• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.382-392
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• 2021

Purpose To evaluate the ultrasonographic characteristics of steatocystomas focusing on the features that aid in differentiating them from epidermal inclusion cysts and lipomas. Materials and Methods The ultrasonographic findings of 14 histologically proven steatocystomas in 10 patients were retrospectively reviewed. The following features were assessed: the layer of involvement, shape, margin, echogenicity, posterior acoustic features, and the presence of a visible wall or intralesional striations. The findings were compared with those of subcutaneous lipomas and epidermal inclusion cysts to identify those findings that aid in the differential diagnosis of steatocystomas. Results The majority of steatocystomas appeared as a subcutaneous mass (n = 6, 42.9%) or a mass involving both the dermal and subcutaneous layers (n = 6, 42.9%). Steatocystomas exhibited a well-defined smooth margin (n = 12, 85.7%) and homogeneous echogenicity (n = 9, 64.3%), and showed no specific posterior acoustic features (n = 9, 64.3%). The most important features that differentiated steatocystomas from epidermal inclusion cysts were a homogeneous internal echotexture (p = 0.009) and absent or less prominent posterior acoustic enhancement (p < 0.001). The features that distinguished steatocystomas from lipomas were the margin (p < 0.001), echogenicity (p = 0.034), internal echotexture (p = 0.004), and the absence of intralesional striations (p < 0.001). Conclusion Steatocystomas appeared as well-defined homogeneous masses with mild or absent posterior acoustic enhancement.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.105-124
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• 2023

Modern society is facing an unstable environment due to unexpected accidents and hazardous situations. For example, incidents such as the collapse of the Bundang Bridge and the crushing accident in Itaewon could serve as examples. In addition to these, critical emergencies like sudden cardiac arrests and strokes frequently occur, requiring swift actions and smooth transfers to specialized medical institutions for effective responses. In response to these risks, the country has been establishing various systems to protect the lives and safety of its citizens. Among these, the 119 First Aid Activities plays a crucial role within the emergency medical system. Its goal is to promptly respond to critical emergency situations involving severe trauma patients or patients with serious illnesses, minimizing damage and safeguarding lives by swiftly transferring them to emergency medical institutions for specialized treatment. The core activity related to this is emergency rescue operations. In particular, the 119 First Aid system serves as a crucial institution responsible for the hospital transportation of emergency patients. However, rescue personnel still encounter cases of interference with their activities during their duties. Despite efforts from the police, these interference cases persist, and they share similarities with the crime of obstructing official duties. Interference with emergency activities exhibits a comparable nature to instances such as physical assaults and equipment damage against emergency medical practitioners working within the emergency medical system. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding and improvement efforts regarding the issues of interference that arise during the process of emergency medical activities, including the 119 First Aid system, are necessary. The solution to these problems is to establish and improve the conditions for obstruction of first aid activities, focusing on the "Framework Act on Firefighting" and the "Act on 119 Rescue and Emergency."

• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.69-97
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• 2019

Knowledge service firms are able to have higher 'Organizational Performance (OP)' by improving efficiency in management processes on customer problem solving. This study explores the role of inefficiency that has been overlooked up to now compared to the management process efficiency. We also suggest in this study 'Hierarchical Culture (HC)' and 'IT Relatedness (IR)' as the factors influencing the inefficiency of management processes, and propose the moderating effect of 'Task Difficulty (TD)' on the relationship between independent factors and 'Inefficiency of Business Process(IP)'. The results of analysis show that 'HC' has a positive effect on 'IP', and 'IR' has a negative effect on 'IP'. 'TD' was significant moderator of between independent variables and 'IP'. 'IP' was shown to play a full mediating role between independent factors and 'OP'. In conclusion, knowledge service firms are desired to reduce 'HC' and enhance 'IR' by minimizing unnecessary formal procedures, securing flexibility in decision making through appropriate empowerment, creating a smooth flow of knowledge, and enhancing the level of IT resource management and utilization. In addition, in order to effectively reduce 'IP', it is required that a company with a high degree of 'TD' to more reduce a 'HC' and a company with a low degree of 'TD' to more enhance a 'IR'.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study is to assess the degree of self-awareness, recognition of others, and adaptation to college life of dental hygiene students, and to identify the factors affecting college life adjustment. Methods: The effect size was calculated using the G*power 3.1.9.4 program, based on the data of 191 people who agreed to participate in the questionnaire. Independent samples t-test, one way ANOVA, Post HOC Scheffe, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to explore the difference and correlation between self-awareness, perception of others, and college life adjustment according to general characteristics. Results: A significant positive correlation was found in self-awareness (r=.301). The highest positive correlations were with social adjustment in both private (r=.340) and public self-awareness (r=.331) (p<0.01). Recognition of others (r=-.051) showed a negative correlation with college life adjustment, though it was not statistically significant. As factors for adapting to college life, private self-awareness (β=.232) and public self-awareness (β=.254) had a positive (+) effect, and internal self-awareness (β=-.205) was found to have a negative (-) effect (p<0.01) Conclusion: The self-awareness and recognition of others among dental hygiene students influence their smooth adjustment to college life. Improvement measures are recommended to enhance adaptability to college life and develop core competencies related to their major

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.52-65
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Epithelial-Mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the origins of myofibroblasts in renal interstitial fibrosis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) alleviating EMT has been proved, but the concrete mechanism is unclear. To explore the mechanism, serum-free MSCs conditioned medium (SF-MSCs-CM) was used to treat rat renal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E) fibrosis induced by transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) which ameliorated EMT. Methods and Results: Galectin-3 knockdown (Gal-3 KD) and overexpression (Gal-3 OE) lentiviral vectors were established and transfected into NRK-52E. NRK-52E fibrosis model was induced by TGF-β1 and treated with the SF-MSCs-CM for 24 h after modelling. Fibrosis and autophagy related indexes were detected by western blot and immunocytochemistry. In model group, the expressions of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), fibronectin (FN), Galectin-3, Snail, Kim-1, and the ratios of P-Akt/Akt, P-GSK3β/GSK3β, P-PI3K/PI3K, P-mTOR/mTOR, TIMP1/MMP9, and LC3B-II/I were obviously increased, and E-Cadherin (E-cad) and P62 decreased significantly compared with control group. SF-MSCs-CM showed an opposite trend after treatment compared with model group. Whether in Gal-3 KD or Gal-3 OE NRK-52E cells, SF-MSCs-CM also showed similar trends. However, the effects of anti-fibrosis and enhanced autophagy in Gal-3 KD cells were more obvious than those in Gal-3 OE cells. Conclusions: SF-MSCs-CM probably alleviated the EMT via inhibiting Galectin-3/Akt/GSK3β/Snail pathway. Meanwhile, Gal-3 KD possibly enhanced autophagy via inhibiting Galectin-3/Akt/mTOR pathway, which synergistically ameliorated renal fibrosis. Targeting galectin-3 may be a potential target for the treatment of renal fibrosis.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2024

Background: This study investigated a safe and effective bolus dose and lockout time for patient-controlled sedation (PCS) with dexmedetomidine for dental treatments. The depth of sedation, vital signs, and patient satisfaction were investigated to demonstrate safety. Methods: Thirty patients requiring dental scaling were enrolled and randomly divided into three groups based on bolus doses and lockout times: group 1 (low dose group, bolus dose 0.05 ㎍/kg, 1-minute lockout time), group 2 (middle dose group, 0.1 ㎍/kg, 1-minute), and group 3 (high dose group, 0.2 ㎍/kg, 3-minute) (n = 10 each). ECG, pulse, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, end-tidal CO₂, respiratory rate, and bispectral index scores (BIS) were measured and recorded. The study was conducted in two stages: the first involved sedation without dental treatment and the second included sedation with dental scaling. Patients were instructed to press the drug demand button every 10 s, and the process of falling asleep and waking up was repeated 1-5 times. In the second stage, during dental scaling, patients were instructed to press the drug demand button. Loss of responsiveness (LOR) was defined as failure to respond to auditory stimuli six times, determining sleep onset. Patient and dentist satisfaction were assessed before and after experimentation. Results: Thirty patients (22 males) participated in the study. Scaling was performed in 29 patients after excluding one who experienced dizziness during the first stage. The average number of drug administrations until first LOR was significantly lower in group 3 (2.8 times) than groups 1 and 2 (8.0 and 6.5 times, respectively). The time taken to reach the LOR showed no difference between groups. During the second stage, the average time required to reach the LOR during scaling was 583.4 seconds. The effect site concentrations (Ce) was significantly lower in group 1 than groups 2 and 3. In the participant survey on PCS, 8/10 in group 3 reported partial memory loss, whereas 17/20 in groups 1 and 2 recalled the procedure fully or partially. Conclusion: PCS with dexmedetomidine can provide a rapid onset of sedation, safe vital sign management, and minimal side effects, thus facilitating smooth dental sedation.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2024

In this study, EMC(Epoxy molding compound) waste from the semiconductor molding process is recycled and synthesized into silica nanoparticles, which are then applied as abrasive materials contains CMP(Chemical mechanical polishing) slurry. Specifically, silanol precursor is extracted from EMC waste according to the ultra-sonication method, which provides heat and energy, using ammonia solution as an etchant. By employing as-extracted silanol via a facile sol-gel process, uniform silica nanoparticles(e-SiO₂, experimentally synthesized SiO₂) with a size of ca. 100nm are successfully synthesized. Through physical and chemical analysis, it was confirmed that e-SiO₂ has similar properties compared to commercially available SiO₂(c-SiO₂, commercially SiO₂). For practical CMP applications, CMP slurry is prepared using e-SiO₂ as an abrasive and tested by polishing a semiconductor chip. As a result, the scratches that are roughly on the surface of the chip are successfully removed and turned into a smooth surface. Hence, the results present a recycling method of EMC waste into silica nanoparticles and the application to high-quality CMP slurry for the polishing process in semiconductor packaging.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.69-74
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• 2024

Soft actuators can be applied to various fields such as the medical industry and manufacturing industry due to the flexibility and smooth movement resulted from their constituent materials. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are a class of materials that can show large volume changes due to various surrounding stimuli and thus is suitable as a soft actuator material. However, because the change in volume of the stimuli-responsive hydrogel depends on the rate of temperature change and the rate at which the solvent diffuses into the polymer network, in most typical operating conditions, the response time of the actuator is slow due to inefficient heat transfer and diffusion process. In this study, a conjugated polymer was introduced into polydiethylacrylamide, a thermoresponsive hydrogel, to implement a soft actuator driven by light, and the improvement in response time by the photothermal effect of the conjugated polymer was investigated. It was confirmed that the response time was improved by 41% by the introduction of the conjugated polymer, due to the improvement in heat transfer efficiency. Finally, a soft gripper using the hydrogel with improved response time was fabricated and the response time of the gripper was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2024

Facility diagnosis is essential for the smooth operation and life extension of rotating equipment used in industrial sites. Compared to other diagnostic methods, vibration diagnosis can find most of the initial defects, such as unbalance, alignment failure, bearing defects and resonance, compared to other diagnostic methods. Therefore, vibration analysis is the most commonly used facility diagnosis method in industrial sites, and is usefully used as a predictive preservation (PdM) technology to manage the condition of the facility. However, since the vibration diagnosis method is performed based on experience based on the standard, it is carried out by experts. Therefore, it is intended to contribute to the reliability of the facility by establishing a system that anyone can easily judge defects by establishing a vibration diagnosis method performed based on experience as a knowledgeable code system. An algorithm was developed based on the ISO-20816 standard for vibration measurement, and the reliability was verified by comparing the results of vibration measurement at various demonstration sites such as petrochemical plant compressors, hydrogen charging stations, and industrial machinery with the results of analysis using a development system. The developed algorithm can contribute to predictive maintenance (PdM) technology that anyone can diagnose the condition of the rotating machine at industrial sites and identify defects early to replace parts at the exact time of replacement. Furthermore, it is expected that it will contribute to reducing maintenance costs and downtime due to the failure of rotating machines when applied to various industrial sites such as oil refining facilities, transportation, production facilities, and aviation facilities.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.326-334
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• 2024

Extra-oral imaging techniques such as Panoramic X-rays (PXs) and Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) are the most preferred imaging modalities in dental clinics owing to its patient convenience during imaging as well as their ability to visualize entire teeth information. PXs are preferred for routine clinical treatments and CBCTs for complex surgeries and implant treatments. However, PXs are limited by the lack of third dimensional spatial information whereas CBCTs inflict high radiation exposure to patient. When a PX is already available, it is beneficial to reconstruct the 3D oral structure from the PX to avoid further expenses and radiation dose. In this paper, we propose 3DentAI - an U-Net based deep learning framework for 3D reconstruction of oral structure from a PX image. Our framework consists of three module - a reconstruction module based on attention U-Net for estimating depth from a PX image, a realignment module for aligning the predicted flattened volume to the shape of jaw using a predefined focal trough and ray data, and lastly a refinement module based on 3D U-Net for interpolating the missing information to obtain a smooth representation of oral cavity. Synthetic PXs obtained from CBCT by ray tracing and rendering were used to train the networks without the need of paired PX and CBCT datasets. Our method, trained and tested on a diverse datasets of 600 patients, achieved superior performance to GAN-based models even with low computational complexity.