• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.764-778
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• 1997

To find the medical insurance utilization of workers when suffering from low back pain, an analysis was made toward the data of medical insurance benefits matched with the general characteristics of 10,183 workers, who were registered continuously from 1993 to 1995 at a medical insurance cooperation for industrial workers. The results were as follows; 1. The period prevalence of the medical insurance utilization for low back pain for 3 years from 1993 to 1995 was calculated as 17.1% for male workers and 19.4% for female workers. Most common cause of utilization was other dorsopathies including the herniation of lumbar discs. 2. The utilization rate increased significantly as the present age and the age joining the company got older(p<0.001). As the duration of employment got longer, the utilization rate of the male showed the tendency to increase and that of the female increased significantly(p<0.05). Among male workers employed at cement and concrete manufacturing companies showed higher utilization rate and among female laborers showed significantly higher utilization rate than clerical workers(p<0.01). 3. Annual utilization rate for low back pain didn't show any difference, but the portion of other dorsopathies among cause of utilization showed the tendency to increase from 1993 to 1995. 4. The mean number of claims for outpatient medical care for low back pain differed significantly by age, working duration, type of industries, income level(p<0.05), and the mean of total visiting days for care of low back pain differed significantly by working duration. In conclusion, considering the fact that the medical insurance utilization for low back pain increased annually and other dorsopathies including the herniation of dorsopathies were increasing, an effective preventive or management program for low back pain toward worker employed at industries were required.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.238-249
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• 1998

Purpose: To localize and compare the neural basis of verbal and visual human working memory, we performed functional activation study using $H_2^{15}O$ PET. Materials and Methods: Repeated $H_2^{15}O$ PET scans with one control and three different activation tasks were performed on six right-handed normal volunteers. Each activation task was composed of 13 match-ing trials. On each trial, four targets, a fixation dot and a probe were presented sequentially and subject's task was to press a response button to indicate whether or not the probe was one of the previous targets. Short meaningful Korean words, simple drawings and monochromic pictures of human faces were used as matching objects for verbal or visual memory. All the images were spatially normalized and the differences between control and activation states were statistically analyzed using SPM96. Results: Statistical analysis of verbal memory activation with short words showed activation in the left Broca's area, promoter cortex, cerebellum and right cingulate gyrus. In verbal memory with simple drawings, activation was shown in the larger regions including where activated with short words and left superior temporal cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, prefrontal cortex, anterior portion of right superior temporal gyrus and right infero-lateral frontal cortex. On the other hand, the visual memory task activated predominantly right-sided structures, especially inferior frontal cortex, supplementary motor cortex and superior parietal cortex. Conclusion: The results are consistent with the hypothesis of the laterality and dissociation of the verbal and visual working memory from the invasive electrophysiological studies and emphasize the pivotal role of frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus in working memory system.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.70-74
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• 2011

Purpose: In the Nuclear Medicine department of Asan Medical Center, radioactive waste has been disposed of by using several disposal boxes designed for nuclear waste. However, some quantity of radioactivity has been detected occasionally due to some radiologists' carelessness not only from radioactive waste, but also from medical waste such as uncontrolled radioactive waste related to patients, poly gloves or saline solution bottles from radiopharmaceuticals laboratory. Thus, this study is going to suggest a solution to maintain the medical wastes made from controlled areas that can be below maximum permissible surface dose limits by finding the cause of radioactive contamination. Materials and methods: This study was taken place in 17 different places-2 medical wastebaskets in the waiting room, 2 medical wastebaskets in the PET room, 5 medical wastebaskets in the in vitro laboratory and 6 medical wastebaskets in the radiopharmaceuticals laboratory of the East building, 2 medical wastebaskets in the waiting room of the New building of Nuclear Medicine Department in Asan Medical Center from April to August 2010. Mean radioactivity and its standard deviation of each place have been found by measuring surface contamination of medical wastebaskets and backgrounds twice a week, totaling 30 times. An independent t-test of SPSS (Ver. 12.0) statistic program has been used for statistical analysis. Swabs, saline solution bottles and poly gloves collected from each place also measured 30 times, respectively. Results: This study analyzed medical waste and the backgrounds of each place by using survey meter detectors that significant differences of five places did not exist, but existed statistically in twelve places (p<0.05). Also, swabs, saline solution bottles and poly gloves collected from each radioactive waste partly exceed the legal dose limit as a result of measuring by a gamma counter. Conclusion: Backgrounds and the surface doses of radioactive disposal box in all 17 places measured by the survey meter did not exceed the legal dose limit; however, it obviously showed that there were prominent differences in 12 places. Assuming that the cause of the differences was swabs, saline solution bottles and gloves, we examined them by gamma counter, and the results showed remarkably high doses of radioactivity. Consequently, swabs and poly gloves which are normally disposed in the general medical waste box should be disposed in the radioactive waste box furnished by radiopharmaceuticals laboratory. Also, saline solution discharged from radioactive pharmaceutical places is considered as radioactive liquid waste so that it should be disposed of by the septic tank specifically designed for radioactive liquid.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.132-138
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• 2009

Proper education of hospice professionals is essential for ensuring quality of end-of-life care. In 2005, 'End-of-life Care Task Force Team' by Ministry of Health and Welfare established '60 hours of hospice education' as basic requirement for hospice professionals. This study is aimed to determine how many of the hospice professionals meet with the criteria and whether there are significant regional variations. Methods: We analyzed the data from 46 hospice organizations, which submitted the application to the 2008 designation program of Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs. Data included details of the educational records of each hospice professionals. Results: Total 673 hospice professionals were included in the analysis. Overall, only 41.5% (279/673) met the requirement. Nurses (46.8%; 177/378) were more likely to meet the requirement than doctors (35.8%; 38/106), social workers (32.0%; 24/75) and clergies (35.1%; 40/114). Hospice professionals of the organizations in metropolitan area received more education than those in small cities or rural area (52.4% vs. 25.0% for doctors, 50.6% vs. 43.9% for nurses, 42.9% vs. 25.5% for social workers). By geographic areas, hospice professionals in southeast regions received less education than other part of Korea (28.1% vs. 43.0${\sim}$48.8%, respectively). Conclusion: Less than half of the Korean hospice professionals has received proper amount of hospice education, and significant regional variations existed. National programs to promote the education of hospice professionals and eliminate its disparities are greatly warranted. Implementation of the 60-hour currirulum for hospice professionals, based on the train-the-trainer model, would be regarded as one potential solution.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2012

This study was conducted to give basic information of the animal manure management by manure units determination for recycling farming in Cheorwon-gun. Manure units (MU) are used in the permitting, registration, and the environmental process because they allow equal standards for all animals based on manure nutrient production. An MU is calculated by multiplying the number of animals by manure unit factor for the specific type of animal. The manure unit factor for MU determination was determined by dividing amounts of manure N produced 80 kg N/year. Conversion to manure units is a procedure used to determine nutrient pollution equivalents among the different animal types. In this study, the manure unit factor based on nitrogen in Hanwoo, dairy cow, pig were 0.36, 0.8 0.105, respectively. The analysis of manure unit per ha shows that the N loading by MU is quite different by region. The nitrogen loading of manure unit (MU) per ha of cultivated land was the highest in the Galmal-eup on province with 2.4 MU/ha, which is higher than the appropriate level. The Seo-myeon province came next with 1.92 MU/ha. To be utilized as a valid program to build the recycling farming system, diverse measures shall be mapped out to properly determine manure units, evaluate N-loading and to properly manage their nutrient balance of each region.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.303-309
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• 2005

This study was conducted to examine the effects of OA on metaphase of meiosis II and the mitochondrial activity of cytoplasm in bovine cumulus oocytes complexes(COCs) during in vitro maturation. Hanwoo COCs were collected from the slaughterhouse cow ovaries and matured in TCM199 supplemented with $0.1\%$ PVA, 0.2 uM, 2 uM, 20 uM OA for the maturation rate of OA concentration. For the maturation effects between OA and cycloheximide(CX), COCs were matured in TCM199 with 25 ug/mL CX, 25 ug/mL CX (6 hrs culture) plus 2 uM OA or 2 uM OA only at a atmosphere $5\%\;CO_2,\;95\%$ air $39^{\circ}C$ for 6, 12, 24 hrs. To evaluate the nuclear types of matured COCs, cumulus cells were removedby $0.5\%$ hyaluronidase sol. and oocytes were fixed in 1:3 acetic acid ethyl alcohol for 30 sec. and then stained with $0.1\%$ basic Fuchsin sol. For the detection of fluoriscent intensity (FI) of matures oocytes, cumulus cells were removed same as performed above and were stained with 20 nM mite tracker for 20 min. at $39^{\circ}C$. Mitochondrial activity of FI in matured oocytes was imaged by laser conforcal microscopy (Fluoview, Olympus, Japan) and were measured scanned face on 5 um from median to endpoint of oocytes. Statical analysis of nuclear types observed the three replicates was carried out with ANOVA and Fisher's protected least significant difference test using the STATVIEW program. FI of matures oocytes was compared the multiples of the least intensity among the measured oocytes. Maturing in TCM199 supplemented with $0.1\%$ PVA, 0.2 uM, 2 uM, 20 uM OA, metaphase B were showed 72.0, 50.0, 70.0, $68.8\%$, respectively and there were different significant(p<0.05). In the case of treatment with OA and CX, metaphase were $73.8\%,\;8.2\%,\;45.5\%,\;73.7\%$ in $0.1\%$ PVA-TCM199, 25 ug/mL CX, 25 ug/mL CX plus OA or 2uM OA only, respeclively. FI was revealed the increasing tendency during the process of maturation. Whereas FI in CX was decreased about 3 times compared to the other treatments of 6 hrs maturation. We conclude that OA regulates bovine COCs maturation and induces the mitochondrial activity during the process of maturation.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.125-133
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• 2017

Purpose: After the introduction of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine in 1995 in Korea, it was included in the national immunization program in 2013. In the post-Hib vaccine era, some studies in other countries reported that invasive Hib disease affects adults, especially the elderly and immunocompromised persons, more often than it affects children. To evaluate disease susceptibility, quantitative and qualitative analysis of anti-polyribosylribitol phosphate (PRP) antibodies were carried out in Korean adults aged 20 to 85 years. Methods: Sera were collected from 39 healthy adults (20 to 50 years of age) and from 30 elderly adults (75 to 85 years of age) who did not have immune-compromising conditions. The concentration of anti-PRP immunoglobulin G (IgG) and serum bactericidal indices (SBIs) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and serum bactericidal assay. Results: Geometric mean concentrations of anti-PRP IgG and geometric mean SBIs were $0.88{\mu}g/mL$ (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17 to 3.85) and 354 (95% CI, 50 to 2,499) in young adults and $1.67{\mu}g/mL$ (95% CI, 0.53 to 5.24) and 449 (95% CI, 146 to 1,376) in elderly adults, respectively. When the threshold of seropositivity for anti-PRP IgG was applied as 0.15 or $1.0{\mu}g/mL$, which is the protective antibody level in children, seropositive rates were 87.2% or 53.8% in young adults and 100% or 60% in elderly adults. The seropositivity rates of the SBI ($SBI{\geq}4$) were 82.1% and 100% in the groups, respectively. Conclusions: Most subjects in the adult and elderly adult groups display immunity to Hib based on quantitative and qualitative antibody levels, but not all. Because high immunization and low Hib circulation rates may reduce the natural Hib immunity in the population, monitoring Hib immunity as well as disease are needed continuously.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 2005

Objective : To estimate the magnitude of psychosocial distress and examine eligible factors associated with the development of psychosocial distress in Korean employees, using a nationwide sample. Methods : A total of 6,977 workers were recruited from 245 companies. A structured questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographics, health-related behaviors, job characteristics, social support at work, personality traits (locus of control, type A behavior pattern), self-esteem, and psychosocial distress. Results : The results showed that 23 % of workers were categorized as high stress, 73% as moderate, and 5% as normal. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that psychosocial distress was more common in younger workers, both male and female. Regular exercise was negatively associated with increase of psychosocial distress. In job characteristics, as expected, low decision latitude, high job insecurity, and low social support at work were related to high psychosocial distress. Personality traits such as locus of control and type A behavior pattern, and self-esteem were more powerful predictors of psychosocial distress than general characteristics, health-related behavior, and job characteristics. There were some gender differences. While men who are less educated and single (unmarried, divorced, and separated) experienced higher levels of psychosocial distress than those who are educated and married, women who feel high job demand experienced higher levels of psychosocial distress than those who feel low job demand. Conclusions : The proportion of the high stress group was higher than expected, and psychosocial factors like social support and personality characteristics (e. g. locus of control, type A behavior pattern and self-esteem) were more significant factors for psychosocial distress than other variables. This finding suggests that some psychosocial factors, especially inadequate social support, low self-esteem and lack of internal locus of control for the development of psychosocial distress, will also operate as an intervention strategy in the worksite stress reduction program. It is strongly required that worksite stress reduction programs should be established in at both occupational and level as well as in individual levels.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.195-212
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• 1994

For the purpose to increase productivities of livestock the present investigations were undertaken in order to clarify the clinical and suclinical status of Korean native cattle, dairy cattle(holstein) and Korean native goat. Blood, feces and urine samples were collected from 247 Korean native cattle(222 adult and 25 calf), 224 dairy cattle(211 adult and 13 calf) and 142 Korean native goat rearing at Chonbuk area and analyzed for clinical, serum chemical, hematological and urinary findings. In addition, we were examined the infection rate of theileriosis, internal parasite and ring worm. The mean value for each component was calculated by statistical analysis using Excel computer program. From these investigations the following results were obtained. The mean values for RBC, PCV and etc in 433 adult cow(Korean native cattle and dairy cattle) were similar with other reports. But the mean values for MCHC of all species were lower than normal. Adult Korean native cattle and adult dairy cattle which showed hematologically normal levels were only 9.01% and 9.48%, respectively. Abnormally high values for PCV, RBC and Hb were recorded in 7.66% of adult Korean native cattle, 20% of korean native calf, 15.38% of dairy calf and 13.36% of Korean native goat. Adult Korean native cattle and adult dairy cattle which showed hematologically anemia were 4.95% and 19.43% respectively, but Korean native calf and dairy calf showed normal. Adult Korean native cattle, adult dairy cattle, Korean native calf and dairy calf which showed normal serum protein level 84.0%, 90.8%, 50% and 44.4%, respectively. In present investigations, 50% of Korean native calf and 55.6% of dairy calf were decreased serum protein values under range. These abnormally decreased serum protein values mean the shortage of antibody, and these have a possibility to occurs to pneumonia and diarrhea. From these results, the economical loss caused by pneumonia was calculated as 124,038,833 won in the KNC and 742,703,430 won in the dairy calf rearing in Chonbuk area. Calculated economical loss caused by enteritis was 56,658,690 won in Korean native cattle, 476,775,799 won in dairy calf, and the total loss amount of 533,434,488 won in Chonbuk area. Abnormally high values$(21.7{\pm}4.0mg/dl)$ for serum calcium were recorded 49.6% in dairy cattle. The mean values for serum total cholesterol were $170.8{\pm}99.8mg/dl$ in Korean native cattle, $196.0{\pm}40.6mg/dl$ in Korean native calf, $202.9{\pm}86.0mg/dl$ in adult dairy cattle and $289.4{\pm}97.5mg/dl$ in dairy calf. The infection rate of internal parsite were as follows; adult Korean native cattle: 21.2%, Korean native calf: 8.0%, adult dairy cattle: 67.8% and Korean native goat: 81.5%. The estimated economical loss caused by internal parasites infection were 1,120,855,837 won in Korean native calf, 4,994,959,405 won in adult Korean native cattle, 3,334,751,066 won in adult holstein, and the total loss amount to 9,450,566,308 won. The infection rate of theileriosis were 1.4% in Korean native cattle and 6.6% in dairy cattle. The presumed economical loss by T. sergenti infection were 154,408,482 won in Korean native cattle and 171,577,237 won in dairy cattle rearing at Chonbuk area. The infection rate of ringworm were 0.5% in Korean native cattle, 0.9% adult dairy cattle and 7.7% in dairy calf. The presumed economical loss by dermatomycophyte were 12,061,532 won in Korean native cattle, 16,895,403 won in dairy cattle, and the total estimated loss amount to 28,955,935 won a year in Chonbuk area.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2010

For the sustainable conservation of forests within and around the somma of Nari basin in Ulleung Island, the stand structure and dynamics with the aspect, altitude and stand types were estimated by using analyses of importance value, plant species diversity, S$\o$rensen's similarity index and distributions of diameter classes. Results of the importance value analysis with vegetation stories on each stand showed that Fagus engleriana and Acer okamotoanum were dominant in most stands regardless of the aspect and altitude of the forest around the somma of Nari basin and the plant species composition among stands was not significantly different. The forest within Nari basin was composed of pine, beech, alder and deciduous-mixed stand. Moreover, the species composition was greatly different among the four stands. The diversity of plant species within stand was in general higher within Nari basin than around the somma, and among stands within Nari basin, the plant species diversity of pine and deciduous-mixed stand showed higher values than that of beech and alder stands. The similarity index among stands with aspect and altitude showed that the index among stands of eastern, western and northern slope in forest around the somma and forest within the basin ranged from 0.68 to 0.69, and the similarity among four stands with altitude was very high having index range from 0.85 to 0.95. The patterns of diameter class distribution of the major dominant species from four altitude classes followed an almost normal bell-shaped distribution. The results were interpreted as an indication that these forests will in general maintain a stable stand structure. Therefore, despite diverse topographic features around Nari basin, the stand structure and plant species composition among stands were not diversified as expected. For the conservation of diversity of forest plant species and of forest ecosystems, a promising and intensive program should be considered.