• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.3-44
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• 2022

As a result of a close review focusing on the case of obstruction of epidemiological investigation by a religious group A in Daegu, which was a problem when the pandemic of Covid-19 infection began in Korea around February 2, 2020, when an epidemiological investigator requested a specific group to submit a list, While there have been cases where an act of not responding or submitting an edited omission list was sentenced to the effect that the act did not fall under an epidemiological investigation, in the case of non-submission of the visitor list for the B Center, even though a 'list of visitors' was requested. Regarding the fact of refusal without a justifiable reason, 'providing a list of persons entering the building is a key factual act that forms a link between epidemiological investigations accompanying an epidemiological investigation, and refusing to do so is also an act of refusal and obstruction of an epidemiological investigation. There are cases where it is possible to demand criminal punishment. Regardless of whether the request for submission of the membership list falls under the epidemiological investigation, there are cases in which the someones' actions correspond to the refusal or obstruction of the epidemiological investigation. A lower court ruling that if an epidemiological investigation is rejected or obstructed as a result of interfering with factual acts accompanying an epidemiological investigation, comprehensively considering whether or not the list has been diverted for purposes other than epidemiological investigation, the logic is persuasive. Epidemiological investigations such as surveys and human specimen collection and testing are conducted for each infectious disease patient or contact confirmed as a result of the epidemiological investigation, but epidemiological investigations conducted on individual individuals cannot exist independently of each other, and the This is because the process of identification and tracking is essential to an epidemiological investigation, and if someone intentionally interferes with or rejects the process of confirming this link, it will result in direct, realistic, and widespread interference with the epidemiological investigation. In this article, ① there are differences between an epidemiological investigation and a request for information provision under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, but there are areas that fall under the epidemiological investigation even in the case of a request for information, ② Considering the medical characteristics of COVID-19 and the continuity of the epidemiological investigation, the epidemiological investigator the fact that the act of requesting a list may fall under the epidemiological investigation, ③ that the offense of obstructing the epidemiological investigation in certain cases may constitute 'obstruction of Performance of Official Duties by Fraudulent Means', and ④ rejecting the request for information provision under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act from September 29, 2020 In this case, it is intended to be helpful in the application of the Infectious Disease control and Prevention Act and the practical operation of epidemiological investigations in the future by pointing out the fact that a new punishment regulation of imprisonment or fine is being implemented.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2023

Purpose: Infants aged ≤90 days with fever are susceptible to severe infections. This study aimed to analyze the clinical features of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in this particular age group. Methods: Infants aged ≤90 days who were diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and hospitalized between March 1, 2020, and May 1, 2022 were included. Medical records of patients were retrospectively reviewed. Results: A total of 105 infants with COVID-19 were included; 27 (25.7%) neonates aged <28 days, and 48 (45.7%) and 30 (28.6%) infants aged 28-59 days and 60-90 days, respectively. Five (4.7%) patients remained asymptomatic and 68 (62.8%) were febrile, with a median fever duration of 2 days. The most common symptoms were respiratory including cough (66.6%), nasal stuffiness (51.4%), and rhinorrhea (40.9%). Blood cultures were performed in 10 infants but no organisms were detected. Cultures of bag-collected urine specimens from 8 infants were grown, resulting in positive growth for 2 without pyuria. Nine (8.6%) infants were treated with empirical antibiotics for a median duration of 2.3 days (range, 1-7 days). All 105 infants showed improvement without any complications, and there were no fatal cases. Conclusions: In this study, most infants aged ≤90 days with COVID-19 presented with mild symptoms and none of those evaluated had documented bacterial co-infection. The favorable prognosis among young infants with SARS-CoV-2 may aid clinicians in tailoring their approach to evaluation and management during outbreaks.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2021

On November 17, 2019, an infectious disease with symptoms of pneumonia, called the Wuhan virus at the time, occurred in Wuhan, China. Since then, the name has been changed to COVID-19, and the virus has spread all over the world, and the WHO has declared the highest warning level for infectious diseases, "Pandemic". The coronavirus has also caused great confusion in South Korea. This resulted in large infected people.The first confirmed cases occurred on January 20, 2020, and the number of infected patients is steadily increasing after experiencing several waves, and many corona confirmed cases are also occurring in 2021 after the year. As the whole world enters a pandemic, walls are created between people and people, companies and businesses, and countries and countries, and all growth stops or declines, including human relationships, domestic companies and industries, and foreign industries. As a result, society in general is experiencing a lot of stagnation. Among them, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the basis of all growth in Korea, and youth who are trying to contribute to the national development by entering society, are struggling to find jobs. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, the difficulty of job hunting and the prospect of small and medium-sized businesses were not very good. In this situation, as the country's overall economic situation is poor, the vitality of SMEs has decreased a lot, the prospects are not good, so jobs are reduced, and there are many difficulties due to reluctance to hire new employees. In this study, with 2019 before the corona era and 2020 after the corona era, we compare SMEs before and after the corona era and overall job search and job search activities through average difference analysis, and whether they are affecting through correlation analysis. Through this, it suggests a direction to increase job search through corporate and government policies after raising the prospects of SMEs first.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.41.1-41.13
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• 2021

Correlation between vaccine reactogenicity and immunogenicity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unclear. Thus, we investigated to determine whether the reactogenicity after coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination is associated with antibody (Ab) titers and T cell responses. This study was prospective cohort study done with 131 healthcare workers at tertiary center in Seoul, South Korea. The degrees of the local reactions after the 1st and 2nd doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (ChAdOx1) vaccination were significantly associated with the S1-specific IgG Ab titers (p=0.003 and 0.01, respectively) and neutralizing Ab (p=0.04 and 0.10, respectively) in age- and sex-adjusted multivariate analysis, whereas those after the BNT162b2 vaccination did not show significant associations. T cell responses did not show significant associations with the degree of reactogenicity after the ChAdOx1 vaccination or the BNT162b2 vaccination. Thus, high degree of local reactogenicity after the ChAdOx1 vaccine may be used as an indicator of strong humoral immune responses against SARS-CoV-2.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.203-212
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• 2023

Since the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, it has been generally believed that a medical technologists (MTs) are supposed to perform polymerase chain reaction tests and next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the hospitals. However, many do not recognize that the duty of MT for clinical genetic testing has not been stated in the Medical Laws (72.5% for MT, N=200; 62.8% for students, N=123). In this regard, to evaluate the feasibility of MT's role for NGS genetic testing, we requested our subjects to fill out an online survey and analyzed the data. Among them, it shows that the scope of MT's role, including NGS performance should include clinical genetic testing (99.5% for MT, N=200; 86.8% for students, N=123). Also, questions on clinical genetics, which is associated with both cellular genetics and molecular genetic questions should be included in the National MT License Problem Bank (97.5% for MT; 71.4% for students). Based on these results, the Korean Association of Medical Technologists needs to cooperate synergically with the Academic Association of Biomedical Laboratory Science with respect to genetic education and legislation for the future benefit of both MTs and students.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2021

Contactless service is rapidly emerging as a new growth strategy due to consumers who are reluctant to the face-to-face situation in the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and various technologies are being developed to support the fast-growing contactless service market. In particular, the restaurant industry is one of the most desperate industrial fields requiring technologies for contactless service, and the representative technical case should be a kiosk, which has the advantage of reducing labor costs for the restaurant owners and provides psychological relaxation and satisfaction to the customer. In this paper, we propose a solution to the restaurant's store operation through the unmanned kiosk using a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) technology of image recognition. Especially, for the products that do not have barcodes in bakeries, fresh foods (fruits, vegetables, etc.), and autonomous restaurants on highways, which cause increased labor costs and many hassles, our proposed system should be very useful. The proposed system recognizes products without barcodes on the ground of image-based AI algorithm technology and makes automatic payments. To test the proposed system feasibility, we established an AI vision system using a commercial camera and conducted an image recognition test by training object detection AI models using donut images. The proposed system has a self-learning system with mismatched information in operation. The self-learning AI technology allows us to upgrade the recognition performance continuously. We proposed a fully automated payment system with AI vision technology and showed system feasibility by the performance test. The system realizes contactless service for self-checkout in the restaurant business area and improves the cost-saving in managing human resources.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.230-238
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• 2022

Myocarditis was previously attributed to an epidemic viral infection. Additional harmful reagents, in addition to viruses, play a role in its etiology. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine-induced myocarditis has recently been described, drawing attention to vaccine-induced myocarditis in children and adolescents. Its pathology is based on a series of complex immune responses, including initial innate immune responses in response to viral entry, adaptive immune responses leading to the development of antigen-specific antibodies, and autoimmune responses to cellular injury caused by cardiomyocyte rupture that releases antigens. Chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the myocardium eventually result in cardiac failure. Recent advancements in molecular biology have remarkably increased our understanding of myocarditis. In particular, microRNAs (miRNAs) are a hot topic in terms of the role of new biomarkers and the pathophysiology of myocarditis. Myocarditis has been linked with microRNA-221/222 (miR-221/222), miR-155, miR-10a^*, and miR-590. Despite the lack of clinical trials of miRNA intervention in myocarditis yet, multiple clinical trials of miRNAs in other cardiac diseases have been aggressively conducted to help pave the way for future research, which is bolstered by the success of recently U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved small-RNA medications. This review presents basic information and recent research that focuses on myocarditis and related miRNAs as a potential novel biomarker and the therapeutics.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.375-383
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• 2023

Background: Working despite feeling ill - presenteeism - is a widespread behavioral phenomenon. Previous research has shown that presenteeism is influenced by various work-related and personal factors. It's an illness behavior leading to a range of negative but also positive consequences. Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, remote work has become the "new normal" for many employees. But so far, little is known about presenteeism in remote work. This study aims to investigate presenteeism in remote work by looking at the extent of remote presenteeism, differences to presenteeism in on-site work, and associated factors. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Germany with N = 233 participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and correlation analysis. Results: The results reveal that presenteeism is prevalent in remote work x = 4.13 days (Md = 3; D = 2; s = 4.95). A low ability to detach from work (r = -.17; p = .005) and low supervisor support (r = -.14; p = .02) is associated with more remote presenteeism days. Remote working conditions seem to facilitate presenteeism. Conclusion: This study provides empirical insights into a subject area of great societal relevance. The results show that awareness should be raised for presenteeism in remote work. It should be regarded as a behavior that can be functional or dysfunctional, depending on the individual situation. Supervisor support and detachment should be fostered to help reduce dysfunctional presenteeism. Promotion of health literacy might help remote workers to decide on a health-oriented illness behavior. Further research is vital to analyze to what extent and under which circumstances presenteeism in remote work is (dys)functional and to derive clear recommendations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.223-233
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• 2024

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has exacerbated the rate of tuberculosis (TB) infection among close contacts of TB patients in remote regions. However, research on preventive behaviors, guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM), among household contacts of TB cases is scarce. This study aimed to employ the HBM as a framework to predict TB preventive behaviors among household contacts of TB patients in the border areas of Northern Thailand. Methods: A cross-sectional study with multi-stage random sampling was conducted in Chiang Rai Province. The study included 422 TB patients' household contacts aged 18 years or older who had available chest X-ray (CXR) results. A self-administered questionnaire was used to conduct the survey. Results: The participants' mean age was 42.93 years. Pearson correlation analysis showed that TB preventive behavior scores were significantly correlated with TB knowledge (r=0.397), perceived susceptibility (r=0.565), perceived severity (r=0.452), perceived benefits (r=0.581), self-efficacy (r=0.526), and cues to action (r=0.179). Binary logistic regression revealed that the modeled odds of having an abnormal CXR decreased by 30.0% for each 1-point score increase in preventive behavior (odds ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval, 0.61 to 0.79). Conclusions: HBM constructs were able to explain preventive behaviors among TB patients' household contacts. The HBM could be used in health promotion programs to improve TB preventive behaviors and avoid negative outcomes.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.20-32
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the etiology and risk factors of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring hospitalization in Korean children during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: Clinical information of children admitted with CAP to Seoul National University Children's Hospital (SNUCH) between January 1, 2021, and February 28, 2022, was retrospectively collected and analyzed. In addition, the etiologic diagnosis and demographic data of children with CAP who were discharged at the other seven hospitals between January and February 2022 were collected. Pneumonia was diagnosed using strict criteria comprising clinical symptoms, physical examination findings, and chest radiographic findings. Results: Among 91 children hospitalized with CAP at SNUCH during the 14-month period, 68.4% were aged <5 years and 79.1% had underlying diseases. Among the 95 CAP cases, respiratory assistance was required in 70.5%, and the use of a ventilator was required in 20.0%. A total of five patients expired, all of whom were either immunocompromised or had underlying neurological diseases. Neurological diseases and immunosuppression were significantly correlated with respiratory assistance (P=0.003) and death (P=0.014). A total of 55% of the detected respiratory pathogens were viruses, the most common of which was rhinovirus at 35.9%. Among the 169 children hospitalized for CAP at the eight institutions, ≥1 respiratory virus was detected in 92.3%, among which respiratory syncytial virus (79.8%) was the most prevalent. Conclusions: Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean children were hospitalized with CAP caused by seasonal respiratory viral pathogens. Although atypical and pyogenic bacteria were not detected, continuous clinical monitoring and further prospective studies should be conducted.