• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.661-666
• /
• 2019

Diverging collimators is used to obtain reduced images of an object, or to detect a wide filed-of-view (FOV) using a small gamma camera. In the gamma camera using the diverging collimators, the block scintillator, and the pixel scintillator array, gamma rays are obliquely incident on the scintillator surface when the source is located the periphery of the FOV. Therefore, the spatial resolution is reduced because it is obliquely detected in depth direction. In this study, we designed a novel system to improve the spatial resolution in the periphery of the FOV. Using a tapered crystal array to configure the scintillation pixels to coincide with the angle of the collimator's hole allows imaging to one scintillation pixel location, even if events occur to different depths. That is, even if is detected at various points in the diagonal direction, the gamma rays interact with one crystal pixel, so resolution does not degrade. The resolution of the block scintillator and the tapered crystal array was compared and evaluated through Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) simulation. The spatial resolution of the obtained image was 4.05 mm in the block scintillator and 2.97 mm in the tapered crystal array. There was a 26.67% spatial resolution improvement in the tapered crystal array compared to the block scintillation.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.263-272
• /
• 2019

Air pollutants have a high impact on everyday life as well as on human health; therefore, new technologies such as low-emission vehicles and add-on systems for air pollutant reduction are needed for our society. However, the environmental benefits and costs of those technologies are not taken into account in existing economic feasibility assessments, which is a barrier that needs to be overcome for green technology to achieve wide dissemination and fast penetration in the market. Thus, this study develops a methodology to assess the economic feasibility of an air pollutant reduction technology by taking into account the social costs from air pollutants and carries out a case study to validate the methodology. Because the social unit costs for air pollutants have not been evaluated yet in South Korea, the methodology uses the social unit costs evaluated for the European Union that are then converted to those for South Korea based on the measuring criteria for vehicle emission gases, parity purchasing price, foreign currency exchange rate, and customer price index. The social unit costs for South Korea are used to assess economic feasibility. A case study was performed to assess the economic feasibility of a dual fuel system using diesel and compressed natural gas by taking into account social costs from air pollutants as well as economic costs. This study could contribute to assessing the true economic feasibility of green technology, projects, and policy related with air pollutant reduction.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.143-163
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to identify acceptance factors and influencing factors of respondents' adoption of smart IoT technology to companion animal health based on the integrated technology acceptance model. Based on the previous studies, we constructed the hypotheses by defining the technical factors, social factors, control variables, and mediating variables (UTAUT), and set the hypotheses between the independent variables of each factor and the dependent intention. A research model was designed to verify the relationship between variables. We developed questionnaires on the items and verified them through data collected from 494 people. As a result, product design, quality of service, product performance, and quality service of technological factors had a significant effects on performance expectancy and effort expectancy. However, product safety, product function awareness, and product price did not significantly affect performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Social influence had significant effects on cognitive effect, welfare system, and welfare facilities. In conclusion, the comparative analysis of technical factors and social factors showed that social factors have more significant effects on welfare systems and facilities.

• PNF and Movement
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.485-493
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This study provides a treatment for central nervous system development in patients with chronic stroke by investigating changes in the upper limb function over time. The correlations among the activities, participation, and environmental factors of the international classification of functioning (ICF), disability and health are also examined. Methods: The subjects of this study are 18 patients with chronic stroke who were hospitalized and treated at 00 hospital in the Chungcheongbuk-do province. Their upper extremity functions are evaluated using the manual function test (MFT). The activities, participation, and environmental factors are evaluated using the ICF generic form. The correlations between the total scores of the affected and unaffected sides and the ICF items are analyzed using the Pearson correlation analysis. The significance level is p<0.05. Results: When the correlations between the activities and participation areas of ICF and the total score of the affected side of MFT were examined, significant correlations (p<0.05) were found in the following items: changing basic body position (D410), lifting and carrying objects (D430), moving around using equipment (D465), using transportation (D470), washing oneself (D510), caring for body parts (D520), and dressing (D540). When the correlations between the activities and participation areas of ICF and the total score of the unaffected side of MFT were examined, significant correlations (p<0.05) were found among writing (D170), speaking (D330), eating (D550), and drinking (D560). In addition, when the correlation between the environment area of ICF and the total score of the unaffected side of the MFT were examined, significant correlations (p<0.05) were found between products and technology for personal use in daily living (E115) and immediate family (E310). Conclusion: The MFT of patients with chronic stroke is closely correlated with the activities, participation, and environmental factors of ICF. This result suggests that ICF can be used as a useful tool to comprehensively evaluate the abilities of the patient, including the upper extremity function.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.63-72
• /
• 2018

The human voice is one of the easiest methods for the information transmission between human beings. The characteristics of voice can vary from person to person and include the speed of speech, the form and function of the vocal organ, the pitch tone, speech habits, and gender. The human voice is a key element of human communication. In the days of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, voices are also a major means of communication between humans and humans, between humans and machines, machines and machines. And for that reason, people are trying to communicate their intentions to others clearly. And in the process, it contains various additional information along with the linguistic information. The Information such as emotional status, health status, part of trust, presence of a lie, change due to drinking, etc. These linguistic and non-linguistic information can be used as a device for evaluating the individual's credit worthiness by appearing in various parameters through voice analysis. Especially, it can be obtained by analyzing the relationship between the characteristics of the fundamental frequency(basic tonality) of the vocal cords, and the characteristics of the resonance frequency of the vocal track.In the previous research, the necessity of various methods of credit evaluation and the characteristic change of the voice according to the change of credit status were studied. In this study, we propose a personal credit discriminator by machine learning through parameters extracted through voice.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.571-577
• /
• 2019

This study examined the usability of express buses for wheelchair users to identify the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of wheelchair boarding systems. The usability of 11 manual wheelchair users and nine powered wheelchair users was evaluated using the following three scenarios: boarding the wheelchair accessible bus, moving inside, and alighting the bus. The results showed that 20 wheelchair users completed three scenarios, which was distributed between 0.33 and 1.36 in the difficulty rating scale of the efficiency. The task effort of the efficiency was measured from 8.36 to 11.78. The acceptability of the satisfaction was distributed between 1.00 and 2.00, and the system usability scale was measured in an acceptable boundary of the C grade at 70.7 points with manual wheelchair users and a B grade at 73.1 points with powered wheelchair users. This study has academic significance because it provides basic evidence for accessibility, securing the right to movement and research methods of public transportation for people with disabilities. To improve the quality level of usability in the future, more study with a larger number of research participants and various wheelchair types should be studied.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.34-48
• /
• 2019

Background: Fall-related injuries in older adults are a major health problem, and the risks and mechanisms of these injuries should be affected by race, culture, living environment, and/or economic status. Objects: Research articles have been systematically reviewed to understand fall-related injuries in older adults in South Korea. Methods: 128 published research papers have been found through the Korea Citation Index and the Korean Studies Information Service System, and reviewed in various perspectives, including incidents, fall death rates, medical costs, causes, injury sites and types, locations where falls occurred, prevention strategies, scholarly fields interested in fall injuries, and the role of physical therapy. Results: Fall-related injuries were found to be more common in women than in men, and the number of incidents increased with age, with the highest rate found in individuals over 85 years old. Risk of fall injury was associated with education level, comorbidities, and fear of falling. Common places where falls occurred included the bathroom, living room, stairs, and hallway. Common types of injury included bruises, fractures, and sprains in the lower extremities. Intervention strategies included exercise programs, education, and protective clothing. Scholarly fields interested in fall-related injuries in older adults included medicine, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physical education, pharmacology, oriental medicine, biomedical engineering, design, clothing, and textiles. Physical therapy intervention using proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation has been used to improve one's balance. Conclusion: Any movement during the activities of daily living can lead to a fall. Physical therapists are highly educated to analyze human movements and should be involved in more research and practices to solve fall-related injuries in older adults.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.200-208
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to analyze the dental consultation of pediatric inpatients to the department of pediatric dentistry in Yonsei University Severance Hospital, and to investigate the change in patterns. In 2017, 268 pediatric patients (384 cases) admitted to the Severance Hospital were referred to the department of pediatric dentistry. The mean age was 6.6 years, and most of the patients were referred from the Department of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and Rehabilitation Medicine. The chief complaints were as follows: oral examination (31%), dental caries (20%), oral pain (10%), tooth mobility (10%), pre-operative evaluation (9%) and others (20%). 41% of the patients received only oral examination without treatment. Dental caries were the most frequent dental diagnosis of the patients. 28% (111 cases) of patients received operative treatments, 22 cases were treated under general anesthesia. Oral health is closely related to systemic diseases, especially for hospitalized patients. Dental consultations should be encouraged for prevention and early appropriate treatments. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish a referral system and perform dental treatment under general anesthesia.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2019.05a
• /
• pp.533-536
• /
• 2019

Recombinant baculoviruses are widely used to express heterologous genes in cultured insect cells. Recombinant baculoviruses can serve as gene-transfer vectors for expression of recombinant proteins in a wide range of mammalian cell types. Baculovirus system has significant benefits in view of safety, large-scale, and high level of gene expression. In this study, baculoviral vectors which were reconstructed from pOPINEneo-3C-GFP vector, were recombined with cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, green fluorescent protein (GFP), and p53 with NcoI and XhoI. These recombinant vectors were infected with various cells and cell lines. The baculovirus vector thus developed was analyzed by comparing the metastasis and expression of the recombinant genes with conventional vectors. These results suggest that the baculovirus vector has higher efficiency in metastasis and expression than the control vector. This work was supported by a grant from Mid-Career Researcher Program(NRF-2016R1A2B4016552) through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning(MSIP).

• Brain Tumor Research and Treatment
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.60-67
• /
• 2018

Background Recently, modern technology such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), neuro-navigation and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IOM) have been actively adopted for the treatment of thalamic tumors. We evaluated surgical outcomes and efficacy of the aforementioned technologies for the treatment of pediatric thalamic tumors. Methods We retrospectively reviewed clinical data from 37 children with thalamic tumors between 2004 and 2017. There were 44 operations (27 tumor resections, 17 biopsies). DTI was employed in 17 cases, neuro-navigation in 23 cases and IOM in 14 cases. All diagnoses were revised according to the 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were calculated, and relevant prognostic factors were analyzed. The median follow-up duration was 19 months. Results Fifteen cases were gross total resections (GTR), 6 subtotal resections (STR), and 6 partial resections (PR). Neurological status did not worsen after 22 tumor resections. There were statistically significant differences in terms of the extent of resection between the groups with DTI, neuro-navigation and IOM (n=12, GTR or STR=12) and the group without at least one of the three techniques (n= 15, GTR or STR=9, p=0.020). The mean PFS was $87.2{\pm}38.0$ months, and the mean OS $90.7{\pm}36.1$ months. The 5-year PFS was 37%, and the 5-year OS 47%. The histological grade ($p{\leq}0.001$) and adjuvant therapy (done vs. not done, p=0.016) were significantly related to longer PFS. The histological grade (p=0.002) and the extent of removal (GTR/STR vs. PR/biopsy, p=0.047) were significantly related to longer OS. Conclusion Maximal surgical resection was achieved with acceptable morbidity in children with thalamic tumors by employing DTI, neuro-navigation and IOM. Maximal tumor resection was a relevant clinical factor affecting OS; therefore, it should be considered the initial therapeutic option for pediatric thalamic tumors.