• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.950-956
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• 2021

Objective : Psoas and masseter muscles are known markers of sarcopenia. However, the relative superiority of either muscle as a marker is unclear. Therefore, this study analyzed the two muscles in patients with a prognosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods : Patients with TBI visiting a regional trauma center between January 2017 and December 2018 were selected, and their medical records were reviewed. TBI patients with an abbreviated injury score (AIS) of 4 or 5 were selected. Patients with an AIS of 4 or 5 at the chest, abdomen, and extremity were excluded. Patients with a hospital stay of 1 to 2 days were excluded. Both muscle areas were measured based on the initial computed tomography. The psoas muscle index (PMI) and the masseter muscle index (MMI) were calculated by dividing both muscle areas by height in meters squared (cm²/m²). These muscle parameters along with other medical information were used to analyze mortality and the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS). Results : A total of 179 patients, including 147 males (82.1%), were analyzed statistically. The mean patient age was 58.0 years. The mortality rate was 16.8% (30 patients). The mean GOS score was 3.7. Analysis was performed to identify the parameters associated with mortality, which was a qualitative study outcome. The psoas muscle area (16.9 vs. 14.4 cm², p=0.028) and PMI (5.9 vs. 5.1 cm²/m², p=0.004) showed statistical differences between the groups. The PMI was also statistically significant as a risk factor for mortality in logistic regression analysis (p=0.023; odds ratio, 0.715; 95% confidence interval, 0.535-0.954). Quantitative analyses were performed with the GOS scores. Bivariate correlation analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between PMI and GOS scores (correlation coefficient, 0.168; p=0.003). PMI (p=0.004, variation inflation factor 1.001) was significant in multiple regression analysis. The masseter muscle area and MMI did not show significance in the study. Conclusion : Larger PMI was associated with statistically significant improved survival and GOS scores, indicating its performance as a superior prognostic marker. Further analyses involving a larger number of patients, additional parameters, and more precise settings would yield a better understanding of sarcopenia and TBI.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.922-928
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• 2021

To profile the microbial compositions of Korean traditional fermented paste made from whole soybeans, Doenjang and Cheonggukjang, and compare their taxonomic differences, we analyzed the V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA of naturally fermented foods by using next generation sequencing. α-Diversity results showed that values indicating bacterial community abundances (OTUs) and richness (ACE, Chao1) were statistically significant (p=0.0001) in Doenjang and Cheonggukjang. Firmicutes was the most common phylum in both groups, representing 97.02% and 99.67% in the Doenjang and Cheonggukjang groups, respectively. Bacillus was the most dominant genus, accounting for 71.70% and 59.87% in both groups. Linear discriminant (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) analysis was performed to reveal the significant ranking of abundant taxa in different fermented foods. A size-effect threshold of 2.0 on the logarithmic LDA score was used for discriminative functional biomarkers. On the species level, Bacillus subtilis, Tetragenococcus halophilus, and Clostridium arbusti were significantly more abundant in Doenjang than in Cheonggukjang, whereas Bacillus thermoamylovorans, Enterococcus faecium, and Lactobacillus sakei were significantly more abundant in Cheonggukjang than in Doenjang. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) showed that the statistical difference in microbial clusters between the two groups was significant at the confidence level of p=0.001. This research could be used as basic research to identify the correlation between the biochemical characteristics of Korean fermented foods and the distribution of microbial communities.

• 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 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 Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the factors related to the completion status of continuing education and to help develop professional ability by presenting improvement directions. Methods: A questionnaire survey involving 500 dental hygienists working at 155 dental clinics in Gwang-ju was conducted between June 19 and July 29, 2017. Descriptive analysis, chi-square tests, and t-tests were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 21.0 for Windows. Finally, to investigate the factors related to the completion of continuing education, logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: The odds ratio (OR) was higher in the group with more than 16 years of total work carrier (OR=3.40, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.22-9.45) than that in the group with 1-5 years of work carrier. Groups receiving information from associations (OR=5.35, 95% CI=1.74-16.40), groups that directly search for information (OR=6.53, 95% CI=1.84-23.12), and groups receiving information from colleagues (OR=3.55, 95% CI=1.17-10.77) had higher ORs than groups receiving no information. The OR was higher in the group receiving cost support for participation (OR=2.20, 95% CI=1.06-4.55) than the group receiving no support. Regarding total education completion status in 2012-2014, groups that completed grades 1-7 (OR=2.51, 95% CI=1.35-4.64) and those that completed grade 8 or higher (OR=14.37, 95% CI=7.68-26.89) had higher ORs than groups who received no education. Conclusions: The rate of completion of continuing education can be increased by reviewing the course contents, publicity activities, and cost of continuing education.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.344-350
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• 2020

Asthma is a chronic disease and occurs in airway in the lung. The cause of the disease has not been identified, it is assumed that both genetic and environmental risk factors play an important role in the development of asthma. Interleukin (IL)-12 is a cytokine regulating T-cell and NK cell. In this study, we analyzed the genetic polymorphisms of IL-12 receptor genes (IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2) in asthma patients and normal individuals in a Korean population. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2 using the genotype data of 193 asthma cases and 3,228 healthy controls from the Korea Association REsource for their correlation with asthma case. IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2 genes showed statistically significant polymorphism association with asthma case. As a results, 16 SNPs from IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2 genes showed statistically significant association with asthma. Among them, rs375947 SNP in IL-12Rβ1 showed the greatest statistical correlation with asthma (P-value = 0.028, Odds Ratio = 1.27, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.03~1.57). The groups with minor allele of IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2 showed increased risk of asthma. The genotype-based mRNA expression analysis showed that the group of minor allele of IL-12Rβ1 showed decreased mRNA expression. Decreased IL-12Rβ1 expression causes decreased IL-12 signaling, and this affects developing asthma. In conclusion, the SNPs in IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2 may contribute to development of asthma in a Korean population.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.135-170
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• 2018

The recent success of populist parties and candidates in the US and European countries leads to a massive amount of empirical research on populism, a deviant form of representative democracy. Much ink has been spilled to define populism and to identify the causes of its rise and continued success in democratic political system. However, little is known about populist attitudes of individual voters. Using a large-scale online survey fielded in the context of the South Korean presidential election in 2017, this study examines (1) what determines populist attitudes of South Korean voters and (2) how populist attitudes are associated with evaluations of political parties, candidates, and political issues. Statistical analysis reveals that people high on populism are more likely to support an underdog left-wing political party and its presidential candidate, and are less likely to support policies implemented or proposed under the auspices of the Park Geun-hye administration. These findings do not necessarily suggest the inherent affinity between populism and left-wing ideology; rather, it implies populist attitudes happened to appear in 2017, in reactions to lack of confidence in the previous government.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.181-186
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• 2022

This study examines the effect of parenting stress on children's social competence in relation to parenting stress, children's social competence, and parents' self-esteem, The purpose of this study is to investigate whether parental self-esteem mediates the relationship between parenting stress and children's social competence. Frequency analysis and descriptive statistical analysis were performed on the data of the 7th year of 2014 Panel Study of Korean Children(PSKC), and Pearson's moment correlation coefficient was calculated for correlation analysis between variables. In addition, in order to verify the mediating effect of parental self-esteem in the relationship between parenting stress and the child's social competence, Process Macro Model 4 was applied to verify the mediating effect, The significance of the indirect effect was verified by the bootstrapping method. As a result of this study, first, the correlations between all latent variables showed significant correlations. Second, it was confirmed that mother and father self-esteem had a mediating effect in the effect of father and mother's stress on infants' social competence. These results suggest that in order to improve children's social competence, parents should be able to increase their self-esteem so that they can have faith and confidence in themselves and control their emotions well in parenting stressful situations.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.435-445
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• 2022

In this study, the reverberation of a bistatic sonar operated in southeastern coast in the East Sea in July 2020 was analyzed. The reverberation sensor data were collected through an LFM sound source towed by a research vessel and a horizontal line array receiver 1 km to 5 km away from it. The reverberation sensor data was analyzed by various methods including geo-plot after signal processing. Through this, it was confirmed that the angle reflected from the sound source through the scatterer to the receiver has a dominant influence on the distribution of the reverberation sound, and the probability distribution characteristics of bistatic sonar reverberation varies for each beam. In addition, parametric factors of K distribution and Rayleigh distribution were estimated from the sample through moment method estimation. Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test at the confidence level of 0.05, the distribution probability of the data was analyzed. As a result, it could be observed that the reverberation follows a Rayleigh probability distribution, and it could be estimated that this was the effect of a low reverberation to noise ratio.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.378-387
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• 2022

Background: Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is a marker of increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Owing to the increased prevalence of Afib in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, assessing the effect of Afib on postsurgical outcomes is important. We aimed to analyze the effect of preoperative Afib on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery using a large surgical database. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was based on the national health claims database established by the National Health Insurance Service of the Republic of Korea from 2009 to 2015. Diagnosis and procedure codes were used to identify diseases according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th revision. Results: We included 1,037 patients (0.1%) who had undergone cardiac surgery from a randomized 1,000,000-patient cohort, and 15 patients (1.5%) treated with isolated surgical Afib ablation were excluded. Of these 1,022 patients, 412 (39.7%), 303 (29.2%), and 92 (9.0%) underwent coronary artery bypass, heart valve surgery, and Cox-maze surgery, respectively. Preoperative Afib was associated with higher patient mortality (p=0.028), regardless of the surgical procedure. Patients with preoperative Afib (n=190, 18.6%) experienced a higher cumulative risk of overall mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.435; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.263-2.107; p=0.034). Subgroup analysis revealed a reduced risk of overall mortality with Cox-maze surgery in Afib patients (HR, 0.500; 95% CI, 0.266-0.938; p=0.031). Postoperative cerebral ischemia or hemorrhage events were not related to Afib. Conclusion: Preoperative Afib was independently associated with worse long-term postoperative outcomes after cardiac surgery. Concomitant Cox-maze surgery may improve the survival rate.