• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.179-186
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• 2021

Among the Covid-19 vaccine platforms, mRNA-platform vaccines are summarized qualitatively in this paper. Manufacturing mRNA vaccines consist of serial processes; the preparation process of DNA template, the transcription of mRNA, nanoemulsion process, and the fill and finish unit combined with formulation stages. It is noticeable that major players are collaborated for producing mRNA vaccines. In particular, the nanoemulsion process is recognized to the key process requiring formulated lipid materials to protect modified mRNA until they arrive in intracellular cytosol. It is known that the nanoemulsion process adapts well-designed microfluidic devices. We expect that the nanoemulsion process will stimulate pharmaceutical industries to develop diverse applications.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2022

In the era of COVID-19 pandemic, COVID related keywords, news and SNS data are pouring out. With the help of the data and LDA topic modeling, we can check out what media reports about COVID-19 and vaccines. Also, we can be clear how the public reacts to the vaccine on social media and how this is related with the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. By using sentimental analysis methodology, we can get to know about the different kinds of reports that Korea media send out and get to know what kind of emotions that each media company uses in majority. Through this procedure, we can know the difference between the Korean media and the foreign ones. Ultimately, we can find and analyze the keyword that suddenly rose during the COVID-19 period throughout this research.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.523-532
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• 2023

Objectives: During the second coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surge, cases increased sharply due to low awareness and compliance with measures to limit disease spread. Health literacy (HL) is an important component of public health initiatives, and schools are potential sources of health education to increase HL via the presentation of COVID-19 educational modules. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved an online questionnaire administered to students from 5 high schools in Surabaya and Sidoarjo, Indonesia, 6-7 weeks after the start of government-issued directives restricting public gatherings. We collected data on each respondent's age, gender, parental education, and socioeconomic variables. HL was determined by the Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents. We additionally measured their attitudes and behaviors related to preventing the spread of COVID-19. The students were asked if they watched the COVID-19 module at school, their feelings about vaccination, and preferred online sources of COVID-19-related information. Results: Most of the 432 respondents had viewed COVID-19 modules at school. Module exposure was associated with significantly higher total and domain-specific HL and more positive attitudes toward government-issued COVID-19 restrictions on travel and public gatherings (p<0.05). However, behaviors to prevent COVID-19 spread and vaccine acceptance were not associated with module exposure. Most students chose social media as their source of COVID-19-related information. Conclusions: Schools can provide information to increase adolescents' HL and the public's support for health initiatives to prevent or limit the spread of COVID-19.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.127-133
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• 2023

Purpose: Around 70% of the Iranian population had received two doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines by the end of 2021. In this study, we evaluated the reasons for vaccination refusal among people in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 800 participants (400 vaccinated and 400 unvaccinated) were recruited. A demographic questionnaire was completed through interviews. The unvaccinated participants were asked about the reasons for their refusal. The Shapiro-Wilk test, independent t-test, chi-square test, and logistic regression were used for analyzing data. Results: Older people were 1.018 times more likely to refrain from vaccination (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001-1.039; p=043). People who were manual workers as well as those who were unemployed/housewives were 0.288 and 0.423 times less likely to receive vaccination, respectively. Those with high school education and married women were 0.319 and 0.280 times less likely to receive vaccination, respectively (95% CI, 198-0.515; p<0.001; 95% CI, 0.186-0.422; p<0.001). Participants who had hypertension or suffered from neurological disorders were more likely to receive the vaccination. Finally, people affected with severe COVID-19 infection were 3.157 times more likely to get vaccinated (95% CI, 1.672-5.961; p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that lower level of education and older age were contributed to reluctance for vaccination, while having chronic diseases or being already infected with severe COVID-19 infection were associated with more acceptance of vaccination.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.229-239
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• 2021

This study is to identify the factors influencing the attitudes, behavior controls, and subjective norms related to COVID-19 vaccination on the intention of preventive behavior in K provincial residents. A total of 232 people agreed to participate in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and Hierarchical analysis. As a result of this study, the factors that had a statistically significant effect on the intention to conduct COVID-19 vaccination were perceived behavioral control (β=.39, p<.001) and attitude toward COVID-19 preventive behavior (β=.24, p<.001), followed by subjective norm (β=.24, p<.001). The explanatory power for this was 56.8%. The COVID-19 vaccine is an important means of ending the COVID-19 pandemic and helps prevent infection or worsening of COVID-19 and protect those around you. In the post-COVID-19 situation, it is necessary to improve the intention of vaccination against COVID-19 and to take active measures and strategies. At this point in time when COVID-19 vaccination is becoming more prevalent across the country, we hope that the intent of the COVID-19 vaccination action will translate into a COVID-19 vaccination action.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1601-1614
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• 2021

To overcome the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination campaigns are the highest priority of majority of countries. Limited supply and worldwide disproportionate availability issues for the approved vaccines, together with concerns about rare side-effects have recently initiated the switch to heterologous vaccination, commonly known as mixing of vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in the general population. However, none of the vaccines is 100% efficacious or effective, with variants posing more challenges, resulting in breakthrough cases. This review summarizes the current knowledge of immune responses to variants of concern (VOC) and breakthrough infections. Furthermore, we discuss the scope of heterologous vaccination and future strategies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, including fractionation of vaccine doses and alternative route of vaccination.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.38.1-38.8
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• 2021

Recently, a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (B.1.1.529) Omicron variant originated from South Africa in the middle of November 2021. SARS-CoV-2 is also called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of COVID-19. Several studies already suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant would be the fastest transmissible variant compared to the previous 10 SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, interest, and alert. Few clinical studies reported the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant but there is insufficient time to perform actual experiments to prove it, since the spread is so fast. We analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which revealed a very high rate of mutation at amino acid residues that interact with angiostatin-converting enzyme 2. The mutation rate of COVID-19 is faster than what we prepared vaccine program, antibody therapy, lockdown, and quarantine against COVID-19 so far. Thus, it is necessary to find better strategies to overcome the current crisis of COVID-19 pandemic.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.39.1-39.15
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• 2023

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination may non-specifically alter the host immune system. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on hepatitis B surface Ag (HBsAg) titer and host immunity in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Consecutive 2,797 CHB patients who had serial HBsAg measurements during antiviral treatment were included in this study. Changes in the HBsAg levels after COVID-19 vaccination were analyzed. The dynamics of NK cells following COVID-19 vaccination were also examined using serial blood samples collected prospectively from 25 healthy volunteers. Vaccinated CHB patients (n=2,329) had significantly lower HBsAg levels 1-30 days post-vaccination compared to baseline (median, -21.4 IU/ml from baseline), but the levels reverted to baseline by 91-180 days (median, -3.8 IU/ml). The velocity of the HBsAg decline was transiently accelerated within 30 days after vaccination (median velocity: -0.06, -0.39, and -0.04 log₁₀ IU/ml/year in pre-vaccination period, days 1-30, and days 31-90, respectively). In contrast, unvaccinated patients (n=468) had no change in HBsAg levels. Flow cytometric analysis showed that the frequency of NK cells expressing NKG2A, an NK inhibitory receptor, significantly decreased within 7 days after the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (median, -13.1% from baseline; p<0.001). The decrease in the frequency of NKG2A⁺ NK cells was observed in the CD56^dimCD16⁺ NK cell population regardless of type of COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 vaccination leads to a rapid, transient decline in HBsAg titer and a decrease in the frequency of NKG2A⁺ NK cells.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.40 no.3_4
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• pp.633-656
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• 2022

Many regions of the world are now facing the second wave of boomed cases of COVID-19. This time, the second wave of this highly infectious disease (COVID-19) is becoming more devastating. To control the existing situation, more mass testing, and tracing of COVID-19 positive individuals are required. Furthermore, practicing to wear a face mask and maintenance of physical distancing are strongly recommended for everyone. Taking all these into consideration, an optimal control problem has been reformulated in terms of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in this paper. The aim of this study is to explore the control strategy of coronavirus-2 disease (COVID-19) and thus, minimize the number of symptomatic, asymptomatic and infected individuals as well as cost of the controls measures. The optimal control model has been analyzed analytically with the help of the necessary conditions of very well-known Pontryagin's maximum principle. Numerical simulations of the optimal control problem are also performed to illustrate the results.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 2021

COVID-19 has recently impacted the world with the large numbers of infected and deaths. The development of effective COVID-19 vaccine has not been successful. Hence, people have a high concern on the infection of this disease. The infection information from the governmantal public organizations are mainly based on simple summary statistics. Consequently, it is hard to assess the infection risks of individual person and the current location of the person. In this paper, we present a machine learning-based software system that analyzes COVID-19 infection risks and guidelines for safe activities.This paper proposes a suite of risk factors regarding COVID-19 infection and deaths and methods to quantitatively measure the individual and group risks using the proposed metrics. The proposed system utilizes a clustering algorithms and various software approaches that reflect the information and features of inviduals and their geograpical locations.