• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.540-549
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• 2017

Objective : To evaluate the diagnostic value of computed tomography-myelography (CTM) compared to that of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with lumbar radiculopathy. Methods : The study included 91 patients presenting with radicular leg pain caused by herniated nucleus pulposus or lateral recess stenosis in the lumbar spine. The degree of nerve root compression on MRI and CTM was classified into four grades. The results of each imaging modality as assessed by two different observers were compared. Visual analog scale score for pain and electromyography result were the clinical parameters used to evaluate the relationships between clinical features and nerve root compression grades on both MRI and CTM. These relationships were quantified by calculating the receiver-operating characteristic curves, and the degree of relationship was compared between MRI and CTM. Results : McNemar's test revealed that the two diagnostic modalities did not show diagnostic concurrence (p<0.0001). Electromyography results did not correlate with grades on either MRI or CTM. The visual analog pain scale score results were correlated better with changes of the grades on CTM than those on MRI (p=0.0007). Conclusion : The present study demonstrates that CTM could better define the pathology of degenerative lumbar spine diseases with radiculopathy than MRI. CTM can be considered as a useful confirmative diagnostic tool when the exact cause of radicular pain in a patient with lumbar radiculopathy cannot be identified by using MRI. However, the invasiveness and potential complications of CTM are still considered to be pending questions to settle.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.266-275
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• 2015

Purpose: The objective of this study was to verify the effects of elastic-band exercise on pain, range of motion, and fear of falling in patients with total knee replacement. Methods: The study design was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized quasi-experimental design. Data were collected from December 10, 2014 to January 10, 2015 in an orthopedic specialty hospital located in the C city. Forty-eight patients participated in the study, and each twenty-four were assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The elastic-band exercise was used with the experimental group for 10 days. The numeric rating scale was used to measure pain, goniometer to measure range of motion, and a questionnaire to measure fear of falling. The data were analyzed using $x^2-test$, Fisher's exact, t-test and paired t-test. Results: Compared to the control group, pain in the experimental group decreased (t=-2.89, p=.006), range of motion increased (t=2.98, p=.005), and fear of falling decreased (t=-4.63 p<.001). Conclusion: The elastic-band exercise for total knee replacement patients is considered to be an effective nursing intervention to decrease pain and fear of falling, and to increase range of motion.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2015

Background: Source material used to fill calvarial defects includes autologous bones and synthetic alternatives. While autologous bone is preferable to synthetic material, autologous reconstruction is not always feasible due to defect size, unacceptable donor-site morbidity, and other issues. Today, advanced three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques allow for fabrication of titanium implants customized to the exact need of individual patients with calvarial defects. In this report, we present three cases of calvarial reconstructions using 3D-printed porous titanium implants. Methods: From 2013 through 2014, three calvarial defects were repaired using custom-made 3D porous titanium implants. The defects were due either to traumatic subdural hematoma or to meningioma and were located in parieto-occipital, fronto-temporo-parietal, and parieto-temporal areas. The implants were prepared using individual 3D computed tomography (CT) data, Mimics software, and an electron beam melting machine. For each patient, several designs of the implant were evaluated against 3D-printed skull models. All three cases had a custom-made 3D porous titanium implant laid on the defect and rigid fixation was done with 8 mm screws. Results: The custom-made 3D implants fit each patient's skull defect precisely without any dead space. The operative site healed without any specific complications. Postoperative CTs revealed the implants to be in correct position. Conclusion: An autologous graft is not a feasible option in the reconstruction of large calvarial defects. Ideally, synthetic materials for calvarial reconstruction should be easily applicable, durable, and strong. In these aspects, a 3D titanium implant can be an optimal source material in calvarial reconstruction.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.543-548
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• 2019

The tonal signal caused by the machinery component of a vessel such as an engine, gearbox, and support elements, can be modeled as a sparse signal in the frequency domain. Recently, compressive sensing based techniques that recover an original signal using a small number of measurements in a short period of time, have been applied for the tonal frequency detection. These techniques, however, cannot avoid a basis mismatch error caused by the discretization of the frequency domain. In this paper, we propose a method to detect the tonal frequency with a small number of measurements in the continuous domain by using the atomic norm minimization technique. From the simulation results, we demonstrate that the proposed technique outperforms conventional methods in terms of the exact recovery ratio and mean square error.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.239-250
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of Labor Support Behaviors (LSB) one-to-one application and partner's delivery participation on the delivery satisfaction and delivery results among mothers who delivered premature birth and low birth weight infant. Methods: The data were collected from 30 mothers in the experimental group and 27 in the control group from April 23, 2009 to April 22, 2010. The collected data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, $x^2-test$ (Fisher's exact test) and t-test with SPSS. Results: The satisfaction levels of the experimental group and the control group women were $3.73{\pm}0.43$ and $3.72{\pm}0.34$ as mean values, respectively, showing not statistically different (t=0.07, p=.945). None showed less than 7 point of Apgar score at 1 minute in the experimental group while 5 out of 27 did (18.5%) in the control group, which was statistically meaningful. Also, the emergent cesarian section cases were 3 out of 33 (9.1%) in the experimental group and 5 out of 32 (15.6%) in the control group, demonstrating lower emergency cesarian section rate in the experimental group than the control group, but showing not statistically different ($x^2=0.643$, p=.475). Conclusion: The results of this study show that LSB one-to-one application and partner's participation has affirmative effects on 1 minute Apgar scores of newborns.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.262-274
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• 2011

Purpose: To identify the effects of clinical practicum reinforcement program on nursing student's clinical competency and satisfaction in the ICU. Methods: The study utilized a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest research design. The participant was 76 senior nursing students, who were engaged in two week-long clinical practicum in ICU at the C university hospital in a G city, Korea. The clinical practicum reinforcement program was applied to the experimental group (n=39), while the control group (n=37) was involved in the conventional practicum program. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, $x^2$/Fisher's exact test, and t-test, ANCOVA with SPSS/WIN 18.0 program. Results: After 2 weeks' clinical practicum, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in the clinical performance abilities by self evaluation, when compared to the control group. Clinical instructor's evaluation on the student's clinical performance revealed that the experimental group showed higher level in nursing activity than that of the control group (p<.001). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the satisfaction on the clinical practicum program except the learning guidance and the evaluation. Conclusion: The clinical practicum reinforcement program is an effective one for improving the student's clinical competency.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.268-280
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• 2021

Purpose: The study is examined the effects of the smoking cessation program of life skills training using flipped learning for male middle school students. Methods: The study was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design. The Smoking Cessation Program of life skills training using flipped learning is a Smoking Cessation Program that applied 5 stages of flipped learning such as before class, introductory class, during class, after class, and during work. Participants were 32 male students attending a middle school in D city, with 16 in the control group and 16 in the experiment group. Data collection was conducted from February 26, 2019 to May 14, 2019 for the control group, and from May 28, 2019 to August 19, 2019 for the experiment group. The collected smoking knowledge, smoking attitude, self-efficacy, basic psychological needs, and urine cotinine were analyzed by x² test, independent t-test, two-way repeated measured ANOVA, and Fishers exact test using the SPSS 25.0 program. Results: The experimental group showed higher smoking knowledge, smoking attitude, self-efficacy, basic psychological need, and urine cotinine negative response than the control group, and there were significant differences. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the Smoking Cessation Program of life skill training using flipped learning is an effective intervention for cessation of middle school male students, and it has a positive effect on the increase in urine cotinine, and a physiological indicator of the cessation effect, and is effective in the success of smoking cessation.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.446-453
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• 2021

Background: Plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter (microplastics) are well-known for causing various toxicities such as lung inflammation, oxidative stress, genotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. As microplastics become smaller, they can move across cell membranes, the placenta, and the blood-brain barrier. Objectives: We evaluated the toxicities of polyethylene microplastics (PE-PMs) in dams and neonates through intragastric intubation of pregnant ICR mice. Methods: Low concentrations (0.01 mg/mouse/day) and high concentrations (0.1 mg/mouse/day) of polyethylene microplastics were administered from the ninth day of pregnancy to postnatal day seven. The control group was administered with distilled water. On the day of sacrifice, the weight of dams and neonates and the organ weight of neonates was measured. Further, acetylcholinesterase levels and glutathione peroxidase levels were evaluated by using a blood sample obtained on the sacrifice day. Results: No significant difference in the number of neonates was found, but the body weight gain of dams was seen to be lower in the low-dose group. On the other hand, we observed a consecutively declining trend in the weight gain and organ weight of neonates among the high-, control, and low-dose groups. Meanwhile, the serum acetylcholinesterase and glutathione peroxidase level were higher in the low-dose group compared to the control group. Further, the dose-dependent accumulation of microplastics in the organs of neonates revealed the transport of plastic particles from dams to their offspring. Conclusions: Although the exact mechanism of toxicity caused by microplastics could not be confirmed, it was validated that exposure to microplastics during pregnancy and lactation causes its migration between generations and accumulation throughout the body. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate the systemic toxicity of microplastics and assessment of co-morbidities such as second-generation toxicity, neurotoxicity, and depression following long-term exposure.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.182-189
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• 2021

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between sleep quality during pregnancy and preterm birth. Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted between August 2018 and May 2019. The participants were 150 pregnant women who had been referred to 7 healthcare centers in the city of Qazvin, Iran and met the inclusion criteria. The Petersburg Sleep Quality Index, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and 2 questions about daytime sleep status and a demographic questionnaire were administered at 14-18 weeks and 28-32 weeks of gestation. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test, the Fisher exact test, and univariate and multivariable logistic regression. Results: In the present study, poor sleep quality affected 84.7% of the participants at 14-18 weeks and 93.3% at 28-32 weeks of gestation. The final model for preterm birth prediction incorporated age and the Petersburg Sleep Quality Index score in the second and third trimesters. Preterm birth increased by 14% with each unit increase in age. With each unit increase in the Petersburg Sleep Quality Index score in the second and third trimesters, preterm birth increased by 42% and 28%, respectively, but the p-values of these factors were not significant. Conclusions: Although a significant percentage of pregnant women had poor sleep quality, no significant relationship was found between sleep quality during pregnancy and preterm birth.

• Neurospine
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.383-387
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• 2018

Objective: Lower back pain (LBP) is a worldwide health problem, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a common modality used to aid in its diagnosis. Although specific guidelines for assessing the necessity of MRI usage exist, the use of MRI as the initial imaging method for LBP seems to be more common than necessary in general practice. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 313 patients who had undergone MRI of the lumbosacral spine during 2014-2015. We recorded and compared various factors, including age, sex, body mass index, current smoking status, race, symptoms, MRI findings, and progression to surgery within the next year. All rates were compared according to whether the MRI results showed radiographically significant findings (MRI-positive) or not (MRI-negative) using the chi-square or Fisher exact tests (if the expected cell count was <5). All analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in the rates of each symptom between the MRI-positive and MRI-negative groups, which accounted for 58.5% (183 of 313) and 41.5% (130 of 313) of the MRIs, respectively. The difference in the rate of surgery in the next year (18% among MRI-positive patients and 8.5% among MRI-negative patients) was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on our findings, 41.5% of patients underwent lumbar MRI unnecessarily and 81% of patients with positive MRIs did not have surgery within the next year. Further physician training is needed to avoid unnecessary investigations and expenditures.