• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.209-217
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• 2019

This is a descriptive research study undertaken to confirm the relationship between depression, fear-avoidance beliefs, catastrophizing, and the quality of life in the elderly with chronic pain, and how psychological factors affect their quality of life. The subjects were 147 seniors aged 65 years or older, who visited a neuropathy clinic in A city from March 4, 2019 to March 18, 2019. Statistical analysis was achieved by applying t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analyses using the SPSS/WIN 22.0 software. Considering the demographic characteristics of the elderly, quality of life revealed significant differences with respect to age (F=3.464, p<0.001), the presence of the spouse (F=3.464, p<0.001), health condition (t=4.545, p<0.001), and pain degree (F=14.76, p<0.001). Further analysis revealed that factors affecting quality of life in the elderly with chronic pain are depression (${\beta}=-0.25$, p<0.001), pain degree (${\beta}=0.25$, p<0.001), catastrophizing (${\beta}=-0.28,$p<0.001) and health condition $({\beta}=-0.19$, p<0.001), with a total explanation power of 49%. Hence, researches on the negative psychological factors, such as depression and catastrophizing, are required to improve the quality of life for the elderly. In addition, the development of a systematic nursing arbitration program is necessary to positively recognize active pain control and health conditions.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.180-187
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• 2021

Objective: We investigated arthralgia and myalgia associated with the use of oral bisphosphonate (BP) by conducting a survey of patient. Methods: The pharmacists conducted a survey between 1 Oct 2019 and 30 Sep 2020 among patients who were dispensed BP in community pharmacies to assess their demographic and medical characteristics, and their experiences with, and process for pain. Logistic regression analyses were performed to find the risk factors associated with the pain, and the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were determined. Results: A total of 160 patients who used BP participated in the survey (74 [46.3%] used risedronate; 61 [38.1%] used alendronate; 23 [14.4%] used ibandronate), and 20 (12.5%) of them experienced pain. Significant statistical differences of the characteristics between patients who experienced pain or not were observed regarding menopause, and parity. Compared with women who had one or two parity, women who had more than three parity were associated with the decreased risk of pain (OR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.04-0.98). Moreover, steady exercise was associated with the decreased risk of pain compared to less exercise (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.14-0.98). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the risk of pain in BP-treated patients might be different regarding the different ingredients of BP, and dosing frequency. This survey highlights a need for a further safety research to understand the factors influencing the pain associated with the BP treatment.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.72-82
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• 2021

Purpose: A high anion gap (AG) is known to be a significant risk factor for serious acid-base imbalances and death in acute poisoning cases. The strong ion difference (SID), or strong ion gap (SIG), has recently been used to predict in-hospital mortality or acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. This study presents a comprehensive acid-base analysis in order to identify the predictive value of the SIG for disease severity in severe poisoning. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on acute poisoning patients treated in the emergency intensive care unit (ICU) between December 2015 and November 2020. Initial serum electrolytes, base deficit (BD), AG, SIG, and laboratory parameters were concurrently measured upon hospital arrival and were subsequently used along with Stewart's approach to acid-base analysis to predict AKI development and in-hospital death. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and logistic regression analysis were used as statistical tests. Results: Overall, 343 patients who were treated in the intensive care unit were enrolled. The initial levels of lactate, AG, and BD were significantly higher in the AKI group (n=62). Both effective SID [SIDe] (20.3 vs. 26.4 mEq/L, p<0.001) and SIG (20.2 vs. 16.5 mEq/L, p<0.001) were significantly higher in the AKI group; however, the AUC of serum SIDe was 0.842 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.799-0.879). Serum SIDe had a higher predictive capacity for AKI than initial creatinine (AUC=0.796, 95% CI=0.749-0.837), BD (AUC=0.761, 95% CI=0.712-0.805), and AG (AUC=0.660, 95% CI=0.607-0.711). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that diabetes, lactic acidosis, high SIG, and low SIDe were significant risk factors for in-hospital mortality. Conclusion: Initial SIDe and SIG were identified as useful predictors of AKI and in-hospital mortality in intoxicated patients who were critically ill. Further research is necessary to evaluate the physiological nature of the toxicant or unmeasured anions in such patients.

• Journal of Breast Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.371-381
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• 2018

Purpose: Immune suppression is common in patients with advanced breast cancer but the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we aimed to identify B7 family members that were able to predict the immune status of patients, and which may serve as potential targets for the treatment of breast cancer. We also aimed to identify microRNAs that may regulate the expression of B7 family members. Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas data from 1,092 patients with breast cancer, including gene expression, microRNA expression and survival data, were used for statistical and survival analyses. Polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were used to measure messenger RNA and protein expression, respectively. Luciferase assay was used to investigate direct microRNA target. Results: Bioinformatic analysis predicted that microRNA (miR)-93, miR-195, miR-497, and miR-340 are potential regulators of the immune evasion of breast cancer cells, and that they exert this function by targeting CD274, PDCD1LG2, and NCR3LG1. We chose CD274 for further investigations. We found that miR-195, miR-497, and CD274 expression levels were inversely correlated in MDA-MB-231 cells, and miR-195 and miR-497 expressions mimic inhibited CD274 expression in vitro. Mechanistic investigations demonstrated that miR-195 and miR-497 directly target CD274 3' untranslated region. Conclusion: Our data indicated that the level of B7 family members can predict the prognosis of breast cancer patients, and miR-195/miR-497 regulate CD274 expression in triple negative breast cancer. This regulation may further influence tumor progression and the immune tolerance mechanism in breast cancer and may be able to predict the effect of immunotherapy on patients.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.99-119
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• 2010

This study explores the natural gas market and the oil market in the U.S. and the European oil market. It focuses on two kinds of analyses; one is to confirm whether there is the predictive power between spot and futures within homogeneous commodity market(or inter-heterogeneous commodity market) through Granger-causality test in terms of the return rate and the volatility. The other is to examine the spot price stabilizing effect of futures price through regression analysis. When it comes to the predictive power of inter-commodity market, there was a conflicting aspect between the return rate of spot and futures. Overall, however, its statistical significance was low. With respect to the volatility, we found that the natural gas market has little influence on the oil market unlike the predictive power of oil market on natural gas market. Concerning the return rate of the predictive power within homogeneous commodity market, we found that the return rate of spot has the predictive power on futures only in the European market. In addition, we identified that there is feedback between spot and futures in the all commodity markets regarding volatility. As a result of the spot price stabilizing effect analysis of futures price, futures volatility increased the spot volatility.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2019

Background: This study was conducted to verify the effectiveness and effectiveness-related factors of Korean medicine (KM) treatment for patients who have been involved in traffic accidents (TA). Methods: The medical records of 150 TA patients hospitalized in Dongguk University Bundang Oriental Medicine Hospital from September 2017 to May 2018 were reviewed. Medical records included information on patient demographic characteristics, TA situations, use of KM treatment, clinical characteristics, 4 scales [numeric rating scale (NRS), visual analogue scale (VAS), EuroQol-visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) and neck disability index (NDI)]. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the effectiveness and effectiveness-related factors of treatment. Results: The 150 patients (almost 1:1 gender ratio) were typically in their 40's (26.67%), had rear impact to their vehicle (37.33%), were in the driver's seat (70.00%), and without head trauma and loss of consciousness (83.33%). The main symptoms were neck pain (60.66%) and lower back pain (54.00%). All 150 patients showed significant improvement after KM treatment. 4 scales significantly improved when the treatment started within 3 days from the accident and patients were hospitalized longer and took more diverse treatments. The patients experiencing a higher initial pain level (NRS 8-10, $VAS{\geq}70$) showed significant improvement of NRS and VAS scores with faster and longer inpatient treatments than the other patients. The patients with higher initial pain levels ($VAS{\geq}70$) also showed significant improvement in EQ-VAS scores. Conclusion: KM treatment was effective for TA patients in this study. Treatment initiation time, hospitalization period, treatment diversity and initial pain level are related to the degree of improvement of a patient's symptoms.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.209-216
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• 2018

This study aimed to investigate the association of the muscle activity around the neck of the operator(dental hygienists') according to the change in the patient's neck angle during a direct visual inspection on the maxillary right-side molar palatal surface. The operators were $4^{th}$ year dental hygiene students, who are future dentalhy gienists, having accurate understanding on and awareness of the location of the operation site, hand fixation, and how to use the tools. Data on the change in the muscle activity around the neck were collected by using surface electromyography and neck goniometer. SPSS statistics 20 was used for statistical analyses including Shapiro-wilk test and one-way ANOVA. As a result, the activities of the operator upper trapezius, cervical erector spinae, and levator scapulae muscles significantly decreased when the patient's head was angled compared to when it was not. For the angle of the operator head, the head bend significantly decreased when the patient's head was angled than when it was not. Based on the study results, it is expected that angling the patient's head when treating his or her teeth will decrease the excessive muscle activity around the neck of the operator, and will reduce muscle fatigue. Therefore, angling the head of the patient while treating his or her teeth is recommended. This suggests that muscle pain caused by repetitive actions in the wrong posture can be reduced.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2019

Purpose: Previous studies related with occlusal contact area were limited that interocclusal thickness level or the method of measurement has not been accurate in measuring. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between head posture and occlusal contact area using photo occlusion analysis. Materials and Methods: 54 subjects with complete dentition (44 men, 10 women / 23 to 33 years of age) were included. To identify the relationship between head posture and occlusal contact area, subjects took interocclusal record in maximal intercuspal position with three different positions(supine position ($0^{\circ}$) / inclined position ($45^{\circ}$) / upright position ($90^{\circ}$)) on the dental unit chair. Occlusal contact area was analyzed using photo occlusion analysis. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS ver.25.0 at 95% confidence interval. Results: Head posture has no significant effect on the changes of occlusal contact area (P > 0.05). Conclusion: When interocclusal relation is stable, head posture does not change a interocclusal record because head posture has no significant effect on occlusal contact area. Analysis of occlusal contact area using photo occlsion analysis device is useful due to its material property and simplicity.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.379-389
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• 2019

The study empirically investigates financial factors that may influence on corporate R&D intensity during the post-era of the global financial turmoil (from 2010 to 2015) to mitigate possible spillover effect associated with the crisis. Concerning the empirical research settings of the study, chaebol firms listed in the KOSPI stock market are used as sample data with adopting various econometric estimation methods to enhance validity of the results. In the first hypothesis test, it is found that there exist inter-industry financial differences in terms of the ratio of R&D expenditure across all the sample years, but the statistical differences may arise from only a few domestic industries beloning to the high-growth sector. Moreover, it is also interesting to identify that, for the high-tech sector, 3 explanatory variables such as R&D intensity in a prior year, firm size and change in cash holdings are proved to be financial factors to discriminate between chaebol firms and their counterparts of non-chaebol firms, whereas a proportion of tangible assets over total assets as well as the former two variables are shown to be significant factors on the R&D intensity for the low-tech sector.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2019

Objectives Disrupted integrities of the fornix and stria terminalis have been suggested in schizophrenia. However, very few studies have focused on the fornix and stria terminalis comparing first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ), chronic schizophrenia (CS), and healthy controls (HCs) with the application of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) technique. The objective of this study is to compare the connectivity of the fornix and stria terminalis among FESZ, CS, and HCs. Methods We included the 44 FESZ patients, 39 CS patients and 20 HCs in this study. Voxel-wise statistical analysis of the fractional anisotropy (FA) data was performed using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics to analyze the connectivity of fornix and stria terminalis. In addition, the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) were used to evaluate clinical symptom severities. Results There were no significant differences between the FESZ, CS, and HCs in age, sex, education years. The SAPS and SANS scores of the schizophrenia groups showed no significant differences. FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis in the CS group were significantly lower than those in FESZ and HCs. There were no significant differences of FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis between the FESZ and the HCs. Pearson correlation analyses revealed that significant correlation between FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalies of the the FESZ group and positive, negative symptom scales, and FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis of the CS group and negative symptom scales. Conclusions This study shows that FA values of the fornix and stria terminalis in the CS were lower than in the FESZ and the HCs. These results suggest that the fornix and stria terminalis can play a role in pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Thus current study can broaden our understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.