• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2022

Background: Percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy (PTED) has been widely used in the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases. Epidural injection of steroids can reduce the incidence and duration of postoperative pain in a short period of time. Although steroids are widely believed to reduce the effect of surgical trauma, the observation indicators are not uniform, especially the long-term effects, so the problem remains controversial. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of epidural steroids following PTED. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Database from 1980 to June 2021 to identify randomized and non-randomized controlled trials comparing epidural steroids and saline alone following PTED. The primary outcomes included postoperative pain at least 6 months as assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The secondary outcomes included length of hospital stay and the time of return to work. Results: A total of 451 patients were included in three randomized and two non-randomized controlled trials. The primary outcomes, including VAS and ODI scores, did not differ significantly between epidural steroids following PTED and saline alone. There were no significant intergroup differences in length of hospital stay. Epidural steroids were shown to be superior in terms of the time to return to work (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Intraoperative epidural steroids did not provide significant benefits, leg pain control, improvement in ODI scores, and length of stay in the hospital, but it can enable the patient to return to work faster.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.334-342
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• 2022

Nowadays, as we can notice on social media, most users choose to use more than one language in their online postings. Thus, social media analytics needs reviewing as code-switching analytics instead of traditional analytics. This paper aims to present evidence comparable to the accuracy of code-switching analytics techniques in analysing the mood state of social media users. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to study the social media analytics that examined the effectiveness of code-switching analytics techniques. One primary question and three sub-questions have been raised for this purpose. The study investigates the computational models used to detect and measures emotional well-being. The study primarily focuses on online postings text, including the extended text analysis, analysing and predicting using past experiences, and classifying the mood upon analysis. We used thirty-two (32) papers for our evidence synthesis and identified four main task classifications that can be used potentially in code-switching analytics. The tasks include determining analytics algorithms, classification techniques, mood classes, and analytics flow. Results showed that CNN-BiLSTM was the machine learning algorithm that affected code-switching analytics accuracy the most with 83.21%. In addition, the analytics accuracy when using the code-mixing emotion corpus could enhance by about 20% compared to when performing with one language. Our meta-analyses showed that code-mixing emotion corpus was effective in improving the mood analytics accuracy level. This SLR result has pointed to two apparent gaps in the research field: i) lack of studies that focus on Malay-English code-mixing analytics and ii) lack of studies investigating various mood classes via the code-mixing approach.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2023

Objective : Rathke's cleft cysts (RCCs) are nonneoplastic cysts. Most of them are asymptomatic and stable; when symptomatic, RCCs are surgically fenestrated and drained. However, the outcomes remain unclear. The authors evaluated the outcomes of RCC decompression. Methods : Between 2004 and 2019, 32 RCCs were decompressed in a single tertiary institution. The clinical characteristics, intraoperative findings, postoperative complications, and endocrinological and surgical outcomes were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who underwent sequential imaging at least twice and at least 12 months after surgery were included in the analysis. Results : Patients' mean age was 40.8±14.9 years, and 62.5% were women. The mean follow-up duration was 62.3±48.6 months. In 21 patients (65.6%), no residual cysts were identified on postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Of the 18 patients with preoperative visual field defects, 17 (94.4%) experienced postoperative visual improvement. Postoperative complications included endocrinological deterioration in 11 patients (34.4%), permanent diabetes insipidus in 11 (34.4%), infection in four (12.5%), intrasellar hemorrhage in three (9.4%), and cerebrospinal fluid leak in two (6.3%). Follow-up images revealed cyst recurrence in nine patients (28.1%), an average of 20.4 months after surgery; in three patients, the cysts were symptomatic, and resection was repeated. Multivariable analysis revealed that postoperative endocrinological deterioration was the only independent factor associated with cyst recurrence (p=0.028; hazard ratio, 6.800). Conclusion : Our findings showed that although only cyst fenestration for decompression was performed to preserve pituitary function, more pituitary dysfunction occurred than expected. Besides, the postoperative hormonal deterioration itself acted as a risk factor for cyst recurrence. In conclusion, surgery for RCC should be more careful.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether comparing the pressure pain threshold (PPT) with an algometer before and after treatment for functional dyspepsia is of diagnostic value and investigate a possible correlation between PPT measured using an algometer and symptom improvement before and after treatment. Methods: A total of 99 patients with functional dyspepsia symptoms admitted to the OO Korean Medical Hospital from April 14, 2020 to January 21, 2021 were investigated. On the 1st and 14th days of hospitalization, the pressure of the first pain complaint at acupuncture points Juque (巨厥, CV14), Shangwan (上脘, CV13), Zhongwan (中脘, CV12), Xiawan (下脘, CV10), Guanuan (關元, CV4), Tianshu (天樞, ST25), and Daju (大巨, ST27) was measured using the algometer, and the visual analog scale (VAS) scores for patient's symptoms were evaluated. The algometer PPT and patient-symptom VAS scores were compared by repeated measures corresponding to the sample t-test to analyze the changes after treatment. A correlation analysis was performed to identify the correlation between patient-symptom VAS scores and algometer PPT. Results: The PPT measured using the algometer significantly increased after treatment in the 99 patients. The patient-symptom VAS score decreased significantly in most cases as treatment progressed. Analysis of the correlation between algometer PPT and patient-symptom VAS scores revealed some notable negative correlations. Conclusion: The algometer can help to set the diagnostic and treatment baselines for patients with functional dyspepsia.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.660-669
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• 2020

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of a deep learning-based automated segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) myocardium using cardiac CT. Materials and Methods: To develop a fully automated algorithm, 100 subjects with coronary artery disease were randomly selected as a development set (50 training / 20 validation / 30 internal test). An experienced cardiac radiologist generated the manual segmentation of the development set. The trained model was evaluated using 1000 validation set generated by an experienced technician. Visual assessment was performed to compare the manual and automatic segmentations. In a quantitative analysis, sensitivity and specificity were calculated according to the number of pixels where two three-dimensional masks of the manual and deep learning segmentations overlapped. Similarity indices, such as the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), were used to evaluate the margin of each segmented masks. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of automated segmentation for each segment (1-16 segments) were high (85.5-100.0%). The DSC was 88.3 ± 6.2%. Among randomly selected 100 cases, all manual segmentation and deep learning masks for visual analysis were classified as very accurate to mostly accurate and there were no inaccurate cases (manual vs. deep learning: very accurate, 31 vs. 53; accurate, 64 vs. 39; mostly accurate, 15 vs. 8). The number of very accurate cases for deep learning masks was greater than that for manually segmented masks. Conclusion: We present deep learning-based automatic segmentation of the LV myocardium and the results are comparable to manual segmentation data with high sensitivity, specificity, and high similarity scores.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.217-229
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• 2024

This paper presents results of visual analysis of cracks formation and propagation of concretes made of quaternary binders (QBC). A composition of the two most commonly used mineral additives, i.e. fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) in combination with nanosilica (nS), has been proposed as a partial replacement of the cement. The principal objective of the present study is to achieve information about the effect of simultaneous incorporation of three pozzolans as partial replacement to the OPC on the fracture processes in concretes made from quaternary binders (QBC). The modern and precise non-contact measurement method (NCMM) via digital image correlation (DIC) technique was used, during the studies. In the course of experiments it was established that the substitution of OPC with three pozzolans including the nanoadditive in FA+SF+nS FA+SF+nS combination causes a clear change of brittleness and behavior during fractures in QBCs. It was found that the shape of cracks in unmodified concrete was quasi-linear. Substitution of the binder by SCMs resulted in a slight heterogeneity of the structure of the QBC, including only SF and nS, and clear heterogeneity for concretes with the FA additive. In addition, as content of FA rises throughout each of QBC series, material becomes more ductile and shows less brittle failure. It means that an increase in the FA content in the concrete mix causes a significant change in fracture process in this composite in comparison to concrete with the addition of silica modifiers only.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.334-345
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• 2024

With the advent of Metaverse, a promising new era for business on virtual reality (VR) platforms has dawned. In this rapidly expanding Metaverse platform, the potential for virtual fashion marketing through avatars is vast, with leading fashion brands already making strides by creating virtual fashion stores or hosting virtual fashion shows. However, the research on fashion-related industries in this newly emerging virtual world platform is still in its infancy. This study sought to identify the relationship between the characteristics of the Metaverse and the factors that influence how the perceived value of virtual fashion products affects purchase intention. A survey was conducted with three hundred Korean respondents, and the hypothesis was verified through analysis using the SPSS statistical program. Our analysis revealed that the sense of presence significantly influences the value of fashion products on the Metaverse platform. As a result, the sense of presence significantly influenced the emotional, visual authority, and economic value of the avatar virtual fashion perceived by users. Second, enjoyment, visual authority, and economic value influence users' intention to purchase virtual fashion items. In addition, all of these perceived value factors were confirmed to have a significant partial mediating effect on the impact of the presence of the Metaverse platform on the purchase intention. Through this study, we empirically analyzed the causal relationship between the characteristics of the Metaverse platform and the virtual fashion experience using avatars - a topic that has yet to be covered. We formed new insights into virtual fashion consumption, providing primary data for related research streams. Our survey respondents consisted only of those with recent Metaverse experience, so the research results were highly effective.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.48-68
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• 2024

Due to the global pandemic aftermath of the coronavirus, the importance of health care is being emphasized more socially. Due to the influence of these changes, domestic pharmaceutical companies have introduced regular drug delivery services, that is, drug and health functional food subscription services. Currently, this market is continuously growing. However, these regular services are causing new environmental problems in which the number of waste drugs increases due to the presence of unused drugs. Therefore, this study proposes a service that not only promotes health management through regular medication adherence to reduce the amount of pharmaceutical waste but also aims to improve awareness and practices regarding proper medication disposal. As a preliminary survey for service design, a preliminary survey was conducted on 51 adults to confirm their perception of drug use habits and waste drug collection. Based on the Honey Comb model, a guideline for service design was created, and a prototype was produced by specifying the service using the preliminary survey results and service design methodology. In order to verify the effectiveness of the prototype, a first user task survey was conducted to identify the problems of the prototype, and after improving this, a second usability test was conducted on 49 adults to confirm the versatility of the service. Usability verification was conducted using SPSS Mac version 29.0. For the evaluation results of the questionnaire, Spearmann Correlation Analysis was conducted to confirm the relationship between frequency analysis and evaluation items. This study presents specific solutions to the problem of waste drugs due to the spread of drug subscription services.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.115-124
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• 2014

This study has carried out scanning tests in order to figure out the features of scanning search by sex of space users, with the result of which the validity of data has been estimated. In this research, the scanning patterns were set up for verifying the typology of scanning paths and then the reason for determining scanning paths and the validity of estimation method were reviewed. Since the observation features depends on sex, the analysis of visual activities for acquiring any information in a space will reveal the intention and purpose of space users. The findings by analyzing the features of scanning pattern by sex which were found at the determination of scanning patterns can be defined as the followings. First, for estimating the process of space-information search, the movement distance at each point of continuative-observation data from the angle of eye-movement has been extracted, on the ground of which the fixation and movement of eye have been defined for the establishment of scanning-cut characteristics. Second, the scanning times were estimated for the extraction of effective observation data that would be used for comparative analysis, which showed that men had more data (3,398.2/64.4%) than women (2,998.2/55.6%). This enables the acknowledgment that the scanning cut of men was relatively less, which indicates that men will acquire more information on space than women in the process of observing any space. Third, men's scanning times (58.0 times/2.02 seconds) were less than those of women (71.9 times/1.39 seconds) while the scanning time of the former was longer than that of the latter, which shows the feature that it takes longer for men than women in scanning while the scanning times of the former is less than those of the latter. Fourth, the observation features can be determined that the combination of this result with the predominance character by sex for a general viewpoint to be employed indicates that while men employ mixed-scanning for observation activities to acquire space-information spending for longer time, women, by concentrated-scanning, focus on a single point for shorter time or stay at one location for a considerably long time for space-information acquirement.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.231-237
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between the preferred sensation type and speech sounds, especially on $F_0$ and the speech rates. Data for the sensation types and speech sounds were collected from 36 undergraduate and graduate students (17 male, 19 female). Subjects were asked to read a given text (400 syllables), describe a drawing, and give answers to some questions. We measured speakers' $F_0$ and speech rates. The results show that type V (Visual) has the correlation with the speech rates when type D (Digital) was ruled out, and type A (Auditory) has the correlation with the speech rates when type D was included. Furthermore, the analysis of the mean values of V, A, K (Visual, Auditory, Kinethetic) indicates that type V is characterized with faster speech rates and higher $F_0$ in all parts except for interview and the same is true for that of V, A, K, D (Visual, Auditory, Kinethetic, Digital) in all parts. In conclusion, this study proved that the preferred sensation type has the correlation with $F_0$ and speech rates. Based on the results of this study, $F_0$ and speech rates can be used to analyze the sensation types for individualized education as well as consultation. In addition, this study has great significance in that it lays a foundation for the study on the correlation between a preferred sensation type and speech sounds.