• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.208-216
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• 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study aimed to investigate the status of renal function in patients with COVID-19. The study surveyed a total of 649 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at a hospital located in southern Gyeonggi Province, South Korea over a one month period in January 2021. The parameters analyzed were blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, sodium, potassium, chloride, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The BUN and creatinine of the COVID-19 patients were found to be higher than the normal reference range, specially in males, and in the elderly (60s and 80s or older). The serum electrolyte levels of the patients were observed to be within the reference intervals. Of the subjects, males over 80 years of age had a Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) of 60 mL/min/1.73 m² or less. Recent research suggests that some severe cases of COVID-19 are showing signs of kidney damage, even in those with no prior underlying kidney disease. Thus, assessment of kidney function using multiple indicators could help diagnose abnormal renal function in patients with COVID-19.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2020

To make an automated system for a salt field, it is necessary to measure the salinity and water level of the evaporation site. In this paper, a method to simultaneously measure the salinity and water level by measuring the buoyancy forces of two fixed buoyancy bodies is proposed. The proposed measurement method measures the buoyancy of the main part and reference part when the measuring device is immersed in the salty water, and simultaneously measures the salinity and water level through the sum and difference of the two buoyancy forces. Since there is no mechanical movement in the measurement of buoyancy, measurement errors and maintenance needs can be reduced in the mudy environment of salt field. By applying the proposed method, we developed a system that can simultaneously measure salinity and water level remotely at the evaporation site of a salt field. Through a measurement experiment using a reference salty water having various levels of salinity, the results of a salinity error of 0% and a water level error of 2mm were obtained, and the effectiveness of the proposed salinity and water level measuring device was verified. When an automated system is constructed using the developed salinity and water level measuring device, labor reduction, work environment improvement, and productivity improvement are expected.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.561-571
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• 2020

Seven techniques widely used in the geodetic transformations have been reviewed and compared to figure out their theoretical characteristics. A series of numerical tests were performed about four data sets. This was followed by result analyses in terms of transformation residuals and accuracies together with some hypothesis testings based on the student-t distribution to confirm the statistical significance of the techniques. In the case of the transformation between the geodetic frames implemented in the same system, no statistical significance was revealed in the results of the 3D transformation techniques, even if the testing area becomes large as the Asia-Oceania continent. Among the 2D transformations, it was possible for the NTv2 grid modeling technique to deliver improved transformation accuracy. Finally, it was possible from the results analyzed in this study to propose the Helmert transformation to geodetic control points and the NTv2 technique to the 2D spatial data transformation of the geodetic systems.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2020

The aim of this study is to identify future-oriented tasks for Korean dental hygienists based on a literature review. A literature search is performed using 14 keywords related to tasks carried out by dental hygienists, and included articles published from 2000 to 2019 in the databases KISS, RISS, DBpia, NDSL, Papersearch, Pubmed, and Google Scholar. Six reviewers assessed the titles and abstracts of articles, and an article was selected if the study was considered to cover future-oriented tasks for Korean dental hygienists. Based on the results six local studies and two foreign studies were used for literature review and data extraction. In total, 38 tasks were classified as future-oriented tasks of dental hygienists according to the following criteria: 1) tasks that were specifically referred to as future-oriented tasks, and 2) tasks that could be classified as future-oriented tasks although no specific reference was made. Of these, the most frequently mentioned tasks were measuring periodontal pocket depth, dental hygiene assessment, providing dietary advice, infiltration anesthesia, and root planing. These were extracted from five of the eight studies, including both local and foreign studies. Dental hygiene planning, emergency, emergency management, and smoking cessation were the next most common tasks based on four studies. Even though some of these future-oriented tasks for Korean dental hygienists are included in the dentistry curriculum, and are currently performed as clinical practice for dental hygienists. Nonetheless, the reference to the legal scope is unclear. It is necessary to reconsider the scope of tasks of dental hygienists to reflect changes in domestic and foreign dental care delivery, thereby contributing to the oral health promotion of the public, where safety is guaranteed under legal protection.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 2021

As port development in soft ground is actively promoted for international logistics and transportation, the Deep Mixing Method (DMM) is continuously applied to form an improved column body directly in the ground by mixing cement with soil to secure the stability of the structure. However, in the case of cement, there is a problem of emitting a lot of greenhouse gases during the production process, so the development and use of new alternative materials are socially required to achieve the national goal of carbon neutrality. Accordingly, in this study, CMD-SOIL, developed to induce a hardening reaction similar to cement by recycling recycled resources, was used as a ground improvement material for the DMM. In addition, it was attempted to determine the possibility of replacing cement by conducting on-site test construction and evaluating applicability. As a result of the study, the compressive strength of CMD-SOIL compared to the design reference strength was 1.46 to 2.64 times higher in the field mixing test and 1.2 to 5.03 times higher than in the confirmed boring. In addition, the ratio (λ) of the compressive strength in the field to the design reference strength was 0.63 to 1.14, which was similar to the previous research results. Therefore, in the case of CMD-SOIL, it is possible to express the compressive strength necessary to secure stability, and there is no difference in applicability compared to existing materials such as ordinary portland cement and blast furnace slag cement, so it was analyzed that it could be used as a ground improvement material for the DMM.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 2022

The conventional LESS (LEast-Squares Solution) is calculated under the assumption that there is no errors in independent variables. However, the coordinates of a point, either from traditional ground surveying such as slant distances, horizontal and/or vertical angles, or GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) positioning, cannot be determined independently (and the components are correlated each other). Therefore, the TLS (Total Least Squares) adjustment should be applied for all applications related to the coordinates. Many approaches were suggested in order to solve this problem, resulting in equivalent solutions except some restrictions. In this study, we calculated the normal vector of the 3D plane determined by the trace of the VLBI targets based on TLS within GHM (Gauss-Helmert Model). Another numerical test was conducted for the estimation of the Helmert transformation parameters. Since the errors in the horizontal components are very small compared to the radius of the circle, the final estimates are almost identical. However, the estimated variance components are significantly reduced as well as show a different characteristic depending on the target location. The Helmert transformation parameters are estimated more precisely compared to the conventional LESS case. Furthermore, the residuals can be predicted on both reference frames with much smaller magnitude (in absolute sense).

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a tool that measures the satisfaction of virtual training learners' use of virtual training content. To this end, 491 copies of the basic questions derived from the satisfaction questions used by the K University Online Lifelong Education Center were used for the final analysis by conducting an online survey of learners who accessed STEP, the K University Online Lifelong Education Center portal. The 491 copies of data finally used were analyzed by methods such as basic question analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. First, in the basic question analysis, there were no questions that exceeded the acceptance criteria of an average of 4 points or more, skewness ±2, and kurtosis ±4. Second, the correlation coefficient for each sub-factor of virtual training content satisfaction derived after exploratory factor analysis was good as r=.682 to .822 (p<.01). The reliability coefficient for each sub-factor is content .849, content utilization .922, System and Operations Support .841, Intention to Continue Utilization .920, the overall reliability is. It was very high at .956 Fifth, as a result of confirmatory factor analysis, the compositional conceptual diagram is. It was .842 to .926, higher than the recommended standard of .7, and the average variance extraction degree. It appears to be .640 to .796, higher than the recommended standard of .5, which can be seen as representative of each constituent concept. As a result of verifying the validity of virtual training learners' content satisfaction recruitment, four factor models were derived: content substance, content utilization, system and operation support, and intention to continue use. This study is meaningful in that it empirically developed a tool to measure content satisfaction of virtual training learners and provided a reference frame and criteria.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1139-1147
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate the performance of a method for controlling the dose for optimal image acquisition while minimizing patient exposure by applying a small-sized Photomultiplier(SiPM) sensor inside a portable detector. Portable detectors have the advantage of being able to quickly access the patient's location for rapid diagnosis, but this mobility comes with the challenge of dose control. This paper presents a method to identify the dose that can have the DQE and optimal image quality of the detector through image evaluation based on IEC62220-1-1, an international standard for X-ray imaging devices, and to identify the optimal dose by matching the ADU of the image and the output of the SiPM Sensor. The Skull AP image was acquired by implementing the detector manufacturer's reference dose. The optimal dose was 342.8 µGy, and the optimal controlled dose was 148.3 µGy, which is 57 % of the manufacturer's reference dose. The Chest AP image was 81.9 µGy and the optimal controlled dose was 27.9 µGy, which is a high dose reduction effect of 66 %. In addition, the two images were analyzed by five radiologists and found to have no clinically significant difference in anatomical delineation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.245-255
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• 2023

The present paper summarizes the results of an experimental program on the influence of using waste lathe scraps in the concrete mixture on the shear behavior of RC beams with different amounts of shear reinforcement. Three different volumetric ratios (1, 2 and %3) for the scraps and three different stirrup spacings (160, 200 and 270 mm) were adopted in the tests. The shear span-to-depth ratios of the beams were 2.67 and the stirrup spacing exceeded the maximum spacing limit in the building codes to unfold the contribution of lathe scraps to the shear resistances of shear-deficient beams, subject to shear-dominated failure (shear-tension). The experiments depicted that the lathe scraps have a pronounced contribution to the shear strength and load-deflection behavior of RC beams with widely-spaced stirrups. Namely, with the addition of 1%, 2% and 3% waste lathe scraps, the load-bearing capacity escalated by 9.1%, 21.8% and 32.8%, respectively, compared to the reference beam. On the other hand, the contribution of the lathe scraps to the load capacity decreases with decreasing stirrup spacing, since the closely-spaced stirrups bear the shear stresses and render the contribution of the scraps to shear resistance insignificant. The load capacity, deformation ductility index (DDI) and modulus of toughness (MOT) values of the beams were shown to increase with the volumetric fraction of scraps if the stirrups are spaced at about two times the beam depth. For the specimens with a stirrup spacing of about the beam depth, the scraps were found to have no considerable contribution to the load capacity and the deformation capacity beyond the ultimate load. In other words, for lathe scrap contents of 1-3%, the DDI values increased by 5-23% and the MOT values by 63.5-165% with respect to the reference beam with a stirrup spacing of 270 mm. The influence of the lathe scraps to the DDI and MOT values were rather limited and even sometimes negative for the stirrup spacing values of 160 and 200 mm.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.615-624
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• 2022

Objective: To compare the therapeutic outcomes of laparoscopic hepatic resection (LHR) and laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation (LRFA) for single subcapsular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: We screened 244 consecutive patients who had received either LHR or LRFA between January 2014 and December 2016. The feasibility of LRFA in patients who underwent LHR was retrospectively assessed by two interventional radiologists. Finally, 60 LRFA-feasible patients who had received LHR and 29 patients who had received LRFA as the first treatment for a solitary subcapsular HCC between 1 cm and 3 cm were finally included. We compared the therapeutic outcomes, including local tumor progression (LTP), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) between the two groups before and after propensity score (PS) matching. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was also used to evaluate the difference in OS and RFS between the two groups for all 89 patients. Results: PS matching yielded 23 patients in each group. The cumulative LTP and OS rates were not significantly different between the LHR and LRFA groups after PS matching (p = 0.900 and 0.003, respectively). The 5-year LTP rates were 4.6% and 4.4%, respectively, and OS rates were 100% and 90.7%, respectively. The RFS rate was higher in LHR group without statistical significance (p = 0.070), with 5-year rates of 78.3% and 45.3%, respectively. OS was not significantly different between the LHR (reference) and LRFA groups in multivariable analyses, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.33 (95% confidence interval, 0.12-1.54) (p = 0.818). RFS was higher in LHR (reference) than in LRFA without statistical significance in multivariable analysis, with an HR of 2.01 (0.87-4.66) (p = 0.102). Conclusion: There was no significant difference in therapeutic outcomes between LHR and LRFA for single subcapsular HCCs measuring 1-3 cm. The difference in RFS should be further evaluated in a larger study.