Gimcheon University

Purpose: This study examined the effects of unpredictable task-oriented training on electroencephalogram (EEG) activity and balance in subacute stroke patients, compared with predictable task-oriented training and conventional physical therapy.Methods: Thirty subacute stroke patients were randomly assigned to an unpredictable task-oriented training group (UG, n= 10), a predictable task-oriented training group (PG, n= 10), or a control group (CG, n= 10).The UG performed five task-oriented exercises with random directional changes and verbal speed cues, whereas the PG performed the same exercises in a consistent and predictable manner.The CG received conventional physical therapy only.All interventions were conducted for 5 weeks, three times per week, for 30 minutes per session.EEG was recorded using SmartingMobi with six channels (Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, P3, P4) to measure relative alpha and beta waves.Balance was assessed with the BT-4 force platform for sway area and sway length under eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions.Results: The UG showed significantly greater increases in relative beta activity and greater decreases in relative alpha activity across brain regions compared with the PG and CG (p< 0.05).The UG also demonstrated superior improvements in static balance, with larger reductions in sway area and sway length in both visual conditions (p< 0.05).Conclusion: Unpredictable task-oriented training produced greater enhancements in brain activity and balance than predictable training or conventional therapy.These findings suggest that unpredictability within task-oriented practice may facilitate neuroplasticity and motor learning in subacute stroke rehabilitation.

Rice lodging, a common physiological issue that occurs during rice growth and development, is a major factor contributing to a decline in rice production. Current techniques for the extraction of rice lodging are subjective and require considerable time and labor. In this paper, we propose a fully automated method in an end-to-end format to objectively calculate the rice-lodging rate based on remote sensing data captured by a drone under field conditions. An image post-processing method was applied to enhance the semantic-segmentation results of an operable lightweight model on an embedded board. The area of interest within the parcel was preserved based on these results, and the lodging occurrence rate was calculated in a fully automated manner without external intervention. Five models were compared based on the U-Net and lite-reduced atrous spatial pyramid pooling (LR-ASPP) models with MobileNet versions 1–3 as the backbones. The final model, MobileNetV1_U-Net, performed the best with an RMSE of 11.75 and R2 of 0.875, and MobileNetV3_LR-ASPP (small) achieved the shortest processing time of 4.9844 s. This study provides an effective method for monitoring large-scale rice lodging, accurate extraction of areas of interest, and calculating lodging occurrence rates.

The performance of the turbine in a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) may be affected by changes in the vane operating angle and heat transfer loss during operation. However, existing studies have been conducted under the assumption of an adiabatic process. In this study, we investigated the effect of heat transfer between all working fluids and a VGT structure when using computational fluid dynamics to evaluate turbine performance. Through this study, we confirmed that when heat transfer was considered, the turbine efficiency decreased by approximately 2–6%, depending on the vane position angle change, compared to when heat transfer was not considered. In addition, the total entropy production ratio, which represented the flow loss in the turbine during operation, increased by approximately 0.2–0.5% when heat transfer was considered. In conclusion, the findings confirmed that the heat transfer phenomenon directly affected the efficiency and flow loss during the turbine performance evaluation process.

Aim. To study the semantic content of the concepts of "ideology" and “propaganda", the issues of their development and evolution in various historical eras.Methodology. The authors examined the relationship between the concepts of “ideology” and “values”, “propaganda” and “education”, studied the features of the use of these terms in the modern Russian political language. The principles of objectivity, scholarship and historicism were applied.Results. The article analyzes in detail the legal and political meaning of the content of Art. 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. It was concluded that there is an ideological dominant in Russian society, based on a nationwide worldview consensus on the most important and significant issues of the country’s development. According to the authors, the terms “ideology” and “values”, “propaganda” and “enlightenment” reflect various aspects of inherently close social-political phenomena and are not antagonistic. At the same time, in terms of the effectiveness of the transfer of social practices, the use of the concepts of “ideology” and “propaganda” has advantages over other terminological options.Research implications. The results obtained are applicable to the implementation of activities in the field of patriotic education of citizens of the Russian Federation.

Purpose : This study explored the effects of branded entertainment on the information processing of consumers. It proposed modeling factors influencing consumer behaviors.Methodology : Using Korean female consumers as research samples, this study collected survey samples, and tried to identify the roles of consumer psychological factors, creator attractiveness, and content factors on purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention.Findings : The findings of this study showed that sensation-seeking influenced both purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention. Creator attractiveness was related in positive ways, and content novelty and content credibility influenced purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention. Lastly, attitudes toward content was connected to both purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention.Practical Implications : The hierarchical regression model of this study suggested certain academic implications and could also provide managerial implications in terms of the production of branded entertainment, especially focusing on creators’ attractiveness and content styles. The research product was limited to only cosmetics, and future research will be necessary with more diverse products.Originality : Unlike prior research on influencer marketing, the current work built an attractiveness model of influencers incorporating sensation seeking, novelty, and ad credibility.

Purpose: It is important to reduce stress and improve quality of life for shift nurses, who experience high levels of occupational stress. Identifying evidence-based interventions to enhance their well-being is crucial for both individual and healthcare system outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of music therapy and aromatherapy on stress, quality of life, and happiness among shift nurses.Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned using computer-generated random numbers. A total of 78 shift nurses who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. The experimental treatment involved providing music therapy for one week to the music group and aromatherapy for one week to the aroma group, whereas the control group followed their usual daily routines for one week.Results: No significant differences were observed among the three groups concerning general characteristics and baseline dependent variables, thereby confirming the homogeneity of the groups. Nevertheless, post-intervention analyses demonstrated significant improvements in perceived stress (F = 5.55, p = .006), stress index (F = 3.38, p = .039), quality of life (F = 11.79, p &lt; .001), and happiness (F = 9.29, p &lt; .001) in the experimental groups.Conclusion: Both music therapy and aromatherapy were found to be effective in mitigating stress and improving quality of life and happiness among shift nurses. Therefore, these interventions can be regarded as valuable strategies for improving overall well-being within this population.

BackgroundDementia is a multifaceted disorder that affects cognitive function, necessitating accurate diagnosis for effective management and treatment. Although the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is widely used to assess cognitive impairment, its standalone efficacy is debated. This study examined the effectiveness of the MMSE alone versus in combination with other cognitive assessments in predicting dementia diagnosis, with the aim of refining the diagnostic accuracy for dementia.MethodsA total of 2,863 participants with subjective cognitive complaints who underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessments were included. We developed two random forest models: one using only the MMSE and another incorporating additional cognitive tests. These models were evaluated based on their accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) on a 70:30 training-to-testing split.ResultsThe MMSE-alone model predicted dementia with an accuracy of 86% and AUC of 0.872. The expanded model demonstrated increased accuracy (88%) and an AUC of 0.934. Notably, 17.46% of the cases were reclassified from dementia to non-dementia category upon including additional tests. Higher educational level and younger age were associated with these shifts.ConclusionThe findings suggest that although the MMSE is a valuable screening tool, it should not be used in isolation to determine dementia severity. The addition of diverse cognitive assessments can significantly enhance diagnostic precision, particularly in younger and more educated populations. Future diagnostic protocols should integrate multifaceted cognitive evaluations to reflect the complexity of dementia accurately.

Patients with ischemic stroke and branch atheromatous disease (BAD) have worse neurological deficits and prognoses than those with small vessel occlusion (SVO). However, both disorders are forms of deep brain infarctions. This study aimed to investigate an MRI-based etiological classification for isolated pontine infarctions and assess differences in vascular risk factors and peripheral arterial disease among etiological subtypes. Consecutive data of patients admitted for acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack between August 2016 and July 2019 were reviewed. Acute isolated pontine infarcts were classified into 3 groups: BAD, SVO, and large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA), according to basilar or vertebral artery steno-occlusion and the extent of the infarct lesion on the basal pontine surface as displayed on magnetic resonance imaging and angiography. Vascular risk factors, ankle-brachial index (ABI), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity were analyzed in the 3 groups. Among 64 enrolled patients, BAD was the most common cause of isolated pontine infarct. The BAD group had a higher frequency of abnormal ABI and hypertension than the SVO group. The BAD group had abnormal ABI and hyperlipidemia more frequently than the LAA group. No significant difference was found in diabetes or brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity incidence between the BAD and SVO groups. ABI and vascular risk factors in the BAD group were more similar to those in the LAA group than to those in the SVD group. This finding suggests that pontine lesions extending to the basal pontine surface have an atherosclerotic mechanism in BAD, requiring potent antiplatelet therapy for the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke.