• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.98-105
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• 2022

Objectives: Low back pain (LBP) is a common chronic condition among sedentary workers that causes long-term productivity loss. This study aimed to identify the relationships of individual and occupational factors with LBP among Bangladeshi online professionals. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 468 full-time online professionals who usually worked in a sitting position. One-month LBP complaints were assessed using a musculoskeletal subscale of subjective health complaints. The chi-square test was used to measure associations between categorical predictors and LBP, and multivariable logistic regression was conducted to identify the variables significantly associated with LBP. Results: LBP within the last month was reported by 65.6% of participants. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that age >30 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23 to 0.70) and being married (aOR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.97) had significant negative associations with LBP. Significant positive associations were found for spending >50 hours weekly on average working in a sitting position (aOR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.49), being overweight and obese (aOR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.99), sleeping on a soft mattress (aOR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.06 to 3.80), and ex-smoking status (aOR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.41 to 7.87). Conclusions: A high prevalence of LBP was found among full-time online professionals. Long working hours in a sitting position showed a significant association with developing LBP. Smoking history, body mass index, and sleeping arrangements should also be considered while considering solutions for LBP prevalence among online professionals.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2021

In this study, we suggest a new method to estimate the mass of a halo coronal mass ejection (CME) using synthetic CMEs. For this, we generate synthetic CMEs based on two assumptions: (1) the CME structure is a full ice-cream cone, (2) the CME electron density follows a power-law distribution (ρ_cme=ρ₀r^-n). The power-law exponent n is obtained by minimizing the root mean square error between the electron number density distributions of an observed CME and the corresponding synthetic CME at a position angle of the CME leading edge. By applying this methodology to 57 halo CMEs, we estimate two kinds of synthetic CME mass. One is a synthetic CME mass which considers only the observed CME region (M_cme1), the other is a synthetic CME mass which includes both the observed CME region and the occulted area larger than 4 solar radii (M_cme2). From these two cases, we derive conversion factors which are the ratio of a synthetic CME mass to an observed CME mass. The conversion factor for M_cme1 ranges from 1.4 to 3.0 and its average is 2.0. For M_cme2, the factor ranges from 1.8 to 5.0 with the average of 3.0. These results imply that the observed halo CME mass can be underestimated by about 2 times when we consider the observed CME region, and about 3 times when we consider the region including the occulted area. Interestingly these conversion factors have a very strong negative correlation with angular widths of halo CMEs.We also compare the results with the CME mass estimated from STEREO observations.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.29-52
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• 2024

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the effect of herbal medicines on alopecia areata (AA). Methods We searched 10 Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese databases for studies published until April 3, 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect of herbal medicines on AA were included. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to evaluate the quality of the studies. A meta-analysis was conducted according to outcome measurements, such as total effective rate (TER), full recovery rate, and recurrence rate, using the Review Manager software. Results Seventeen RCTs were included in this study, and the TER in the treatment group was 1.48 times higher than that in the control group [Risk ratio (RR): 1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.40~1.55, I² = 43%]. The full recovery rate was 2.25 times higher in the treatment group [RR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.62~3.12, I² = 53%], and the recurrence rate was 0.22 times lower, than that of the control group [RR: 0.22, 95% CI: 0.070~0.68, I² = 0%]. Four studies reported that there were no adverse events. Four studies reported mild gastric discomfort, a mild increase in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and constipation in the treatment group. Conclusions Our meta-analysis showed that herbal medicines are significantly effective in treating AA. However, owing to the low quality of the included studies, future clinical studies are required to determine their potential for clinical applications.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.820-828
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• 2015

This study was carried out to determine the effects of vernalization, temperature, and soil water deficit (SD) on mesophyll cells, growth, and yield of Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L). The palisade parenchyma and spongy tissues of Chinese cabbage were observed under full irrigation and two weeks of SD treatment. These cells were severely collapsed by four weeks SD treatment. The SD treatment had the greatest influence on the growth of Chinese cabbage among the tested treatment factors (vernalization, temperature, and SD), growth significantly decreased by severe drought treatment (four weeks SD treatment). In addition, the relative growth rate, unit leaf rate, leaf area ratio, specific leaf area, and leaf weight ratio were significantly affected by SD treatment; however, other individual factors and their combined treatments did not influence the analyzed growth parameters. The yield under vernalization after high temperature and full irrigation treatments was 3,056 kg/10 a, which was the greatest among all the tested treatments, while four-week SD treatment significantly reduced the yield. Head formation of Chinese cabbage was not altered under SD treatment, and vernalization treatments did not induce bolting. Our results indicated that collapsing mesophyll cells and reduced growth and yield were induced by SD treatment. Thus we suggest that optimal irrigation system should be install to avoid or overcome crippling drought conditions in the open field.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.43 no.1 s.307
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• pp.53-66
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• 2006

This paper proposes the combined image retrieval system that gives the same relevance as exhaustive search method while its performance can be considerably improved. This system is combined with two different retrieval methods and each gives the same results that full exhaustive search method does. Both of them are two-stage method. One uses condensation of feature vectors, and the other uses binary-tree clustering. These two methods extract the candidate images that always include correct answers at the first stage, and then filter out the incorrect images at the second stage. Inasmuch as these methods use equal algorithm, they can get the same result as full exhaustive search. The first method condenses the dimension of feature vectors, and it uses these condensed feature vectors to compute similarity of query and images in database. It can be found that there is an optimal condensation ratio which minimizes the overall retrieval time. The optimal ratio is applied to first stage of this method. Binary-tree clustering method, searching with recursive 2-means clustering, classifies each cluster dynamically with the same radius. For preserving relevance, its range of query has to be compensated at first stage. After candidate clusters were selected, final results are retrieved by computing similarities again at second stage. The proposed method is combined with above two methods. Because they are not dependent on each other, combined retrieval system can make a remarkable progress in performance.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.41-45
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• 2002

The low-field tunnel-type magnetoresistance (MR) properties of sol-gel derived $La_{0.7}Pb_{0.3}MnO_3(LPMO)$ thin film deposited on different substrate have been investigated. Polycrystalline thin films were fabricated by spin-coating on $SiO_2/Si(100)$ substrate and that with yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) buffer layer, while c-axis-oriented thim film was grown on $LaAlO_3(001)$ (LAO) single crystal substrate. The full width half maximum (FWHM) of the rocking curve scan of LPMO/LAO film is $0.32^{\circ}$. Tunnel-type MR ratio is 0.52 % in $LPMO/SiO_2/Si$(100) film and that of $LPMO/YSZ/SiO_2/Si$(100) film is as high as 0.68 %, whereas that of LPMO/LAO(001) film is less than 0.4 % under the applied field of 500 Oe at 300 K. Well-pronounced MR hysteresis was registered with an MR peak in the vicinity of the coercive field. The low-field tunnel-type MR characteristics of thin films deposited on different substrates originates from the behavior of grain boundary properties.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.256-260
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• 2012

This study was carried out to improve the fruit color through ABA treatment and to determine the optimum harvest time for producing high quality fruits in 'Hongisul' grapes. Spraying of $1000 mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ exogenous ABA at early verasion (70 days after full bloom, DAFB) brought increase of endogenous ABA and soluble solid contents and enhanced fruit coloration. So, it was possible to harvest ABA treated fruits from 85 days after full bloom (15 days after treatment) by accelerated anthocyanin content which increased continuously until 110 DAFB. An increase of soluble solid and decrease of total acidity appeared steadily with the onset of berry ripening. After 100 DAFB, soluble solid content and total acidity did not change significantly, but the berry firmness was suddenly decreased. Consequently, it was suggested that ABA treated fruits need to be harvested at about 100 DAFB because of their short period of marketing by over ripening. On the contrary, harvesting of untreated fruit was totally impossible at 85 DAFB because of their poor berry coloration. But it was possible to harvest them at 100 DAFB based on the soluble solid/acidity ratio, whereas the berry coloration was progressed poorly. On the other hand, the fruits harvested at 110 DAFB showed acceptable berry coloration but their berry firmness was dropped significantly coincide with overripening. Therefore, it was needed to develop an altered production system for improving coloration at around 100 DAFB in 'Hongisul' grapes.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.125-133
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• 2009

Wastewater sludge had normally filled up in land before revising the law of waste material management in 2003, which does not permit landfill of organic sludge in Korea. After the law, most sludge has been littered in the ocean up to now. However, due to the London Convention 96 Protocol, littering sludge in the ocean will also be prohibited after 2011. This Protocol makes countries find out new methods to treat wastewater sludge. There is no exception in Korea too. Many researchers have urgently try to find out better ways to treat sludge. One of ways is to make sludge recycle energy and the success of it depends on drying method. Specifically, it really depends how to make sludge dry ecologic friendly and economic efficiently. Therefore, wastewater sludge produced in Youngdong was analyzed to make it energy resources in this study. The sludge was tested to analyze the drying and chemical characteristics of it by irradiating microwave. In the result, it is sure that the sludge has little heavy metals as like as others in country side. High calories, 3370 Kcal, shows that it has good potential to be recycle energy. Moreover, weight deduction of the sludge vs. time shows long S-curve and has same deduction ratio. Specifically, S-curve can be divided by three sections based on the curvature points. There are steady state reduction ratio of weight and approximately 80% of weight duction in the second section. This results can be used to estimate the amount of sludge reduction in the full-scale microwave dryer. Drying capacity of microwave shows approximately 1.0 kg/kw/hr. It makes sure that sludge recycle energy has the potential of economic efficiency too.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2011

Composite membranes based on sulfonated poly(aryl ether) sulfone (SPAES) with different sulfated zirconia nanoparticles ($s-ZrO_2$) ratio are synthesized and investigated for the improvement of the hydration and the proton conductivity at high temperature and no humidification for fuel cell applications. X-ray diffraction technique is employed to characterize the structure and the size of $s-ZrO_2$ nanoparticles. The sulfation effect of $s-ZrO_2$ nanoparticles is verified by FT-IR analysis. The properties of the SPAES composite membranes with the various $s-ZrO_2$ ratio are evaluated by ion exchange capacity and water content. The proton conductivities of the composite membranes are estimated at room temperature with full hydration and at the various high temperature without external humidification. The composite membrane with 5 wt% $s-ZrO_2$ shows the highest proton conductivity. The proton conductivities are $0.9292\;S\;cm^{-1}$ at room temperature with full hydration and $0.0018\;S\;cm^{-1}$ at $120^{\circ}C$ without external humidification, respectively.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.293-297
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• 2009

The abuse of methamphetamine (MA) is one of the most serious drug abuses in Asia. And, the prevention of precursor production for abuse drug is one of the most effective drug control system. Isotope ratio analysis at natural abundance levels have been used to establish the environmental source or the geographic origin of various biological and nonbiological materials. Ephedrine, the precursor of MA, is produced by one of three methods; extraction from Ephedra plants, full chemical synthesis or via a semi-synthetic process involving the fermentation of sugar, followed by amination. We investigated the origin of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine based on the carbon and nitrogen values for nineteen pharmaceutical powder materials (PPMs) obtained from pharmaceutical company in Korea by stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry coupled to an elemental analyser (EA-IRMS). The carbon delta values for the ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were -24.21~-22.72 (mean=-23.72) $^{\cir}/_{\circ\circ}$ and -23.79~-22.71 (mean=-23.48) $^{\cir}/_{\circ\circ}$. The nitrogen delta values were 3.51~5.55 (4.43) $^{\cir}/_{\circ\circ}$ and 2.24~8.22 (5.42) $^{\cir}/_{\circ\circ}$. These results indicate that PPMs are semi-synthetic products. Therefore the origins of ephedrine(natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic) could be discriminated by using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. we are sure tat this stable isotope ratio analysis can discriminate the origins of precursors of methamphetamine.