Background: Stroke patients commonly experience functional declines in balance and gait due to decreased muscle strength and coordination issues caused by brain damage. Through repetitive training, robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) can aid in promoting neuroplasticity in stroke patients and help them acquire effective gait patterns. Additionally, convalescent rehabilitation hospitals help to ensure rapid recovery through intensive rehabilitation training. Objects: This study investigated the effects of RAGT frequency on gait and balance recovery in stroke patients in convalescent rehabilitation hospitals, providing data to optimize rehabilitation efficiency, enhance functional recovery, and support the development of personalized strategies to ensure safer and more rapid returns to daily life. Methods: This study compared the frequency of RAGT by analyzing a group receiving two units of RAGT per day for 5 days per week with a group receiving two units of RAGT per week as part of a comprehensive rehabilitation program, totaling 16 units daily, in a convalescent rehabilitation hospital. Results: In the 10-minute walking test, statistical significance was observed both within and between groups, whereas the Functional Ambulation Category, Fugl-Meyer Assessment–lower extremities, Berg Balance Scale, and timed up-and-go tests showed significance only within groups. Conclusion: End-effector RAGT and traditional gait training significantly improve gait ability, balance, and lower limb function in stroke patients.

This study involved the heterogenization of a binder pitch (BP) using a small amount of nanocarbon to improve physical properties of the resulting graphite electrode (GE). Heterogenization was carried out by adding 0.5–2.0 wt.% platelet carbon nanofiber (PCNF) or carbon black (CB) to a commercial BP. To evaluate the physical properties of the BPs, we designed a new model graphite electrode (MGE) using needle coke as a filler. The heterogenized binder pitch (HBP) with PCNF or CB clearly increased the coking value by 5–13 wt.% compared to that of the as-received BP. Especially, the model graphite electrodes prepared with HBPs containing 1.0 wt.% PCNF or CB showed significantly improved physical properties compared to the control MGE from the as-received BP. Although the model graphite electrodes prepared with HBPs showed similar properties, they had smaller pore sizes than the control. This indicates that heterogenization of the BP can effectively decrease the pore size in the MGE matrix. Correlating the average pore sizes with the physical properties of the model graphite electrodes showed that, for the same porosity, matrices formed by the HBP with a smaller average pore size can effectively improve the apparent density, tensile strength, and oxidation resistance of the model graphite electrodes.

본 논문의 목적은 생성형 AI 기술의 급속한 발달로 인해 변화하는 게임산업의 생태계를 살펴 보고 이에 따른 대응방안을 모색하는 데 있다. 2022년 11월 OpenAI가 ChatGPT를 대중에게 공개한 이후, 생성형 AI를 가장 직접적으로 활용 및 투자하고 있는 분야는 게임콘텐츠 산업이 다. 생성형 AI의 활용은 단순반복적인 작업의 효율화를 통해 게임 개발의 간소화와 예산 절감 을 가능케 한다. 여기에 플레이어의 반응에 실시간 반응하며 소통하는 콘텐츠 자동 생성을 통 해 사용자 경험을 극대화한다. 실제 게임 개발 현장에서도 게임 레벨, 맵, 퀘스트, 지능형 NPC, QA 자동화 등 게임 제작과 운영의 전 분야에서 생성형 AI 도구가 활용되고 있다. 신기 술에 민감하며 노동집약적인 게임의 산업적 특성 때문에 생성형 AI가 게임산업의 미래를 바꿀 것이라는 전망과 함께, 저작권 이슈와 대량 해고 등 우려 또한 제기되고 있다. 이에 대응하기 위해 게임업계는 생성형 AI가 가져올 불가피한 변화를 적극적으로 받아들이고, 이분법적 ‘대체 론’을 넘어 인간의 창의력과 AI 기술의 장점을 결합할 수 있는 새로운 협업 지성과 창작물에 대한 법적, 윤리적 가이드라인을 모색해야 한다.

In order to foster AI experts needed in each industry in the era of digital transformation where AI and various industrial technologies converge, the AI Integrated Education Consortium was formed by the National Research Council of Science and Technology(NST) and AI education organizations (KISTI, KIRD, and ETRI) to establish and operate three-stage, six-course education programs. The training targets are employees of a total of 35 institutions, including research institutes, subordinate institutes, and research institutes under the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the cumulative target of 10,000 trainees is being set by 2024 after the implementation in 2022. In this study, we present the achievements and future prospects of the AI Integration Education, which is celebrating its third year of implementation as of April 1, 2024.

The ovicidal effect of plant extract mixture (5% cinnamon extract + 10% citronella oil + 30% citrus oil + 10% derris extract + 20% neem extract + 25% penetrating surfactant) against several major insect pests was tested using the spraying method. In the case of stink bugs, eggs tended to die during hatching. When treated with a plant extract mixture (500-times solution), mortality for Halyomorpha halys, Riptortus clavatus, Eurydema dominulus, Trialeurodes vaprarorium, Bemisia tabaci, Spodoptera exigua, and Agrotis ipsilon reached as high as 100%. Therefore, it is believed that industrialization will be feasible in the future.

To control western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis), a significant pest of peppers, the control effects of eco-friendly agricultural materials were tested when treated alone and in combination. The control effects of yellow sticky roll traps installed on the stem, predatory natural enemy (Hypoaspis miles) inoculated on the stem, and plant extracts (50% custard apple seed oil + 10% cinnamon extract) sprayed on the foliage were 45.3%, 36.6%, and 50.2%, respectively, when treated individually. Meanwhile, when three eco-friendly agricultural materials were comprehensively applied, the control effect was maintained between 62.4% and 80.9% compared to untreated conditions during the pepper harvesting season. These methods can be utilized for the eco-friendly control of western flower thrips in pepper greenhouses.

The morphological features of germling cells were examined to identify an unspecified resting cyst (described as Cochlodinium cf. polykrikoides-like resting cyst) in the Korean coastal area. LSU rRNA gene sequences were also obtained from a strain established from the germling cells. The resting cysts isolated from Korean coastal sediment were characterized as being brown in color, having a large dark-red body, and fibrous lobed ornaments. The germling cells were ellipsoidal with an irregular outline and had an open comma-shaped ASC (apical structure complex), a wide and deep cingulum, and a deep sulcus. These morphological features were consistent with those of previously described harmful dinoflagellate Pseudocochlodinium profundisulcus. The molecular phylogeny revealed that the germling cells and P. profundisulcus were conspecific. Based on these morphological and phylogenetic data, this study documents the occurrence of P. profundisulcus in a Korean coastal area for the first time.

Wet solid wastes including spent ion exchange resins, evaporator concentrates and sludges require solidification to transform wastes into an acceptable solid, monolithic form for final disposal. The development of the process control program for the solidification of radioactive sludges generated at nuclear power plants has been in progress to provide reasonable assurance that the solidified product will meet the established waste acceptance criteria for solidified waste. A mobile solidification system to produce the solidified waste in the size of a 200 L drum was used, which adopts the in-line mixing method where the waste and binder are mixed and then transferred to the disposable container. To simulate radioactive sludges, non-radioactive sludges are synthesized and the specimens are prepared by using them. The qualification tests on the prepared specimens including the compressive strength test, the thermal cycling test, the irradiation test, the leach test, the immersion test, etc. have been performed to qualify recipes for a range of waste compositions. The results of the tests will be analyzed and discussed.

NFDC (Nuclear Fuel and materials Data Center) is designated as a one of the data center of National Standard Reference Center from Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy at Dec. 30 2008. The fields of designation were nuclear fuel and energy materials. NFDC produces standard reference data of nuclear fuel and materials. To ensure reliability of experimental data uncertainty should be estimated. There are two kinds of uncertainty: A-type uncertainty from tester and B-type uncertainty from experimental equipments. To reduce the former, the measurement should be repeated for sufficient amount of times, and to reduce the latter type uncertainty all equipment have to be calibrated. In this study self calibration process of thermo-mechanical analyzer (TMA) was established to ensure the B-type uncertainty. The self calibration was performed using the standard reference material and correction factor was obtained. The correction factor was defined as the ratio of the thermal expansion value of the standard reference material reported in the certificate and the thermal expansion value measured using TMA. It is believed that the uncertainty evaluation process of TGA data developed in this study will be helpful for increasing reliability and stability evaluation of nuclear fuel and spent fuel.

One of cosmopolitan pest, Agrotis ipsilon, causes serious economic damages in horticultural crops. This study compared the host fitness of A. ipsilon among nine major horticultural crops in Korea. Among the nine crops, the population of A. ipsilon failed to complete its development in spinach, cucumber, melon, and kidney bean. The host effects on development and reproduction of A. ipsilon were further investigated in the remained five crops. Host plants significantly (P < 0.05) affected the development-related factors of A. ipsilon eggs, larvae, and pupae. They also affected the adult reproduction-related factors including preoviposition period, oviposition period and number, and longevity except for the prepupa stage. A positive relationship was found be tween biological factors. Among the nine crops in this study, napa cabbage showed the highest suitability for the A. ipsilon populations. These findings in this study would be helpful to understand the ecology and develop the man agement tactics of A. ipsilon in horticultural crops.

농가 현장에서는 미소 해충의 약제저항성 발달로 인하여 방제에 어려움을 겪고 있다. 본 연구는 약제저항성 수준을 효율적으로 진단하고, 화학적 방제 의사결정을 지원할 수 있는 약제저항성 관리 플랫폼을 구축하고자 수행하였다. 플랫폼은 크게 ⅰ) 농가 맞춤형 약제 추천, ⅱ) 지역별 약제저항성 지도로 구성되어 있다. 이용자는 잔류접촉법 기반의 생물검정법 RCVpW(Residual Contact Vial plus Water) 결과를 현장에서 입력하면 PLS에 부합 한 약제 정보를 제공받을 수 있다. 또한 생물검정 결과는 DB화를 통해 지역별 약제 저항성 정보 지도를 보여줌으 로써 해충별, 작물별, 연도별 저항성 패턴 결과를 확인할 수 있다. 본 플랫폼을 활용한다면 약제의 오남용을 줄임 은 물론 해충의 약제저항성 발달 지연 및 약제저항성 발달 양상을 확인할 수 있어 향후 방제전략 수립에 활용할 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.

The cherry tree borer, Synanthedon bicingulata (Staudinger, 1887), is considered as a tree boring pest boring into cambium layer and weakens the tree. Cherry trees, the host species of S. bicingulata, are the most abundant ornamental trees in South Korea. However, there has been insufficient study conducted on ornamental trees compared to orchards. The study aimed to investigate the injury patterns caused by their larvae based on height and direction they faced. Since life cycle of S. bicingulata in Gangwon province had not been surveyed, occurrence pattern was also investigated using sex attractant. Injury patterns of 253 cherry trees in Chuncheon, were surveyed in April 2023. As a result, the injury occuring under 1 m in height was 2.61 times more extensive than injury between 1m and 2m in height of trunk. Also, the injury on the south-faced trunks was 2.68 times larger than on the north-faced trunks.

The advent of big data has brought about the need for analytics. Natural language processing (NLP), a field of big data, has received a lot of attention. Topic modeling among NLP is widely applied to identify key topics in various academic journals. The Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering (KSIE) has published academic journals since 1978. To enhance its status, it is imperative to recognize the diversity of research domains. We have already discovered eight major research topics for papers published by KSIE from 1978 to 1999. As a follow-up study, we aim to identify major topics of research papers published in KSIE from 2000 to 2022. We performed topic modeling on 1,742 research papers during this period by using LDA and BERTopic which has recently attracted attention. BERTopic outperformed LDA by providing a set of coherent topic keywords that can effectively distinguish 36 topics found out this study. In terms of visualization techniques, pyLDAvis presented better two-dimensional scatter plots for the intertopic distance map than BERTopic. However, BERTopic provided much more diverse visualization methods to explore the relevance of 36 topics. BERTopic was also able to classify hot and cold topics by presenting ‘topic over time’ graphs that can identify topic trends over time.

Regarding to diagnosis for bovine brucellosis, more than one serological test should be conducted to confirm the infection by Brucella with a reliable result due to various factors including false positive serological reactions. In this study, we compared confirmatory serological tests to determine the appropriate way to detect and confirm the Brucella infection in South Korea. Several serological tests, including serum agglutination test (SAT), indirect (I)- and competitive (C)-ELISA, and fluorescence polarization assay (FPA), for detection of bovine brucellosis were performed with sera from 537 cattle. In addition, comparison of diagnostic efficacy was performed with bacterial isolation represented true positive. Of 537 serum samples, 426 (79.3% of prevalence), 433 (80.6%), 414 (77.1%), and 409 (76.2%) sera were positive for SAT, C-ELISA, I-ELISA, and FPA respectively. Based on the results of serology, the correlation among the serological tests revealed observed agreements of more than 92% with kappa (k) value of more than 0.77. The correlation between serological tests with bacterial isolation appeared observed agreements of between 79.9% and 84.7% with k value of between 0.42 and 0.59. Particularly, FPA recorded almost perfect agreements with C-ELISA and I-ELISA as well as the highest correlation with bacterial isolation. Accordingly, this investigation presented the comparison of correlation and diagnostic efficacy of serological tests for bovine brucellosis in South Korea. We suggest this finding will be a useful data to re-establish the potential serological diagnostic methods that can apply to maintain the low prevalence.

Ammonia is considered a promising hydrogen carrier due to its high hydrogen density and liquefaction temperature. Considering that the energy efficiency generally decreases as chemical conversion is repeated, it is more efficient to directly use ammonia as a fuel for fuel cells. However, catalysts in direct ammonia fuel cells have the critical issues of sluggish ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) rate and poisoning of reaction intermediates. In particular, the use of precious metal as cathodic catalysts has been limited due to ammonia crossover and poisoning. In this study, we introduce Fe-based single-atom catalysts with selective activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) even in the presence of ammonia. As the Fe content increased, the single-atom structure of the catalysts changed into Fe nanoparticles or carbides. Among our Fe–N–C catalysts, FeNC-50 with a Fe loading amount of 0.34 wt% showed the highest ORR performance regardless of the ammonia concentration. In particular, the difference in activity between the catalysts increased as the concentration increased. The FeNC-50 catalyst showed remarkable stability after 1000 cycles. Therefore, we believe that single-atom dispersion is an important factor in the development of stable non-precious catalysts with high activity and inactivity for the ORR and AOR, respectively.