• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.781-787
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a computerized touch-screen version of the asthma-specific quality-of-life (cA-QOL) questionnaire against the conventional paper-and-pencil version (pA-QOL) for equivalence, time for completion, user preference, and ease of use. Methods: A total of 261 patients were recruited. A randomized cross-over design was used. Patients in group A completed the cA-QOL first while waiting to see a physician, and completed the pAQOL version after seeing the physician. Patients allocated in group B completed these questionnaires in the reverse order. The patients were asked questions about user preference and ease of use of the cA-QOL. The time taken to complete both versions of the questionnaire was measured. Results: Weighted kappa coefficients of all items showed almost perfect agreement. The time required to complete the pA-QOL is faster than the time for cA-QOL. The patients who preferred the cA-QOL were 37.5%, while those who preferred the pA-QOL were 29.9%. Most patients reported that the cA-QOL was "easy" or "very easy" to complete. Conclusion: The cA-QOL is the computerized equivalent of the pA-QOL. The findings herein demonstrate that the cA-QOL can be helpful to nurses in busy practices for assessing, collecting, and evaluating their patients' health related quality of life.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.76-84
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this methodological study was to examine the reliability and validity of a translated Korean version of the Critical Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) developed for assessment of pain in critically ill nonverbal patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 202 critically ill patients admitted to a university hospital. Upon establishment of content and translation equivalence between the English and Korean version of CPOT, psychometric properties were evaluated. Results: The interrater reliability was found to be acceptable with the weighted kappa coefficients of .81-.88. Significant high correlations between the CPOT and the Checklist of Nonverbal Pain Indicators were found indicating good concurrent validity (r=.72-.83, p<.001). Data showed the area under the ROC curve of 0.86 with a cut-off point of 1, which resulted in 76.9% sensitivity and 88.6% specificity. The mean score of CPOT during suctioning was significantly different from that of before (t= -14.16, p<.001) or 20 minutes after suctioning (t=16.31, p<.001). Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that the CPOT can be used as a reliable and valid measure to assess pain in critically ill nonverbal patients.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2014

Background: Sonoelastography (SE) is a new technique that can assess differences in tissue stiffness, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of SE to assess the long head of biceps tendon alteration. Methods: Forty shoulders of 36 consecutively registered patients with clinical symptoms and conventional ultrasonography findings of biceps tendinitis or tendinosis, and 40 asymptomatic shoulders of 20 healthy volunteers were assessed with SE. Transverse and longitudinal images of long head of biceps tendon were obtained using SE. SE images were performed by one orthopedic surgeon and evaluated by two orthopedic surgeons using an experimentally proven color grading system. Results: The transverse images of SE showed a sensitivity of 87.5%, a specificity of 95.0% and a accuracy of 91.3%, the longitudinal images of SE showed a sensitivity of 92.5%, a specificity of 90.0% and a accuracy of 91.3%. Inter-observer reliability of SE was in 'almost perfect agreement' with a weighted kappa coefficient of 0.83. Conclusions: SE is valuable in the detection of the intratendinous and peritendinous alterations of biceps tendon, and has excellent accuracy and excellent correlation with conventional ultrasound findings.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.384-391
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• 2016

In this study, regions infected by pine wilt disease were extracted by using object-based classification method (OB-infected region), and the characteristics of special distribution about OB-infected region were figured out. Scale 24, Shape 0.1, Color 0.9, Compactness 0.5, and Smoothness 0.5 was selected as the objected-based, optimal weighted value of OB-infected region classification. The total accuracy of classification was high with 99% and Kappa coefficient was also high with 0.97. The area of OB-infected region was approximately 90 ha, 16% of the total area. The OB-infected region in Age class V and VI was intensively distributed with 97% of the total. Also, The OB-infected region in Middle and Large DBH class was intensively distributed with 99% of the total. In terms of the topographic characteristics of OB-infected region, the damages occurred approximately 86% below the altitude of 200 m, and occurred 91% with a slope less than 10 degree. The damage occurred a lot in low hilly mountain and undulating slope. In addition, the accessibility to road and residential area from OB-infected region was less than 300 m in large part. Overall, it was figured out that artificial effect is stronger than natural effect with regard to the spread of pine wilt disease.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.48-58
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• 2010

The aim of this study was performed to determine the inter-rater reliability of the Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM) translated in Korean. This was a new clinical measurement tool for evaluating the recovery of voluntary movement and basic mobility following stroke. A direct-observation reliability study was conducted on 20 patients who had strokes and were in a rehabilitation setting. Subjects were assessed by two physical therapists. The reliability of the STREAM scores was demonstrated by weighted kappa statistics for inter-rater agreement on scores for individual items ranged from .83 to 1.0, intraclass correlation coefficients for total score was .99, and for subscale scores was ranged from .96 to .99. The internal consistency of the STREAM scores was demonstrated by Cronbach alphas of greater than .99 on the subscales and overall. These high levels of reliability support the use of the STREAM translated in Korean instrument for the measurement of motor recovery following stroke.

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

Numerical optimization for design of a blade stacking line of a low speed axial flow fan with a fast and elitist Non-Dominated Sorting of Genetic Algorithm(NSGA-II) of multi-objective optimization using three-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis is presented in this work. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS) equations with ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model are discretized with finite volume approximations and solved on unstructured grids. Regression analysis is performed to get second order polynomial response which is used to generate Pareto optimal front with help of NSGA-II and local search strategy with weighted sum approach to refine the result obtained by NSGA-II to get better Pareto optimal front. Four geometric variables related to spanwise distributions of sweep and lean of blade stacking line are chosen as design variables to find higher performed fan blade. The performance is measured in terms of the objectives; total efficiency, total pressure and torque. Hence the motive of the optimization is to enhance total efficiency and total pressure and to reduce torque.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2019

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of wash-in color map in detecting early enhancement of prostate focal lesion compared to whole dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DEC MRI) images. Materials and Methods: This study engaged 50 prostate cancer patients who underwent multiparametric MRI and radical prostatectomy as subjects. An expert [R1] and a trainee [R2] independently evaluated early enhancement and recorded the time needed to review 1) a wash-in color map and 2) whole DCE MRI images. Results: The review of whole DCE images by R1 showed fair agreement with color map by R1, whole images by R2, and color map by R2 (weighted kappa values = 0.59, 0.44, and 0.58, respectively). Both readers took a significantly shorter time to review the color maps as compared to whole images (P < 0.001). Conclusion: A trainee could achieve better agreement with an expert when using wash-in color maps than when using whole DCE MRI images. Also, color maps took a significantly shorter evaluation time than whole images.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of susceptibility map-weighted imaging (SMwI) taken in different acquisition planes for discriminating patients with neurodegenerative parkinsonism from those without. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, observational, single-institution study enrolled consecutive patients who visited movement disorder clinics and underwent brain MRI and ¹⁸F-FP-CIT PET between September 2021 and December 2021. SMwI images were acquired in both the oblique (perpendicular to the midbrain) and the anterior commissure-posterior commissure (AC-PC) planes. Hyperintensity in the substantia nigra was determined by two neuroradiologists. ¹⁸F-FP-CIT PET was used as the reference standard. Inter-rater agreement was assessed using Cohen;s kappa coefficient. The diagnostic performance of SMwI in the two planes was analyzed separately for the right and left substantia nigra. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with generalized estimating equations was applied to compare the diagnostic performance of the two planes. Results: In total, 194 patients were included, of whom 105 and 103 had positive results on ¹⁸F-FP-CIT PET in the left and right substantia nigra, respectively. Good inter-rater agreement in the oblique (κ = 0.772/0.658 for left/right) and AC-PC planes (0.730/0.741 for left/right) was confirmed. The pooled sensitivities for two readers were 86.4% (178/206, left) and 83.3% (175/210, right) in the oblique plane and 87.4% (180/206, left) and 87.6% (184/210, right) in the AC-PC plane. The pooled specificities for two readers were 83.5% (152/182, left) and 82.0% (146/178, right) in the oblique plane, and 83.5% (152/182, left) and 86.0% (153/178, right) in the AC-PC plane. There were no significant differences in the diagnostic performance between the two planes (P > 0.05). Conclusion: There are no significant difference in the diagnostic performance of SMwI performed in the oblique and AC-PC plane in discriminating patients with parkinsonism from those without. This finding affirms that each institution may choose the imaging plane for SMwI according to their clinical settings.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.638-643
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• 2005

Background : Several studies have shown considerable disagreement when using the $FEV_1$ and PEFR to assess the severity of an airflow obstruction. A differential classification of the severity of asthma would lead to serious differences in the evaluation and management of asthma. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the $FEV_1$ and PEFR in asthma patients with mild symptoms. Methods : In this study, the PEFR and $FEV_1$ were obtained from 92 adult asthma patients with mild symptoms attending an outpatient pulmonary clinic. The mean differences and the limits of agreement in the paired measurements of the $FEV_1$ and PEFR were calculated. Results : There was a considerable correlation between the $FEV_1$ and PEFR measurements when expressed as a % of the predicted values (r=0.686, p<0.01). The 95% limit of agreement (mean difference ${\pm}1.96SD$) between the $FEV_1$ % and PEFR % were acceptable(-27.4%~33.8%). In addition, the weighted ${\kappa}$(kappa) coefficient for the agreement between the $FEV_1$ % and PEFR % was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.63-0.81), indicating excellent agreement between the two measurements. Conclusion : The spirometer ($FEV_1$) and the Mini-Wright peak flow meter (PEFR) can be used interchangeably in adult asthma patients with mild symptom.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2013

Objectives : This study was performed to evaluate inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of interpretation and reproducibility of a pulse analyser (MAXMAC27-Plus). Methods : 38 of 40 volunteers completed the pulse analysis consecutively. Three Korean medical doctors who had at least 2 years of clinical experience interpreted the pulse waves for 3 aspects of size, depth and shape, then inter-rater reliability and crude agreement was obtained. Reinterpretation was done 2 weeks later and intra-rater reliability and crude agreement was obtained. Intra-rater reliability and crude agreement between 1st and 2nd measurement was calculated. Cohen's weighted kappa for size, Cohen's kappa for depth and shape were used as statistical analysis. Results : Inter-rater reliability of size, depth and shape among 3 raters was 0.598, 0.604, and 0.312, respectively, showing moderate to substantial agreement. Average intra-rater reliability between 1st and 2nd interpretation of size, depth and shape was 0.806, 0.705, and 0.638, respectively, showing substantial to almost perfect agreement. However, intra-rater reliability between consecutive measurements of size, depth and shape was 0.221, 0.121, and 0.194, respectively, which showed only poor to fair agreement. Conclusions : Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of one pulse wave showed relatively high concordance. Training by a clinical expert may effect better concordance among raters. Test-retest reliability showed poor agreement. Improvement of measurement technique and device performance will be needed.