• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.49-52
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• 2022

Benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) is a condition/disease which involves involuntary muscle contractions causing the eye to repetitively close, making it impossible for the patient to perform daily activities. This study reports Korean medicine treatment of a rare case BEB in a 34-year-old male patient whose symptoms showed minimal improvement following botulinum toxin injection (the standard treatment). Acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, and herbal medicine treatment for 11 days resulted in clinical improvement for all symptoms as assessed by using the Jankovic Rating Scale, Blepharospasm Disability Index, numerical rating scale, duration of spasms lasting more than 1 hour per day, and number of spasms lasting less than 1 minute per day. This case report suggests that comprehensive Korean medicine treatment could be a treatment option for BEB in patients who do not respond well to botulinum toxin injection.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.13-21
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• 2018

Objectives : This study was aimed to find significant prognostic factor of inpatients with severe atopic dermatitis (AD) who treated in a Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) hospital. Methods : A retrospective review of medical records of 39 patients with severe AD who hospitalized for more than 7days was performed. All patients were treated with acupuncture, herbal decoction and herbal wet wrap dressing. Therapeutic effect was assessed by difference of objective SCORing of Atopic Dermatitis index (${\Delta}OSI$) at admission and at discharge. Patients were divided into two groups: improvement group (${\Delta}OSI{\leq}5$) and no-improvement group (${\Delta}OSI>5$), and clinical characteristics, severity, infectious complication, serum total IgE, eosinophil counts, adherence and concomitant treatment were investigated. Results : There were 7 cases in no-improvement group. There was no significant difference in OSI or infectious complication between the two groups. Also, there was no significant difference in total serum IgE and eosinophil counts, which are known to be related to severity of AD. However, the proportion of adherence group was significantly lower in no-improvement group than improvement group. Conclusions : This study suggest that treatment adherence is a significant prognostic factor for treatment outcome in inpatients with severe atopic dermatitis. If the adherence to treatment is improved, the therapeutic effect of hospitalization would increase in spite of severe AD or infectious complication.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.122-137
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• 2021

Objectives: In South Korea, traffic accident victims can be treated under automobile insurance coverage. Korean medicine (KM) clinics have reported the largest number of automobile insurance fee claims among medical institutions. This study investigated the status of the KM automobile insurance system in a single KM clinic. Methods: We retrospectively surveyed the medical charts of 342 traffic accident patients treated at the Jisung KM clinic between January 2009 and June 2017. Results: Most of the patients were men and in their 30s. The most common method of locating the clinic was an internet search. The most common traffic accident type was collision between vehicles (83.63%), with 70.76% of patients visiting during the most acute phase. The major disease codes included S434, M4836, F072, S0600, and S3350. The most frequent treatment period was within 1 month of the accident, and most patients received 10 or fewer treatments. The mean treatment duration and number of treatments were 37.68 ± 45.11 days and 11.68 ± 10.63 treatments, respectively. The initial pain numerical rating scale (NRS), 7.32 ± 0.96, decreased to 3.57 ± 1.40 at the end of treatment, with a symptom improvement score of 1.87 ± 0.60. Regarding sex, age, disease duration, location at the time of the accident, presence of additional and psychological symptoms, and chuna, there were statistically significant differences in treatment duration and number of treatments. A higher number of treatments and the longer treatment duration was associated with a higher initial NRS, lower post-treatment NRS, and better improvement score. Since the introduction of traffic accident (TA) pharmacopuncture, the rate of use of a single type of pharmacopuncture increased; however, no significant differences in treatment duration and number, NRS before and after treatment, and improvement score were observed between treatment groups before and after TA pharmacopuncture. No adverse reactions were observed for any treatment. Conclusion: This study confirmed the previous findings of a high treatment effect of KM under automobile insurance. We also observed significant correlations based on a detailed medical status, which may explain the increasing use of KM in the automobile insurance system. Additional multi-center studies in different regions are needed.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.145-156
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• 2021

Objectives This study aims at using information about treatment satisfaction obtained from surveying pediatric traffic-accident patients to guide future improvement in the quality of traditional Korean medical services. Methods The survey included 95 pediatric patients treated for traffic-accident injuries at a traditional Korean medical institution. The questionnaire was developed from a similar satisfaction survey for adult traffic-accident patients and approved by a traditional Korean pediatrician. The year-long survey ran from April 2020 to April 2021. The collected data were analysed using t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and cross-tabulation. Results Of the pediatric traffic-accident patients surveyed, the highest percentage of children were aged between 1 and 7 years (70.5%). Just over half the patients (55.8%) complained of sleeping difficulties, and 54.7% exhibited symptoms of anxiety and fear. Almost all the patients surveyed (97.9%) reported an improvement in their symptoms after undergoing traditional Korean medical treatment. The degree of satisfaction with the treatment correlated with the alleviation of symptoms. Approximately 83.2% of respondents reported 'difficult-to-administer treatment for children' and rated their satisfaction degree comparatively lower than those patients with no reported treatment difficulties. The most struggling treatment was herbal medicine (42.1%), highlighting the need for improvement in the adaptability of herbal medicine to the treatment of pediatric patients. Conclusions Treatment acceptance by pediatric traffic-accident patients affects reported treatment satisfaction. It is important to improve treatment experience and adaptability to pediatric patients to improve the perceived quality of traditional Korean medical services.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.170-180
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• 2009

Objectives : To assess clinical improvement and change in plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF) level after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation(rTMS) in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Methods : Seven patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia, who were proven to be treatment-resistant, were treated with 15 sessions of rTMS for three weeks as an adjuvant therapy to antipsychotic treatment. Clinical improvement and change in plasma BDNF level were measured after the treatment period. The symptom severity was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) and the Korean Version of Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia(K-CDSS) at baseline and 7 days after the treatment. Plasma BDNF level was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) at baseline and 7 days after the treatment. Results : After the rTMS treatment, there was no significant improvement in PANSS total score(Z=-1.693, p=0.090) and no significant change in plasma BDNF was found(Z=-1.183, p=0.237). Negative correlations were found between percentage change in PANSS positive subscale score and duration of illness(rho=-0.991, N=7, p<0.0005, two-tailed), and PANSS negative subscale score at baseline and percentage change in plasma BDNF level(rho=-0.821, N=7, p=0.023, two-tailed). Conclusion : This preliminary study suggests that rTMS didn't make a significant change in clinical symptoms nor in plasma BDNF level in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Percentage change in plasma BDNF, however, might be correlated with treatment resistance in schizophrenic patients. This is a pilot study with a small sample size, therefore, a further study with a larger sample size is needed.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.92-99
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• 2020

Linked treatment refers to a system that relieves the burden of the business by linking high concentrations of wastewater such as human waste, manure, leachate, and other industrial wastewater to nearby municipal wastewater treatment plants(MWTPs). In 2018, 187 MWTPs, which are about 4.5% of the total domestic MWTPs, have implemented a linked treatment system, but local governments are having difficulties in operating sewage treatment due to lack of reasonable cost estimation standards. Therefore, we proposed an improvement plan to solve the problem in the calculation method that currently imposes linked wastewater. To this end, the effects and correlations of the linkage treatment system on the sewage treatment unit were analyzed, and among them, the main factors with the highest correlation were applied to the improvement plan. As a result, an improvement plan that improved three parts of the existing calculation method was presented, and the calculation method and the calculation case using the existing literature values were also presented. This can be used as a basis for future reference by local governments to implement linkage treatment, and to revise local sewerage ordinance and is believed to be helpful in operating a rational linkage system.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.30-37
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• 1999

The effects of heat treatment on the dimensional stability and bending properties of radiata pine sapwood were investigated. The dimensional stability was almost achieved by heat treatment though the loss of strength was accompanied as a negative effect. The improvement in dimensional stability of wood and the resultant reduction in bending properties were closely related to treatment temperature and duration. The optimum treatment conditions, which could be used to achieve a desired improvement in dimensional stability with resultant losses in modulus of rupture were proposed based on the results obtained in this study.

• Composites Research
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.165-169
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• 2013

This work presents the tensile properties and water uptake behavior of plasma treated abaca fibers reinforced epoxy composites. The composites were prepared by vacuum assisted resin transfer molding. The effects of treatment on tensile properties and sorption characteristics of abaca fiber composites in distilled water and salt solution at room temperature were investigated. The tensile strength of the composites increased with plasma treatment. With plasma treatment, an improvement of 92.9% was obtained in 2.5 min exposure time in plasma. This is attributed to high fiber-matrix compatibility. Less improvement on tensile properties of hybrid treatment of sodium hydroxide and plasma was obtained. However, both treatments reduced overall water uptake in distilled water and salt solution. Hydrophilicity of the fibers decreased upon plasma and sodium hydroxide treatment, which decreases water uptake.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.64-77
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• 1989

In this study, the experiments were carried out for the purpose of establishment of aluminium cementation to steel surface by diffusible heat treatment after making the coated film onto the substrate by arc spray method. Also, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the cementation layer produced by this study were inspected for various heat treatment and spraying conditions. Main results obtained are as follow ; 1. The coating film characteristics which have excellent errosion-resistance, high temperature oxidation-resistance are obtained by aluminium penetration heat treatment after making the sprayed aluminum coating film onto the steel substrate. 2. Aluminium diffusion penetration takes place at higher temperature than 660.deg.C, and the more heat treatment time and the higher heat treatment temperature adopted, the deeper diffusion layer obtained. 3. Insert gas arc spraying using argon gas as the carrier gas higher improvement of mechanical property than that of compressed air environment. 4. The coating film characteristics appeared to be improvement of adhesive property, porosity plugging effect by heat treatment in air environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2011년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.238-243
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• 2011

This study compared Kd, loss factor and thickness of floor impact isolator by loading/unloading heat treatment with results by continuous loading treatment and checked problem and improvement method of heat treatment condition for the long-term stability evaluation of the floor impact isolation. As the results, it is required the change of heat treatment condition unloading now to loading as actual weigh on the floor impact isolator.