• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.101-107
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• 2022

Purpose: Radiotherapy after bladder filling protocol (BFP) is known to enhance treatment quality and reduce side effects in prostate cancer, a common male solid cancer globally. However, due to the need to hold back urine during treatment, patients frequently complain of discomfort, and treatment is frequently suspended when patients urinate during treatment and urine penetrates the treatment device, causing malfunction. Therefore, the effect of minimizing treatment time when partial-arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) was used instead of full-arc was assessed in this study. Methods: A total of 70 plans were created in 10 patients using 7 different arc sizes, and the treatment time for each plan was calculated. Results: Reduced arc size by half resulted in a 54.4% decrease in mean treatment duration, with a proportional tendency observed. Furthermore, the effect of VMAT arc size reduction on target dose homogeneity was significantly limited, and the effect on surrounding organs at risk (OAR) was negligible. It should be noted, however, that when the arc size decreases by >40%, the dose increases in the area without OAR around the target. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that partial-arc VMAT for enhancing treatment convenience and efficacy of prostate cancer patients undergoing BFP can achieve a considerable reduction in treatment time while preserving treatment quality, and it is expected to be useful for partial-arc VMAT plan design and implementation in practice.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.451-457
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• 2023

This study aims to identify the domestic research trends on nursing leadership and provide basic data that can be used for nursing leadership-related research and intervention development in Korea. To extract topics related to nursing leadership from 335 papers published in domestic academic journals from January 2012 to December 2021, the topic modeling technique was used. Keywords were extracted from abstracts, and literature searches were conducted in five domestic databases including DBpia, KISS, RISS, KM base, and Nanet. The study found that academic papers on nursing leadership have been steadily increasing, with self-leadership, self-efficacy, and education being identified as major topics. In addition, since self-leadership was the most frequently appearing keyword among the types of leadership, the study concluded that research on various forms of leadership should be more actively conducted. These research results are expected to contribute to enhancing understanding of nursing leadership in Korea. This study provides a new perspective on understanding the research trends on nursing leadership in Korea and analyzed the knowledge structure of domestic nursing leadership research, which is meaningful.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2023

Background: Pharmacists communicate with a variety of healthcare experts to prevent medication errors. Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) is a tool used for concise and accurate communication. In 2018, we developed the pharmacy-SBAR (P-SBAR) to deliver pharmacists intervention more quickly and effectively through quality improvement activities. Objectives: This study evaluates the efficacy of P-SBAR on pharmacists' intervention activities before and after the implementation of P-SBAR applications. We assessed the impact of P-SBAR on reducing the burden of intervention work, promoting pharmacists' participation, and enhancing the acceptance rate. Methods: This is a retrospective study of the two groups before and after P-SBAR implementation. All pharmacists' intervention records during two periods (2016-2017 and 2019-2020) were extracted from the data warehouse system at Kyunghee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul. The outcome was the number of inpatients and pharmacists who participated in the prescription monitoring activity, the number of interventions, and the physicians' acceptance rate. Results: Although the total number of inpatients decreased (364,753 vs. 348,229), the number of pharmacists who participated in intervention activity increased (monthly mean: 15.8 vs. 18.0, p=0.001). The total number of interventions (2,767 vs. 4,389), the frequency of full acceptance (2,018 vs. 3,710), and the monthly acceptance rate increased significantly (73.8% vs. 83.8%, p<0.001). Conclusion: P-SBAR improved accessibility and convenience by digitalizing the intervention activities performed in an offline environment. Improvement in work burden and acceptance rate using P-SBAR is expected to contribute toward reducing medication errors.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.46.1-46.12
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• 2023

Background: Heartworm infection in dogs is caused by Dirofilaria immitis and common in shelter animals and outdoors dogs. Caval syndrome can develop with severe infection and physical heartworm removal is essential with heartworm burdens. In this study, we used an improved transvenous heartworm extraction brush, which was expected to cause less cardiovascular damage and allow easier manipulation. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate efficacy of this improved transvenous heartworm extraction brush. Methods: The brush was designed to improve upon the limitations of the previous brush-type devices. The brush was made of a polyvinyl chloride tube and threads of polyamides or polyglyconates. Metal material was inserted at the front tip for easy visualization under fluoroscopy. The eight dogs diagnosed with caval syndrome with large numbers of heartworms and pulmonary hypertension were used in this study. The removal procedure began with the dissection of the subcutaneous tissue around the right jugular vein. The device was inserted through the jugular vein. After insertion, the tube was rotated to catch the heartworms and extracted with the heartworms hanging on the threads. The procedure was repeated several times. Lastly, jugular vein and skin sutures were made. Adulticidal therapy was administered after heartworm removal. Results: The mean number of removed heartworms was 10.5 ± 4.24 and mean number of remaining heartworms was 0.63 ± 1.06. Total procedure time was 72.63 ± 51.36. Except for three cases, heartworms were not detected on ultrasonography after the procedure. No procedure-related side effects were observed within the 1- to 2-mon. Conclusions: An improved transvenous heartworm extraction brush is efficient for heartworm removal in dogs with caval syndrome.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.973-998
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• 2010

This paper aims at assessing the significance of Lyrical Ballads of 1798, the agreed inaugurator of English Romanticism, in terms of such key concepts as poetic "experiments," "conversation," and the authorial function. The 1798 volume marks an interesting incidence in which an author with no tangible substantiality can wield his authorial function over his works. The volume is signed without the named proper noun-its author is neither William Wordsworth nor Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The figure of the author in this case is realized by the poems he writes; he produces, and is produced by, his works-a fact that constitutes part of the poetic experiments manifested in the Advertisement. Working under this reciprocal production, the Author of the 1798 volume and his poems are collectively aiming at establishing a new class of poetry and an interpretive community. The notion of "conversation" is a key element in the thematic, stylistic ties among individual poems. Poems of the 1798 volume effect multi-layered, "blended" voices. Readers are expected to draw out the topological interweaving among poems through the practices of dialogic reading. In this light, the sequential necessity of "The Rime" and "Tintern Abbey" should be emphasized. They are stitched together in a logic of textual placement and the transition from one to the other is never arbitrary. Most of all, they are working under the same authorial function, complementing each other, and addressing the same poetic project in different textual locations. As an inaugural work of English Romanticism, Lyrical Ballads of 1798 in fact makes so many things happen and yet again anticipates something yet to come with elusiveness. The value of this poetic experiments should be judged not only by what is claimed in it, but what it sets out to do and "how far" it will be performed, as implied in the Advertisement. The efficacy of the volume, more than anything else, is dependent upon the performative power of words.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.775-782
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• 2023

In order to overcome practical limitations in installing, managing and operating MRI machines with expensive equipment, this study developed and utilized virtual reality (VR) experience education by combining virtual reality (VR) with magnetic resonance imaging devices. The Students who experienced virtual reality-based educational systems were surveyed to identify possible side effects during the experience and self-directed learning ability and academic self-efficacy surveys were conducted to analyze the impact of virtual reality-based practice on learning. In the analysis of the self-directed learning ability survey there was no difference in the average between the student group who experienced education and the student group who did not but there was a significant difference in the average for each group. Virtual Reality-based practical education is expected to provide an efficient practice system by providing new learning methods and opportunities for education that can be repeated anytime, anywhere regardless of time and space.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.167-185
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify the influence relationship between positive psychological capital, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of tourism guides, and to provide implications through empirical research to increase the capabilities of tourism guides that are a factor in the performance of planned travel products Design/methodology/approach - This study conducted an empirical survey using the google online questionnaire. It was directly surveyed, distributed, and collected from workers who were or were performing tourism guide duties in Asia and Europe, and 203 questionnaires were used for analysis. The empirical survey was conducted in a self-written manner through a simple random sampling method, and the statistical package was conducted with frequency analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and correlation analysis using the spss 21.0 program. Findings - First, among the positive psychological capital factors, two factors, hope and optimism, have a significant positive (+) effect on job satisfaction. Second, among the positive psychological capital factors, two factors, self-efficacy and optimism, have a significant positive (+) effect on organizational commitment. Third, job satisfaction has a significant positive (+) effect on organizational commitment Research implications or Originality - The implications of this study are that the research results have had a positive (+) effect on the variables of positive psychological capital, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of tourism guides, and have laid the foundation for academic research on research topics. In practice, it is expected to increase the positive psychological capital of tourism guides and have a significant impact on the organization's performance by actively supporting and supporting individuals related to the sustainable growth of travel products.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2024

This study assessed the efficacy of improving the accuracy of reservoir water level prediction models by employing automated machine learning models and efficient cross-validation methods for time-series data. Considering the inherent complexity and non-linearity of time-series data related to reservoir water levels, we proposed an optimized approach for model selection and training. The performance of twelve models was evaluated for the Obong Reservoir in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, using the TPOT (Tree-based Pipeline Optimization Tool) and four cross-validation methods, which led to the determination of the optimal pipeline model. The pipeline model consisting of Extra Tree, Stacking Ridge Regression, and Simple Ridge Regression showed outstanding predictive performance for both training and test data, with an R² (Coefficient of determination) and NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency) exceeding 0.93. On the other hand, for predictions of water levels 12 hours later, the pipeline model selected through time-series split cross-validation accurately captured the change pattern of time-series water level data during the test period, with an NSE exceeding 0.99. The methodology proposed in this study is expected to greatly contribute to the efficient generation of reservoir water level predictions in regions with high rainfall variability.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.21
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• 2022

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the number of cancer patients is expected to continuously increase in the future. Traditional cancer therapies focus on inhibiting cancer growth while largely ignoring the contribution of the immune system in eliminating cancer cells. Recently, better understanding of immunological mechanisms pertaining to cancer progress has led to development of several immunotherapies, which revolutionized cancer treatment. Nonetheless, only a small proportion of cancer patients respond to immunotherapy and maintain a durable response. Among multiple factors contributing to the variability of immunotherapy response rates, commensal microbiota inhabiting patients have been identified as one of the most critical factors determining the success of immunotherapy. The functional diversity of microbiota differentially affects the host immune system and controls the efficacy of immunotherapy in individual cancer patients. Moreover, clinical studies have demonstrated that changing the gut microbiota composition by fecal microbiota transplantation in patients who failed a previous immunotherapy converts them to responders of the same therapy. Consequently, both academic and industrial researchers are putting extensive efforts to identify and develop specific bacteria or bacteria mixtures for cancer immunotherapy. In this review, we will summarize the immunological roles of commensal microbiota in cancer treatment and give specific examples of bacteria that show anticancer effect when administered as a monotherapy or as an adjuvant agent for immunotherapy. We will also list ongoing clinical trials testing the anticancer effect of commensal bacteria.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.373-388
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• 2023

Objectives : This study aimed to provide basic data for research by investigating non-clinical experimental studies on herbal medicines and its compounds for precocious puberty. Methods : A search was conducted for all literature until October 2023 using combinations of keywords such as precocious puberty, puberty, and chinese medicine in three databases (Pubmed, OASIS, and ScienceON). Results : 1. In animal experiments, studies were mainly conducted using a model that induced precocious puberty by subcutaneously administering danazol to SD rats on the 5th day after birth, and in cell experiments, precocious puberty was induced by treating GT1-7 cells with kisspeptin 10 or estradiol. 2. Anemarrhenae Rhizoma, Phellodendri Cortex, and Prunellae Spica were mainly used as herbal medicine to evaluate their efficacy on precocious puberty in non-clinical experiments. 3. Macroscopic observation, hematological analysis, histological analysis, and genetic analysis were performed as methods to analyze the experimental results. Conclusions : In this study, the effects of herbal medicine on precocious puberty and non-clinical research methods were confirmed. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that non-clinical effectiveness and mechanism research on materials that are clinically effective in Traditional Korean Medicine will be revitalized.