Background: Technological developments have led to the creation of a mechanical device capable of providing a representative massage as a passive treatment. The use of mechanical massage offers the distinct advantage of being user-friendly and available for use at any given time. Objectives: To investigated present the outcomes of utilizing a massage bed on the range of motion (ROM) and pressure pain threshold (PPT) in patients diagnosed with chronic low back pain. Design: ABA design of a single case study. Methods: To measure the ROM of the subject's trunk flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and rotation, a tape measure and goniometer were utilized. Furthermore, PPT was measured using an electronic pressure pain meter. Baseline A and Baseline A’ periods were conducted for 5 consecutive days without intervention. Following the baseline periods, a massage bed intervention was administered for 1 hour daily for a total of 10 days during the Intervention B period. Daily assessments were performed, and the Intervention B period was conducted after the intervention. Results: The ROM effect was confirmed in trunk lateral flexion and rotation, while the PPT was effective in both L1, right L2, left L4, and left L5. Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed that the use of a massage bed improved the ROM and PPT in patients suffering from chronic back pain. Further randomized controlled trials involving a larger sample size are necessary to validate these findings.

Background: People these days use smartphone extensively as a means of diverse social activities, but excessive use of it has also created increasing forward head posture (FHP) with neck pain. To improve this FHP, neck stabilization exercise is necessary. Objectives: This study was to investigate the effects of stabilization exercise using biofeedback on FHP subjects with neck pain. Design: A non-randomized, controlled intervention study. Methods: This study chose 18 college students in their 20s whose neck disability index (NDI) was equal to or higher than 10 and cranio-vertebral angle indicated FHP as experimental group. The control group selected 18 persons with no neck pain and a normal range of cranio-vertebral angle. The stabilization movement was performed by applying three phases of pressure, with low of 20 mmHg, intermediate of 25 mmHg, and high of 30 mmHg, using the Stabilizer. To check the effects of stabilization exercise according to pressure, the circumference of deep neck muscles was measured with ultrasonic waves, and the activity of surface muscle of sternocleidomastoid (SCM) was measured using electromyography (EMG). Results: When the circumference of the deep neck flexor was analyzed according to the pressure change during stabilization exercise, the experimental group showed increase at all pressures. The activity of the SCM of the surface muscle increased in both groups as the pressure increased. Conclusion: The application of stabilization exercise was found to be more effective on forward head posture subjects with neck pain at lower pressures.

Background: The Natural killer cell activity measurement test of the ELISA method developed by company A could have many economic benefits in terms of cost and time compared to the existing 'cytotoxicity test method'. A portable incubator capable of culturing the specimen while moving was developed as a way to save test time and secure the stability of the specimen when transferring the specimen to the entrusted institution. Objectives: This study investigated efficacy evaluation of NK cell activity measurement in a portable incubator. Design: Experimental research. Methods: 100 participants were selected to measure NK cell activity. The collected blood was placed in a general incubator and a portable incubator at the same time to start culturing, and the plasma was separated by centrifugation. The NK cell activity test was measured by enzyme immunometry. Results: In the verification of the culturing performance of the developed portable incuvator, no significance was found between the general incuvator and the portable incuvator, and the same performance was maintained in culture. Conclusion: Portable incubators have a great effect on shortening the test time and securing the stability of samples.

Background: Korea citation index (KCI) enhances the quality of journals by securing a management system for domestic journals and strengthening the international competitiveness of excellent domestic journals. Errors in studies, papers, and investigations of statistical methods have been reported worldwide in the medical field. However, there is a lack of studies on statistical methods and error investigations in physical therapy journals in Korea. Objectives: To investigated the frequency of statistical methods and research errors in physical therapy journal articles evaluated by KCI. Design: Review. Methods: Ten journals classified as physical therapy journals by December 2021, which are candidate journals or higher, were targeted. The study focused on original articles published from 2017 to 2021 and investigated the frequency of statistical methods used, sample size calculations, result tables, effect sizes, and confidence intervals. Results: Statistical methods used in physical therapy studies in Korean journals mainly employed group comparative analysis. However, in most cases, the basis for sampling, effect size, and confidence interval were not presented, even though most of the results tables were included. Conclusion: This study allowed us to examine the most frequently used statistical methods in Korean physical therapy studies and assess the reporting status of sample size calculations, result tables, effect sizes, and confidence intervals. Efforts are needed to publish high-quality papers to improve the quality of Korean physical therapy journals.

The inclusion of conductive carbon materials into lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is essential for constructing an electrical network of electrodes. Considering the demand for cells in electric vehicles (e.g., higher energy density and lower cell cost), the replacement of the currently used carbon black with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) seems inevitable. This review discusses how CNTs can contribute to the development of advanced LIBs for EVs. First, the reason for choosing CNTs as a conducting agent for the cathode is discussed in terms of energy density. Second, the reinforcing effect of CNTs on the anode is described with respect to the choice of silicon as the active material. Third, the development of water-based cathode fabrication as well as dry electrode fabrication with aid of CNTs is discussed. Fourth, three technical hurdles, that is, the price, dispersion issue, and entrapped metal impurities, for widespread use of CNTs in LIBs are discussed.

APro, a modularized process-based total system performance assessment framework, was developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to simulate radionuclide transport considering coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanicalchemical processes occurring in a geological disposal system. For reactive transport simulation considering geochemical reactions, COMSOL and PHREEQC are coupled with MATLAB in APro using an operator splitting scheme. Conventionally, coupling is performed within a MATLAB interface so that COMSOL stops the calculation to deliver the solution to PHREEQC and restarts to continue the simulation after receiving the solution from PHREEQC at every time step. This is inefficient when the solution is frequently interchanged because restarting the simulation in COMSOL requires an unnecessary setup process. To overcome this issue, a coupling scheme that calls PHREEQC inside COMSOL was developed. In this technique, PHREEQC is called through the “MATLAB function” feature, and PHREEQC results are updated using the COMSOL “Pointwise Constraint” feature. For the one-dimensional advection-reaction-dispersion problem, the proposed coupling technique was verified by comparison with the conventional coupling technique, and it improved the computation time for all test cases. Specifically, the more frequent the link between COMSOL and PHREEQC, the more pronounced was the performance improvement using the proposed technique.

Various linear system solvers with multi-physics analysis schemes are compared focusing on the near-field region considering thermal-hydraulic-chemical (THC) coupled multi-physics phenomena. APro, developed at KAERI for total system performance assessment (TSPA), performs a finite element analysis with COMSOL, for which the various combinations of linear system solvers and multi-physics analysis schemes should to be compared. The KBS-3 type disposal system proposed by Sweden is set as the target system and the near-field region, which accounts for most of the computational burden is considered. For comparison of numerical analysis methods, the computing time and memory requirement are the main concerns and thus the simulation time is set up to one year. With a single deposition hole problem, PARDISO and GMRESSSOR are selected as representative direct and iterative solvers respectively. The performance of representative linear system solvers is then examined through a problem with an increasing number of deposition holes and the GMRES-SSOR solver with a segregated scheme shows the best performance with respect to the computing time and memory requirement. The results of the comparative analysis are expected to provide a good guideline to choose better numerical analysis methods for TSPA.

Recently, the development of computer vision with deep learning has made object detection using images applicable to diverse fields, such as medical care, manufacturing, and transportation. The manufacturing industry is saving time and money by applying computer vision technology to detect defects or issues that may occur during the manufacturing and inspection process. Annotations of collected images and their location information are required for computer vision technology. However, manually labeling large amounts of images is time-consuming, expensive, and can vary among workers, which may affect annotation quality and cause inaccurate performance. This paper proposes a process that can automatically collect annotations and location information for images using eXplainable AI, without manual annotation. If applied to the manufacturing industry, this process is thought to save the time and cost required for image annotation collection and collect relatively high-quality annotation information.

본 논문은 일반적인 상황이 아닌 전시라는 특수한 환경에서의 영상기반 AI 모션캡쳐 적용방법의 다양한 시도 를 살펴보았다. 이전의 방식을 살펴보면서 다양한 전시 환경과 조건에 따라 활용 가능한 방법을 연구하고, 장 단점을 서술하여 인터렉션 전시공간에 적용 가능한 영상기반 AI 모션캡쳐 모션캡쳐 기술의 필요성과 적용 가 능성을 설명한다. 또한 MIVA 프로젝트를 진행하면서 전시공간이라는 비규격화 된 공간에서의 불편한 점을 파 악하고 이에 대한 대응할 수 있는 기술적인 환경 구성에 대하여 정리하였다. 또한 실제 공간에서 캡쳐 프로그 램을 설치하고 전시에 적용하면서 생기는 문제점을 파악하고 해결하면서 적절하게 적용 가능한 모션캡쳐 기 술 환경 파이프라인을 제안한다.

The germination process is critical for plant growth and development and it is largely affected by environmental stress, especially salinity. Recently, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is well known to act as a signaling molecule in a defense mechanism against stress conditions but poorly understood regulating seed germination. In this study, the effects of NaHS (the H2S donor) pretreatment on various biochemical (hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content and amylase and protease activity) and physiological properties (germination rate) during seed germination of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L. cv. Mosa) were examined under salt stress. The seed germination and seedling growth of oilseed rape were inhibited by NaCl treatment but it was alleviated by NaHS pretreatment. The NaCl treatment increased H2O2 content leading to oxidative stress, but NaHS pre-treatments maintained much lower levels of H2O2 in germinating seeds under salt stress. Amylase activity, a starch degradation enzyme, significantly increased over 2-fold in control, NaHS pretreatment, and NaHS pretreatment under NaCl during seed germination compared to NaCl treatment. Protease activity was highly induced in NaHS-pretreated seeds compared to NaCl treatment, accompanied by a decrease in protein content. These results indicate that NaHS pretreatment could improve seed germination under salt stress conditions by decreasing H2O2 accumulation and activating the degradation of protein and starch to support seedling growth.

시리즈 애니메이션 IP들이 사업 다각화를 위해 웹툰으로 제작되어 서비스되는 경우들이 있는데, 영세한 애니 메이션 제작사들은 웹툰으로 제작할 때 발생하는 노동집약적인 작업 과정과 비용 때문에 접근이 어려운 실정 이다. 이를 위해 함께 협업한 연구실에서 인공지능을 활용하여 <Pitchfork Park> 애니메이션 시리즈의 웹툰 변 환 작업을 자동화하는 시스템을 개발하였다. 해당 시스템을 활용하면 단순 노동적으로 작업자가 일일이 수행 하던 1) 애니메이션 컷 선별, 2) 선별된 컷 재배치, 3) 말풍선 배치, 4) 대사 배치, 5) 효과선 추가 등 상당 부 분을 자동화할 수 있다. 시스템에서 출력된 작업물을 작업자가 확인하고, 후보정 작업을 거쳐 최종 결과물을 완성한다. 기존 작업 과정에서 필요한 노동력과 시간을 절약할 수 있고, 작품의 완성도도 향상시킬 수 있다. 본 연구는 기존 웹툰 작업 과정을 분석하여 인공지능을 활용한 작업 방식의 효율성을 검증하였으며, 결과적으 로 인공지능 기술을 활용한 애니메이션의 웹툰 변환 제작 파이프라인을 구축할 수 있는 토대를 확인하였다.