• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.728-739
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• 2020

Using webometric big data, this study examines the diversity of online information sources about the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it focuses on some 28 countries where confirmed coronavirus cases occurred in February 2020. In the results, the online visibility of Australia, Canada, and Italy was the highest, based on their producing the most relevant information. There was a statistically significant correlation between the hit counts per country and the frequency of visiting the domains that act as information channels. Interestingly, Japan, China, and Singapore, which had a large number of confirmed cases at that time, were providing web data related to the novel coronavirus. Online sources were classified using an N-tuple helix model. The results showed that government agencies were the largest supplier of coronavirus information in cyberspace. Furthermore, the two-mode network technique revealed that media companies, university hospitals, and public healthcare centers had taken a positive attitude towards online circulation of coronavirus research and epidemic prevention information. However, semantic network analysis showed that health, school, home, and public had high centrality values. This means that people were concerned not only about personal prevention rules caused by the coronavirus outbreak, but also about response plans caused by life inconveniences and operational obstacles.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.341-357
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• 2019

Acanthamoeba, one of free-living amoebae (FLA), remains a high risk of direct contact with this protozoan parasite which is ubiquitous in nature and man-made environment. This pathogenic FLA can cause sight-threatening amoebic keratitis (AK) and fatal granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE) though these cases may not commonly be reported in our clinical settings. Acanthamoeba has been detected from different environmental sources namely; soil, water, hotspring, swimming pool, air-conditioner, or contact lens storage cases. The identification of Acanthamoeba is based on morphological appearance and molecular techniques using PCR and DNA sequencing for clinico-epidemiological purposes. Recent treatments have long been ineffective against Acanthamoeba cyst, novel anti-Acanthamoeba agents have therefore been extensively investigated. There are efforts to utilize synthetic chemicals, lead compounds from medicinal plant extracts, and animal products to combat Acanthamoeba infection. Applied nanotechnology, an advanced technology, has shown to enhance the anti-Acanthamoeba activity in the encapsulated nanoparticles leading to new therapeutic options. This review attempts to provide an overview of the available data and studies on the occurrence of pathogenic Acanthamoeba among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members with the aim of identifying some potential contributing factors such as distribution, demographic profile of the patients, possible source of the parasite, mode of transmission and treatment. Further, this review attempts to provide future direction for prevention and control of the Acanthamoeba infection.