• Journal of The Korean Ophthalmological Society
• /
• v.59 no.11
• /
• pp.1030-1038
• /
• 2018

Purpose: To evaluate whether early visual acuity response at 4 weeks after the first intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injection or 4 weeks after the third injection in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is associated with 12-month follow-up outcome. Methods: Thirty treatment-naive patients (30 eyes) with nAMD, treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF, were retrospectively included. Initially, all patients were injected at least three times for three consecutive months and followed up with a pro re nata regimen for at least 12 months. The relationship between 4 weeks after the first and third anti-VEGF injections in visual acuity response was explored, including the mean change from baseline in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The mean change in BCVA was classified into three groups according to visual improvement: <1, 1-<3, or ${\geq}3$ logMAR line(s) in BCVA. The associations among baseline characteristics (gender, age, duration of symptoms, initial BCVA, central macular thickness, and intraocular pressure) and visual acuity responses 4 weeks after the first and third anti-VEGF injections were also assessed. Results: The proportions of eyes with <1, 1-<3, and ${\geq}3-line(s)$ improvement at 4 weeks after the first injection were 6 eyes (20%), 7 eyes (23.3%), and 17 eyes (56.6%), respectively. The proportions of eyes with <1, 1-<3, and ${\geq}3-line(s)$ improvement at 4 weeks after the third injection were 9 eyes (30%), 9 eyes (30%), and 12 eyes (40%), respectively. A BCVA response ${\geq}3-lines$ improvement at 4 weeks after the third injection showed significant associations with ${\geq}3-line(s)$ improvement and BCVA response at 12 months in multiple logistic and linear regression analyses (p = 0.04). Conclusions: In this study, BCVA response ${\geq}3-lines$ improvement at 4 weeks after the third injection showed a significant association with ${\geq}3-line(s)$ improvement and BCVA response at 12 months.

• Korean Journal of Dental Materials
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.171-178
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of number of times dipped in coloring liquid and sintering temperature on the flexural strength of zirconia ceramic. In this study, using a zirconia block having improved transparency, specimens with size of $25mm{\times}2mm{\times}1.5mm$ were fabricated. The zirconia ceramic specimens were divided into three groups according to the number of times dipped in coloring liquid by 0, 2 and 4 times, and dyed in the coloring liquid to give color to each specimen. Then, after sintering them at the final temperature of $1,450^{\circ}C$ and $1,600^{\circ}C$, flexural strength was measured using a universal testing machine (total 6 group, n=10 for each group). Also, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to observe its microstructure, and the data obtained through the experiment were analyzed with two-way ANOVA. The results of the flexural strength analysis show that the highest value was measured $762.3{\pm}42.3MPa$ in EKL2 group, while the lowest value was $516.4{\pm}77.1MPa$ in EKH4 group. According to the results of the two-way ANOVAs, flexural strength was not related with interaction between sintering temperature and number of times dipped in coloring liquid ($R^2=0.737$). However, there were statistically significant differences in flexural strength depending on sintering temperature (P<0.001). The flexural strength of zirconia ceramics having improved transparency was dependent on sintering temperature. The number of times dipped in the coloring liquid did not affect flexural strength of the zirconia ceramic having improved transparency.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.28
• /
• pp.115-139
• /
• 2012

Interval or duration of segments, syllables, words and phrases is an important acoustic feature which influences the naturalness of speech. A number of cross-sectional studies regarding acoustic characteristics of children's speech development found that intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases tend to change with the growing age. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991), it has been supported by quite a number of researches on the basis of cross-sectional studies (Tingley & Allen,1975; Kent & Forner,1980; Chermak & Schneiderman, 1986), but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). Researchers seem to come up with conflicting postulations and inconsistent results about the change trends concerning intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases, leaving it as an issue unresolved. Most acoustic investigations of children's speech production have been conducted via cross-sectional designs, which involves studying several groups of children. So far, there are only a few longitudinal studies. This issue needs more longitudinal investigations; moreover, the acoustic measures of the intervals of child speech are hardly available. All former studies focus on word stages excluding the babbling stages especially the canonical babbling stage, but we need to find out when concrete changes of intervals begin to occur and what causes the changes. Therefore, we conducted an acoustic study of interval characteristics of segments and words concerning Canonical Babble ( CB) and early speech in an infant aged from 0;9 to 2;4 acquiring Mandarin Chinese. The current research addresses the following two questions: 1. Whether decreases in interval would be greater when children were younger and smaller when they were older or vice versa? 2. Whether the child speech concerning the acoustic features of interval drifts in the direction of the language they are exposed to? The female infant whose L1 was Southern Mandarin living in Changsha was audio- and video-taped at her home for about one hour almost on a weekly basis during her age range from 0;9 to 2;4 under natural observation by us investigators. The recordings were digitized. Parts of the digitized material were labeled. All the repetitions were excluded. The utterances were extracted from 44 sessions ranging from 30 minutes to one hour. The utterances were divided into segments as well as syllable-sized units. Age stages are 0;9-1;0,1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The subject was a monolingual normal child from parents with a good education. The infant was audio-and video-taped in her home almost every week. The data were digitized, segments and syllables from 44 sessions spanning the transition from babble to speech were transcribed in narrow IPA and coded for analysis. Babble was coded from age 0;9-1;0, and words were coded from 1;0 to 2;4, the data has been checked by two professionally trained persons who majored in phonetics. The present investigation is a longitudinal analysis of some temporal characteristics of the child speech during the age periods of 0;9-1;0, 1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The answer to Research Question 1 is that our results are in agreement with neither of the hypotheses. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991); but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). On the whole, there is a tendency of decrease in segmental and syllabic duration with the growing age, but the changes are not drastic and abrupt. For example, /a/ after /k/ in Table 1 has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /a/ after /p/, /t/ and /w/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4. /ka/ has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /ta/ and /na/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4.Across the age periods, interval change experiences lots of fluctuation all the time. The answer to Research Question 2 is yes. Babbling stage is a period in which the children's acoustic features of intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases is shifted in the direction of the language to be learned, babbling and children's speech emergence is greatly influenced by ambient language. The phonetic changes in terms of duration would go on until as late as 10-12 years of age before reaching adult-like levels. Definitely, with the increase of exposure to ambient language, the variation would be less and less until they attain the adult-like competence. Via the analysis of the SPSS 15.0, the decrease of segmental and syllabic intervals across the four age periods proves to be of no significant difference (p>0.05). It means that the change of segmental and syllabic intervals is continuous. It reveals that the process of child speech development is gradual and cumulative.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.307-317
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of Internet-based intervention programs for adults with diabetes by conducting a meta-analysis of studies conducted since 2000. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of research papers published in domestic and overseas journals from January 2000 to December 2015, and selected 9 papers that met the analysis criteria. Data analysis was performed using the open source statistical software R 3.5.0, to analyze the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions on experimental and control groups. Results: The analysis showed that intervention programs for controlling HbA1c levels in adult patients with diabetes most commonly comprised 7 sessions on Internet-based management (77.8%), and the most common frequency of application of intervention programs was 4 session in 6 months (33.4%). The present meta-analysis revealed statistically significant effects of Internet-based intervention activities (SMD = 0.92, 95% CI 0.45-1.40). The analysis of the effect size according to the intervention period showed that the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month interventions reported in eight studies (89%) had a high effect on the Internet-based intervention group. Conclusions: The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of Internet-based intervention programs for adult patients with diabetes. The need for research on the utilization of Internet-based intervention programs for the steady management of diabetes, a chronic disease; for the development of specific guidelines for intervention activities; and for establishing appropriate protocols are acknowledged.

• Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.205-209
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Several studies have shown that magnesium plays an important role in modulating N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-related seizures by blocking NMDA ion channel receptors. Clinicians usually measure total serum magnesium levels instead of biologically active ionized magnesium levels. We compared the serum ionized magnesium ($iMg^{2+}$) level between epileptic children with and without a history of fever-triggered seizure (FTS). Methods: All epileptic children who visited the outpatient clinic or pediatric emergency department at Korea University Guro Hospital between January 2015 and July 2017 were included. Only epileptic children aged 1-8 years who were newly diagnosed within 2 years were included. Results: There were 12 children with FTS and 16 without FTS. Median serum $iMg^{2+}$ level was 0.93 (0.85-1.14, quartile) mEq/L. Serum $iMg^{2+}$ level was significantly lower in epileptic children with FTS (0.86 mEq/L) compared to those without FTS (1.10 mEq/L) (P=0.005). No difference was noted in clinical variables between the two groups. Lower serum $iMg^{2+}$ level significantly increased the risk of having FTS in epileptic children based on multivariable logistic regression analysis (odds ratio [OR]=0.028). Conclusion: Serum $iMg^{2+}$ level was significantly lower in epileptic children with FTS than in those without FTS. Measurement of biologically active serum $iMg^{2+}$ level could be considered in epileptic children with recurrent FTS. A large-scale prospective study is warranted.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
• /
• v.57 no.4
• /
• pp.342-349
• /
• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively investigate the survival and success rate of implant-supported fixed prosthesis according to the materials in the posterior area. Other purposes were to observe the complications and evaluate the factors affecting failure. Materials and methods: Patients who had been restored implant prosthesis in the posterior area by the same prosthodontist in the department of prosthodontics, dental hospital, Chonbuk National University, in the period from January 2011 to June 2018 were selected for the study. The patient's sex, age, material, location, type of prosthesis and complications were examined using medical records. The KaplanMeier method was used to analyze the survival and success rate. The Log-rank test was conducted to compare the differences between the groups. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the association between potential risk factors and success rate. Results: A total of 364 implants were observed in 245 patients, with an average follow-up of 17.1 months. A total of 5 implant prostheses failed and were removed, and the 3 and 5 year cumulative survival rate of all implant prostheses were 97.5 and 91.0, respectively. The 3 and 5 year cumulative success rate of all implant prostheses were 61.1% and 32.9%, respectively. Material, sex, age, location and type of prosthesis did not affect success rate (P>.05). Complications occurred in the order of proximal contact loss (53 cases), retention loss (17 cases), peri-implant mucositis (12 cases), infraocclusion (4 cases) and so on. Conclusion: Considering a high cumulative survival rate of implant-supported fixed prostheses, regardless of the materials, implant restored in posterior area can be considered as a reliable treatment to tooth replacement. However, regular inspections and, if necessary, repairs and adjustments are very important because of the frequent occurrence of complications.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.163-174
• /
• 2009

Objectives: Members of the immortalization-upregulated protein (IMUP) family are nuclear proteins implicated in SV40-mediated immortalization and cellular proliferation, but the mechanisms by which their expression is regulated are still unknown in placenta. To investigate to expression and functions of IMUPs in placenta, we conducted to compare IMUPs expression in normal and preeclamptic placenta tissues and analyzed the function of IMUP-2 in HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cells after IMUP-2 gene transfection. Methods: The expression of IMUPs was analyzed in placental tissues from the following groups of patients (none underwent labor): 1) term normal placenta (n=15); 2) term with preeclamptic placeneta (n=15); and 3) pre-term with preeclamptic placenta (n=11) using semi-quantitative RT-PCR, RNA in situ hybiridization, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot. In order to evaluate the function of IMUP-2 in HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cells, IMUP-2 plasmids were transfected into HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cells for 24 hours. Results: We observed that IMUPs are mainly expressed in the syncytiotrophoblasts and syncytial knot of placental villi. The expression of IMUP-1 was not differences between normal and preeclamptic placenta tissues. However, IMUP-2 expression was significantly higher in preterm preeclamptic placenta tissues than in normal placenta tissues without labor (p<0.001). Furthermore, we confirmed overexpression of IMUP-2 induced apoptosis in HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cells through up-regulation of pro-apoptotic proteins. Conclusions: These results suggest that the expression of IMUP-2 is involved in placental development as well as increased IMUP-2 expression is associated with preeclampsia through the inducing of trophoblast apoptosis.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.383-398
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study investigated an association between dietary quality and use of convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students. Methods: A total of 474 high school students (225 boys and 249 girls) residing in Incheon participated in this questionnaire survey in June 2018. The subjects were divided into three groups according to the frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores; less than once a week, 1 ~ 2 times a week, and more than 3 times a week. Dietary quality was assessed using a nutrient quotient for adolescents (NA-Q). Logistic regression was used to investigate an association between dietary quality and use of convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students. Results: For boys and girls, higher monthly allowance was significantly associated with the higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores, whereas school grade, mother's occupational status, family size, extracurricular study, and eating speed were not significantly associated with the frequency of consumption of convenience foods. Higher intake frequency of cookies or sweet and greasy bread, processed beverage, Ramyon, night-time snack, and street food was significantly associated with the higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods for boys or girls. Boys and girls, who had a higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores had significantly greater odds for being in the low grade of dietary quality, especially in the moderation factor. Conclusion: The students who used convenience stores more often appeared to have more monthly allowance and to consume undesirable foods more often. Higher frequency of using convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students was associated with lower dietary quality. These study results can support efforts to provide nutrition education programs and guidelines to students who frequently use convenience foods at convenience stores.

• Journal of vocational education research
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.39-75
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to verify the general characteristics in the previous studies and the magnitude of the correlation between the learner's satisfaction and the academic achievement in the education and training program. To do this, we searched relevant literature from 2000 to 2016, and conducted a systematic review of the literature on the final 31 studies through the selection criteria and quality evaluation. Among them, 27 meta-analysis of the literature was conducted. The finding of the study were as follows. First, a total of 31 studies were conducted from 2000 to 2016, and more than half of them(16) were conducted for the last 4 years(2009~2012). In terms of education and training students, there are 18 college students, 9 workers, and 4 elementary students in order of study. In terms of methods, 15 collective education, 14 distance education, 2 blended education. In terms of learner's participation, 22 the general participation, 9 the active participation. Second, as a result of the meta-analysis, the magnitude of the correlation between satisfaction and achievement was moderate(ZCOR=.297, 95%: CI .210~.383). Third, as a result of verifying the difference in the magnitude of the correlation effect between satisfaction and achievement according to the characteristics of the education and training program, there was no difference between the groups in the student object and education method, but there was a difference in the magnitude of the correlation effect depending on the participant type(Q=15.40, df=1, p<.0001). The active participation showed a correlation effect size larger(ZCOR=.588, 95%: CI .422~.754). The effect size of the general participation was lower than the median(ZCOR=.211, 95%: CI .12 ~.300).

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.34-49
• /
• 2018

Objective : This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of Korean version of Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ-K) using classical test theory. Methods : For the translation of Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ), as recommended in the literature, four-stage translation method was used. For the psychometric properties of Korean version of the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ-K), internal consistency reliability, content validity, and construct validity of the test using the known groups method and convergent and divergent methods were examined. For the recruitment of participants, a convenience sampling method is used. Participants of this study were 10 children with neuro-developmental disabilities hospitalized two different rehabilitations center and 10 children with typical development living in Daejeon, South Korea. All 20 participants were in aged from two to five years. Results : In terms of the content validity index, it was over 0.78, confirmed by nine experts of children development. PVQ-K successfully discriminated the scores of children with typical development from those with neurodevelopmental disabilities (p < .05). It is found that there is significant correlations between achievement stage of PVQ-K and the Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants & Children (K-DTS)(.652 ~ .799 for subcategory, .706 for total scale). The internal consistency was .944 (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$). In qualitative content analysis, it was examined that how Korean children behave and respond in the environment, and how children's volition was strengthened or weakened by the environment. Conclusion : The results propose that PVQ-K can be a useful occupation-focused measure. This study recommend further study on PVQ-K with larger samples combined with the item-response theory approach.