• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.163-163
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• 2023

Flooding has become an increasing event which is one of the major natural disasters responsible for direct economic damage in South Korea. Driven by climate change, precipitation extremes play significant role on the flood damage and its further increase is expected to exacerbate the socioeconomic impact in the country. However, the empirical evidence associating changes in precipitation extremes to the historical flood damage is limited. Thus, there is a need to assess the causal relationship between changes in precipitation extremes and flood damage, especially in agricultural region like Chungcheong region in South Korea. The spatial and temporal changes of precipitation extremes from 10 synoptic stations based on daily precipitation data were analyzed using the ClimPACT2 tool and Mann-Kendall test. The four precipitation extreme indices consisting of consecutive wet days (CWD), number of very heavy precipitation wet days (R30 mm), maximum 1-day precipitation amount (Rx1day), and simple daily precipitation intensity (SDII), which represent changes in intensity, frequency, and duration, respectively, and the time series data on flooded area and flood damage from 1985 to 2020 were used to investigate the causal relationship in the ARDL-ECM framework and pairwise Granger causality analysis. The trend results showed that majority of the precipitation indices indicated positive trends, however, CWD showed no significant changes. ARDL-ECM framework showed that there was a long-run relationship among the variables. Further analysis on the empirical results showed that flooded area and Rx1day have significant positive impacts on the flood damage in both short and long-runs while R30 mm only indicated significant positive impact in the short-run, both in the current period, which implies that an increase in flooded area, Rx1day, and R30 mm will cause an increase in the flood damage. The pairwise Granger analysis showed unidirectional causality from the flooded area, R30 mm, Rx1day, and SDII to flood damage. Thus, these precipitation indices could be useful as indicators of pluvial flood damage in Chungcheong region of South Korea.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.78-85
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• 2023

Objectives: Weight gain is one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism and it could deteriorate thyroid function. Our objectives are to evaluate weight changes and analyze adverse events in overweight and obese women with hypothyroidism who were prescribed Gamitaeeumjowee-tang. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted using medical records of patients with hypothyroidism, who had body mass indexes (BMI) above 23 and were prescribed Gamitaeeumjowee-tang for 12 weeks between August 2017 and November 2022. Reported adverse events (AEs) were assessed by severity, causality and system-organ classes. Results: Thirty patients were included (mean±standard deviation, age 46.10±9.94 years, weight 70.52±11.18 kg, BMI 28.30±3.80 kg/m²). The mean total weight loss of hypothyroidism patients was 5.45±2.77 kg, while the mean weight loss rate and mean BMI change were 7.66±3.41% and 2.18±1.07 kg/m², respectively. Among evaluated causality of adverse events, 'Unlikely' was predominant (80.8%) and severity assessment showed most of the symptoms were mild (91.7%). Conclusions: Gamitaeeumjowee-tang could be an option for hypothyroidism patients, who are overweight or obese, to lose weight and no serious adverse events occurred. Further well-designed clinical studies are recommended.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.2-12
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• 2020

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI), including herbal and dietary supplement hepatotoxicity, is often passed lightly; however, it can lead to the requirement of a liver transplant or may even cause death because of liver failure. Recently, the American College of Gastroenterology, Chinese Society of Hepatology and European Association for the Study of the Liver guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of DILI have been established, and they will be helpful for guiding clinical treatment decisions. Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method scoring is the most commonly used method to diagnose DILI; however, it has some limitations, such as poor validity and reproducibility. Recently, studies on new biomarkers have been actively carried out, which will help diagnose DILI and predict the prognosis of DILI. It is expected that the development of new therapies such as autophagy inducers and various other technologies of the fourth industrial revolution will be applicable to DILI research.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1203-1209
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• 2018

Background/Aims: Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is an appreciably harmful or unpleasant reaction, resulting from an intervention related to the use of a medicinal product. The present study was conducted in order to monitor the frequency and severity of ADR during antimicrobial therapy of septicemia. Methods: A prospective, observational, and noncomparative study was conducted over a period of 6 months on patients of septicemia admitted at a university hospital. Naranjo algorithm scale was used for causality assessment. Severity assessment was done by Hartwig severity scale. Results: ADRs in selected hospitalized patients of septicemia was found to be in 26.5% of the study population. During the study period, 12 ADRs were confirmed occurring in 9, out of 34 admitted patients. Pediatric patients experienced maximum ADRs, 44.4%. Females experienced a significantly higher incidence of ADRs, 66.7%. According to Naranjo's probability scale, 8.3% of ADRs were found to be definite, 58.3% as probable, and 33.3% as possible. A higher proportion of these ADRs, 66.7% were preventable in nature. Severity assessment showed that more than half of ADRs were moderate. Teicoplanin was found to be the commonest antimicrobial agent associated with ADRs, followed by gemifloxacin and ofloxacin. Conclusions: The incidence and severity of ADRs observed in the present study was substantially high indicating the need of extra vigilant during the antimicrobial therapy of septicemia.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.86-96
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze causality among sleep apnea, depression and cognitive function in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 105 patients with sleep apnea and snoring who underwent overnight polysomnography (PSG). We analyzed various biological data, sleep variables (sleep duration and percentage) and respiratory variables [arousal index (AI), periodic leg movement index (PLM index), snoring Index (SI), mean SpO2, minimum SpO2, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), and respiratory disturbance index (RDI)]. We also analyzed various data by sleep, cognition, and mood related scales: Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), snoring index by scale (SIS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Korean (Moca-K), Mini-mental State Examination-Korean (MMSE-K), clinical dementia rating (CDR), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). We analyzed causation among sleep, and respiratory, mood, and cognition related scales in obstructive sleep apnea patients. We analyzed the mediating effects of depression on sleep apnea patient cognition. Results: As Duration N1 increased and Total sleep time (TST) decreased, MOCA-K showed negative causality (p < 0.01). As BDI and supine RDI increased, causality was negatively related to MOCA-K (p < 0.01). As PSQI (p < 0.001) and SIS (p < 0.01) increased and as MMSE-K (p < 0.01) decreased, causality was positively related to BDI. BDI was found to mediate the effect of age on MOCA-K in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Conclusion: Duration N1, total sleep time, BDI, and supine RDI were associated with cognitive function in obstructive sleep apnea patients. Depression measured by BDI partially mediated cognitive decline in obstructive sleep apnea patients.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.86-95
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• 2019

The modern era of microbial genome analysis began in earnest in the 2000s with the generalization of metagenomics and gene sequencing techniques. Studying complex microbial community such as oral cavity and colon by a pure culture is considerably ineffective in terms of cost and time. Therefore, various techniques for genomic analysis have been developed to overcome the limitation of the culture method and to explore microbial communities existing in the natural environment at the gene level. Among these, DNA fingerprinting analysis and microarray chip have been used extensively; however, the most recent method of analysis is metagenomics. The study summarily examined the overview of metagenomics analysis techniques, as well as domestic and foreign studies on disease genomics and cluster analysis related to oral metagenome. The composition of oral bacteria also varies across different individuals, and it would become possible to analyze what change occurs in the human body depending on the activity of bacteria living in the oral cavity and what causality it has with diseases. Identification, isolation, metabolism, and presence of functional genes of microorganisms are being identified for correlation analysis based on oral microbial genome sequencing. For precise diagnosis and treatment of diseases based on microbiome, greater effort is needed for finding not only the causative microorganisms, but also indicators at gene level. Up to now, oral microbial studies have mostly involved metagenomics, but if metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic, and metabolomic approaches can be taken together for assessment of microbial genes and proteins that are expressed under specific conditions, then doing so can be more helpful for gaining comprehensive understanding.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.181-190
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• 2009

It is important to establish the safety of herbal medicine because of its frequent and widespread use in Korea. Several studies on the safety of herbal medicine have been performed and there have been rare serious adverse drug reactions from those reports in Korea. However, the results are not strongly supported because of not adopting appropriate enough research methodology as to make the safety issue clear. For improving the quality of the safety research on herbal medicine. including investigations of drug induced liver injury (DILl). the aim of this study was to suggest herbal medicine-induced liver injury investigation forms for performing reasonable safety research. After a systematic review of the preceding studies regarding herbal safety in Korea was performed in 2008, we assessed the quality and the limitations of the primary studies. Two investigation forms for herbal safety research were made as a following step. one a basic investigation form for herbal safety research and the other an advanced investigation form for suspected DILl cases, Those forms include the essential informations and data needed to make an appropriate assessment of whether DILl occurred during or after the use of herbal medicine. Guidelines for using those forms and other recommendations were also suggested. More rigorous studies are required for answering the safety issue of herbal medicine as well as the efficacy issue. We hope for wide use and improvement of those investigation forms in the study of herbal safety by many researchers for establishing better evidences in Korea.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2021

The occurrence mechanisms of heatwave have been conventionally studied at a synoptic scale. However, the implications of precedent droughts on the following up heatwave occurrences have not been elucidated and are important to address the complex causal mechanisms of heatwaves. Therefore, this study evaluated the causality and implication of the seasonally antecedent droughts to summer heatwaves that occurred for 46 years since 1974 using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The resulting contribution of winter (spring and summer) droughts to summer heatwaves for Seoul-Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and Chungcheong provinces were 37 % (29 % and 22 %), 21 % (18 % and 29 %), and 17 % (8 % and 38 %), respectively. This is due to the regional variability of seasonal drought impacts. Furthermore, Gangwon and Chungcheong provinces, which have a higher level of impacts of summer droughts to summer heatwaves, are more likely to be exposed to the compound drought-heatwave damages compared to Seoul-Gyeonggi province, which has relatively a low-level impact of summer drought.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.246-256
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• 2021

Various development projects occurring on the coast cause an imbalance of surface sediments, causing coastal disasters or irreversible coastal erosion. Coastal erosion caused by the influence of various port structures built through coastal development can be directly identified by evaluating changes in the sediment budget, longshore sediment, and cross-shore sediment. In other words, it will be possible to evaluate the causality between coastal development and coastal erosion by classifying regions due to single cause and regions due to multiple causes according to the changes in the sediment classified into the three types mentioned above. In this study, the cause of long-term and continuous erosion was analyzed based on the analysis results of the coastal development history and the Coastal Erosion Monitoring targeting the coast of Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do on the east coast. In addition, in order to evaluate the degree of erosion caused by the construction of artificial coastal structures, the concept of erosion impact assessment was established, three methods were proposed for the impact assessment. The erosion impact of Hajeo port was assessed using the results of satellite image analysis presented in the Coastal Erosion Monitoring Report, it was assessed that the development of Hajeo port had an impact of 93.4% on erosion, and that of the coastal road construction had an impact of 6.6%.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.30-45
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• 2009

Background: The safety of herbal products is an important issue in Korea. It is more complicated because of the concomitant use of conventional western drugs and herbal medicine, including prescribed medicine, folk herbs and food supplements. Although both western and traditional Korean medical doctors have studied on the safety of HMP, their results did not show relevant or consistent conclusions because of the poor quality of studies, including bias. Objectives: The aim of this study was to review the studies in Korea related to drug induced liver injury (DILI) systematically. We tried to estimate the proportion of causative materials of DILI and evaluate the clinical difference of DILIs from different materials. Methods: Systematic searches were performed on MedRIC and MEDLIS in Korea. The extraction of data as well as selective screening of the studies was carried out independently by two of the authors. There were no restrictions on the types of publication, including grey literature. Results: Twenty-one articles were included. Of them only 7 adapted prospective design and only 6 were published in peer-reviewed journals. The proportion of conventional drugs associated with hepatotoxic injuries in all DILI ranged from 15.8% to 83.3% and that of herbal medicine was from 28.9% to 44.7%. However, the criteria for herbal medicine were not clearly defined and concomitant medications were not fully investigated in most studies. There were limited objective data in the clinical differences of liver injuries from different materials and their results were conflicting. Conclusions: The causality assessments regarding DILI of herbal medicine were not performed properly and causative materials were misclassified in most of the studies published in Korea. These make the safety issue still ambiguous because of the limitations and lack of objectivity of the studies. More rigorous studies are required for clearly addressing these conflicting issues with cooperative investigation between traditional Korean and western medicine.