• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.751-757
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• 2022

Objective : Tumours of the brain are a rare occurrence accounting for approximately 2% of all neoplasms in adults. Few studies have been done in Nigeria on the profile of brain tumours. The aim of this study is to determine the profile of brain tumours in general and determine the change in Kanofsky Performance Score (KPS) after treatment. Methods : This is a prospective hospital-based study in Kaduna. All consecutive patients over 18 years of age with diagnosis of brain tumours from January 2016 to December 2019 were included in the study. Demographic and clinical data was collected using a proforma during the study. Patients who received treatment were followed up for 12 months. The primary outcome data was the difference in the quality of life as measured by KPS at the point of first contact and at 1-month after treatment and at 12-month follow up. Data obtained was analysed with SPSS version 25.0 for Windows. Descriptive statistics was done to determine the profile. Paired t-test at 95% confidence interval was done to check for significant correlation between the mean KPS. Results : A total of 39 consecutive patients were included in the study. There was a slight male preponderance with a M : F of 1.17 : 1. Meningioma and metastasis were more common in females while gliomas and pituitary tumours were more common in males. The mean age of patients was 49.8 years and standard deviation of 11.8 years. Pituitary tumours were the most common tumours. The most common location of the tumour was frontal lobe followed by the pituitary gland. The mean duration of symptoms before neurosurgical consultation was 38 weeks. The most common presenting symptoms of patient with brain tumour was headache. The quality of life improve compare to the baseline in 81% of patient at discharge and at 1 year follow up. The overall mortality rate was 25.6%. Conclusion : The most common brain tumour in our study is pituitary tumour. Most patients present late. The most common presenting symptoms is headache. There is significant improvement in the KPS of patients following treatment. The overall mortality rate at 1-year post treatment is 25.6%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.120-128
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• 2022

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a basic component in the electronics industry and are widely used in nearly all electronic products, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, and digital cameras, as well as in electric equipment. PCB manufacturing involves the use of many chemicals and chemical processes and therefore has more risks than other manufacturing sectors. This study aims to identify the causes of possible accidents during PCB manufacturing through risk assessment, develop and implement safety measures, and evaluate the effectiveness of these measures. Note that the safety measures developed to mitigate the risks of a certain process were also implemented for other similar processes. The risk assessments conducted over seven years, from 2015 to 2021, at a PCB manufacturing company identified 361 hazardous processes. Between 2016 and 2019, 41-56 hazardous processes were identified per year; such processes decreased to fewer than 20 per year after 2020. Application of the risk assessment results to the improvement of the hazardous processes with the similar characteristics seems to be effective in decreasing the risks. Equipment-related factors such as lack of appropriate maintenance, low work standards, and defective protection devices were responsible for 59.8% of all possible accidents. Because PCB manufacturing involves many chemicals, skin contact with hazardous substances, electric shock, fire, and explosion were the most common types of possible accidents (81.7%). In total, 505 safety measures were implemented, including 157 related to purchase and improvement of equipment and devices for safety (31.1%), 147 related to the installation/modification of fire prevention facilities (29.1%), and 69 related to the use of standard electrical appliances (13.7%). Risk assessment conducted after implementing the safety measures showed that these measures significantly decreased risk; 247 processes (68.4%) had a risk level of 3, corresponding to "very low," and 114 processes (31.6%) showed a risk level of 4, corresponding to "low." In particular, risk assessment of 104 processes with risk scores of 12 and 10 other processes with risk score of 16 showed that the risk decreased to 4 after implementing the safety measures. Thus, implementing these measures in similar manufacturing sectors that involve chemical processes can mitigate risk.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.70
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• pp.175-206
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• 2022

In this study, a mixed research method that collects and analyzes qualitative and quantitative data together was used to broaden the understanding of young children's faith. First of all, the contents of interviews with 18 research participants were divided into categories, and the frequency of each category was calculated. From 75 statements made in the interview, the importance of each was evaluated with a 5-point Likert scale. The means and standard deviations of the evaluation score were calculated, and sub-factors were identified through exploratory factor analysis. The frequency of categories mentioned in the qualitative interview was in the following order: faith manifested in difficulties, religious activities, Christian education at home, Christian education in the church, love and faith in God, and the formation of a Christian worldview (identity). The statement on the perception of God, theological concepts, religious activities, and Christian education at home and in the church received high scores. On the other hand, statements on developmentally difficult or abstract content, value judgment or conflict resolution based on the Word, and evangelism showed low scores. The sub-factors extracted through factor analysis were faith education through home and church, awareness of God and religious activities, identity based on the gospel, character based on the gospel, and overcoming a crisis through faith. In conclusion, the results of each of the mixed methods of looking at young children's faith were very similar-relationships with God, religious activities, Christian worldview (identity), Christian education at home and church were highlighted, even though various methods were used. This study is meaningful in that it suggests what and how to teach in early childhood Christian education.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.89-103
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to develop a dietary life education program for adolescents and evaluate its effectiveness. The program was divided into three areas: 'Natam' (taste education), 'Wetam' (traditional dietary life education), and 'Gitam' (sustainable dietary life education), consisting of a total of 10 units primarily focused on cooking activities. For participants aged 14~17 years, face-to-face pilot education was conducted by a trained instructor once a week for 10 weeks. A questionnaire survey was performed to evaluate the educational effect(n=72) and satisfaction(n=82) during education period. Significant improvements were observed in knowledge levels for the 'traditional dietary life education', and 'sustainable dietary life education' which were identified as insufficient in the preliminary survey. Attitude and behavior levels were significantly improved across all areas. Satisfaction was high with a score of 4 out of 5 points for all areas. In conclusion, this program was found to be effective, and further emphasis should be placed on traditional and sustainable dietary life education to enhance its impact.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.128-136
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• 2023

Background: The authors aimed to compare the effects of a one-time ultrasound (US)-guided subacromial corticosteroid injection and three-time ozone (O₂-O₃) injection in patients with chronic supraspinatus tendinopathy. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to the corticosteroid group (n = 22) or ozone group (n = 22). Injections in both groups were administered into subacromial bursa with an US-guided in-plane posterolateral approach. Primary outcome measure was the change in the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index (WORC) score between baseline and 12-weeks post-injection. Secondary outcome measures included visual analog scale and Shoulder Pain and Disability Index scores. Assessments were recorded at baseline, and 4-weeks and 12-weeks post-injection. Results: Forty participants completed this study. Based on repeated measurement analysis of variance, a significant effect of time was found for all outcome measures in both groups. Both the groups showed clinically significant improvements in shoulder pain, quality of life, and function. Baseline, 4-week post-injection, and 12-week post-injection WORC scores (mean ± standard deviation) were 57.91 ± 18.97, 39.10 ± 20.50 and 37.22 ± 27.31 in the corticosteroid group, respectively and 69.03 ± 15.89, 39.11 ± 24.36, and 32.26 ± 24.58 in the ozone group, respectively. However, no significant group × time interaction was identified regarding all outcome measures. Conclusions: Three-time ozone injection was not superior to a one-time corticosteroid injection in patients with chronic supraspinatus tendinopathy. It might be as effective as corticosteroid injection at 4-weeks and 12-weeks post-injection in terms of relieving pain and improving quality of life and function.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.81-90
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• 2009

It is inevitable for college students to be confused when they first face university education, which requires them to be self-reliant and responsible, after finishing their course of education, which is passive under control of period and environment, in primary, middle, and high schools. Introduction to college courses, which require students to be subjective and responsible, to be taken after chronically and environmentally controlled primary and secondary education, are but confusing. In this stage, college education should provide ground for educational system so that students can escape from repetitively enforced way of studying of fixed curriculums and study creatively and subjectively while befitting each individual's aptitude. For instance, in programming classes in engineering school, students scholastic achievements are closely interrelated with the professor's educational principles. A change in method of education, from one previously focused on theoretical contents to one centered on practices and experiments, can reap good results. Also, as the need arose for introduction of practice-focused evaluation system, from recognition-centered professor evaluating system to enablement of actively developing creative and self-reliant way of learning, we applied the Rublic System. It is a feedback system that all or most students become the evaluators, of which the indicators of evaluation such as category, standard, and score are public. We have looked into whether or not there has been an improvement in GPAs of students, and if there exists an improvement then what efforts should be made to solidify the system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3913-3923
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• 2023

Todays, medium energy resolution detectors are preferably used in radioisotope identification devices(RID) in nuclear and radioactive material categorization. However, there is still a need to develop or enhance « automated identifiers » for the useful RID algorithms. To decide whether any material is SNM or NORM, a key parameter is the better energy resolution of the detector. Although masking, shielding and gain shift/stabilization and other affecting parameters on site are also important for successful operations, the suitability of the RID algorithm is also a critical point to enhance the identification reliability while extracting the features from the spectral analysis. In this study, a RID algorithm based on Bayesian statistical method has been modified for medium energy resolution detectors and applied to the uranium gamma-ray spectra taken by a LaBr3:Ce detector. The present Bayesian RID algorithm covers up to 2000 keV energy range. It uses the peak centroids, the peak areas from the measured gamma-ray spectra. The extraction features are derived from the peak-based Bayesian classifiers to estimate a posterior probability for each isotope in the ANSI library. The program operations were tested under a MATLAB platform. The present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm was validated by using single isotopes(²⁴¹Am, ⁵⁷Co, ¹³⁷Cs, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁶⁰Co), and then applied to five standard nuclear materials(0.32-4.51% at.²³⁵U), as well as natural U- and Th-ores. The ID performance of the RID algorithm was quantified in terms of F-score for each isotope. The posterior probability is calculated to be 54.5-74.4% for ²³⁸U and 4.7-10.5% for ²³⁵U in EC-NRM171 uranium materials. For the case of the more complex gamma-ray spectra from CRMs, the total scoring (ST) method was preferred for its ID performance evaluation. It was shown that the present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm can be applied to identify ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U isotopes in LEU or natural U-Th samples if a medium energy resolution detector is was in the measurements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.930-938
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• 2023

Maritime English is a specialized language system designed for ship operations, maritime safety, and external and internal communication onboard. According to the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), it is imperative that navigational officers engaged in international voyages have a thorough understanding of Maritime English including the use of Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP). This study measured students' proficiency in Maritime English using a learning and testing platform that includes voice recognition, translation, and word entry tasks to evaluate the resulting improvement in Maritime English exam scores. Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate the level of platform use needed for cadets to qualify as junior navigators. The experiment began by examining the correlation between students' overall English skills and their proficiency in SMCP through an initial test, followed by the evaluation of improvements in their scores and changes in exam duration during the mid-term and final exams. The initial test revealed a significant dif erence in Maritime English test scores among groups based on individual factors, such as TOEIC scores and self-assessment of English ability, and both the mid-term and final tests confirmed substantial score improvements for the group using the platform. This study confirmed the efficacy of a learning platform that could be extensively applied in maritime education and potentially expanded beyond the scope of Maritime English education in the future.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.125-134
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• 2023

This study attemped to examine the effects of health care nursing policy education on nursing students' political efficacy, political participation, and political interest. It attempted to guide the direction of policy education within nursing curriculum. The subjects consisted of 89 nursing students of G-university from March 8, 2023, to June 21, 2023, including 44 in the experimental group and 45 in the control group. The health care nursing policy class was developed using the ADDIE(Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model of instructional design. Data analysis used the SPSS 25.0 program through mean, standard deviation, and independent sample t-test. The experimental group that participated in this education showed statistically significant improvement in political efficacy(t=2.34, p<.05) and intrinsic political efficacy(t=2.75, p<.05), as well as passive political participation score(t=2.22, p<.05) compared to before the intervention. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that health care nursing policy education should be structured to enhance external political efficacy and promote active political participation in future nursing curriculum.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.225-236
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• 2023

Policy implications were derived by comparing/analyzing innovative SMEs and general SMEs that obtained innovation certification from 2015 to 2021 in terms of survival period. Work experience, scale (employment, capital and debt size, sales and operating profit) Korean standard industry classification (2 digit) was used to select general SMEs similar to innovative SMEs. Survival period was calculated by defining suspension, closure and overdue equivalent to default as events. As a result of the survival analysis, innovative SMEs showed a 9.8% reduction in the risk of delinquency compared to general SMEs, indicating that the survival period of innovative SMEs was significantly longer. In addition, it was found that the work experience and size (employment, capital) of SMEs had a positive effect on the survival period, but debt had a negative effect on the survival period. This means that the innovation certification system centered on innovation capabilities and future growth potential is a significant indicator in terms of survival period. As a result, it was concluded that the benefits and support policies provided by the innovation certification system need to be more systematic and sophisticated by reflecting the work experience and industry for the actual growth and survival of SMEs.