A comparative methylome analysis confirmed the previous findings that hypermethylated positions in the tumor were highly enriched in CpG island and promoter, 5' untranslated, and first exon regions. However, hypomethylated positions were enriched in the open-sea regions considerably distant from CpG islands. After applying a CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) to the methylome data of tumor samples to stratify the CRC patients, we consolidated the previously established clinicopathological findings that the tumors with high CIMP signatures were significantly enriched in the right colon. The results showed a higher prevalence of microsatellite instability status and MLH1 methylation in tumors with high CMP signatures than in those with low or non-CIMP signatures. Therefore, our methylome analysis and dataset provide insights into applying CRC-associated methylation markers for Korean patients regarding cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1901-1906
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• 2012

Background: The discovery that microRNA (miRNA) regulates metastasis provide a principal molecular basis for tumor heterogeneity. A characteristic of solid tumors is their heterogenous distribution of blood vessels, with significant hypoxia occurring in regions (centers of tumor) of low blood flow. It is necessary to discover the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis in relation to the fact that there is a differential distribution of crucial microRNA in tumors from centers to edges. Methods: Breast tissues from 48 patients (32 patients with breast cancer) were classified into the high invasive and metastatic group (HIMG), low invasive and metastatic group (LIMG), and normal group. Samples were collected from both the centers and edges of all tumors. The first six specimens were detected by microRNA array, and the second ten specimens were detected by real-time qRT-PCR and Western blot analyses. Correlation analysis was performed between the miRNAs and target proteins. Results: The relative content of miR-20a and miR-20b was lower in the center of the tumor than at the edge in the LIMG, lower at the edge of the tumor than in the center in the HIMG, and lower in breast cancer tissues than in normal tissues. VEGF-A and HIF-1alpha mRNA levels were higher in the HIMG than in the LIMG, and levels were higher in both groups than in the normal group; there was no difference in mRNA levels between the edge and center of the tumor. VEGF-A and HIF-1alpha protein levels were higher in the HIMG than in the LIMG, and protein levels in both groups were higher than in the normal group; there was a significant difference in protein expression between the edge and center of the tumor. Correlation analysis showed that the key miRNAs (miR-20a and miR-20b) negatively correlated with the target proteins (VEGF-A and HIF-1alpha). Conclusions: Our data suggest that miR-20a and miR-20b are differentially distributed in breast cancer, while VEGF-A and HIF-1alpha mRNA had coincident distributions, and VEGF-A and HIF-1alpha proteins had uneven and opposing distributions to the miRNAs. It appears that one of the most important facets underlying metastatic heterogeneity is the differential distribution of miR-20a and miR-20b and their regulation of target proteins.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2002

Purpose : To evaluate the usefulness of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) and quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in the patients with spinal cord infarction. Materials and methods : We studied 6 patients presented symptoms with spinal cord infarction, retrospectively (3 men and 3 women). We obtained multi-shot echo planar-based, DWI using 1.5T MR scanner at 5.4 mean days after the onset of ischemic symptoms. In six patients, signal intensity was acquired at conventional b value $1000s/\textrm{mm}^2$). The ADC value for the normal spinal cord and for infarcted lesions was measured from the trace ADC maps by using regions of interest positioned over the spinal cord. We analyzed signal intensity of lesion on MRI and DWI, and compared with ADC values in infarcted lesions and normal site. Results : T1-weighted MR image showed isosignal intensity in four of six patients and low signal intensity in two of six. T2-weighted MR image demonstrated high signal intensity in all of six. All DWI were considered to be diagnostic. All of six depicted a bright signal intensity on DWI. ADC values of infarcted lesion were measured lower than that of normal spinal cord on ADC map. The differences in ADC values between infarcted and normal spinal cord were significantly different (p＜0.05). Conclusion : It is possible to obtain DWI and ADC map of the spinal cord and DWI may be useful in the early diagnosis and localization of lesion site in patients with spinal cord infarction.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.125-131
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• 2006

This survey was carried out to investigate the characteristics of low temperature injury in rice plants at a southwestern alpine area of Korea in 2003. During vegetative, reproductive, and ripening stage in a southwestern alpine area, mean air temperature was lower by 0.4, 3.1 and $1.7^{\circ}C$, respectively, as compared to those of a normal year, Minimum air temperature during the reproductive and ripening stage was lower by 2.6 and $1.7^{\circ}C$, respectively, as compared to those of a normal year, Sunshine hours during vegetative, reproductive, and ripening stage were lower by 40.6, 81.3 and 8.4 hours, respectively, than those of a normal year. Spikelet-sterility type cold injury occurred from the latter part of June to the middle of July, which is from panicle formation stage to meiosis stage, at temperatures less than $17^{\circ}C$. Spikelet sterility under normal transplanting (May 20) ranged from 16 to 58%, which was lower than that under early transplanting in the latter part of April (29 to 83%). The total area impacted by cold damage was 2,723ha in Namwon, 510ha in Sunchang, 300ha in Jinan, 250ha in Muju, and 210ha in Jangsu. Average spiklet sterility in these regions was 44%. Rice cultivars Odaebyeo, Unbongbyeo, and Jinbubyeo showed greater tolerance to low temperature than CV, Chugwangbyeo.