• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2009

The quality assurance (QA) is of utmost importance in biobanks when archived biomaterials are distributed to biomedical researchers. For sample authentication and cross-contamination detection, the two fundamental elements of QA, STR genotyping is usually utilized. However, the incorporated number of STR markers is highly redundant for biobanking purposes, resulting in time and cost inefficiency. An index to measure the cross-contamination detection capability of an STR marker, the mixture probability (MP), was developed. MP as well as other forensic parameters for STR markers was validated using STR genotyping data on 2328 normal Koreans with the commercial AmpFlSTR kit. For Koreans, 7 STR marker (D2S1338, FGA, D18S51, D8S1179, D13S317, D21S11, vWA) set was sufficient to provide discrimination power of ${\sim}10^{-10}$ and cross-contamination detection probability of ${sim}1$. Interestingly, similar marker sets were obtained from African Americans, Caucasian Americans, and Hispanic Americans under the same level of discrimination power. Only a small subset of commonly used STR markers is sufficient for QA purposes in biobanks. A procedure for selecting optimal STR markers is outlined using STR genotyping results from normal Korean population.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.275-296
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• 2010

This study aims to identify effective ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases among sex workers as well as the general public in Korea by examining the case of Thailand, regarded as a model internationally in reducing prevalence rate of sexually transmitted diseases, under the circumstances in which the implementation of the new anti-sex-trade law causes confusion over the existing sexually transmitted disease control program. For the purpose, the study firstly assesses the anti-sex-trade law which has engendered recent debates over the relationship between sex trade and sexually transmitted diseases, and reviews a change of the sexually transmitted disease control system made by the anti-sex-trade law. The Thai case is explored with some special emphasis on relationship between socio-cultural, political and economic factors and sexually transmitted disease control policies. Comparing to the Thai case, the study proposes some suggestions to make the existing sexually transmitted disease control program more effective under the new anti-sex-trade law.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 1994

Water- borne infectious diseases can be acquired by contact with contaminated water or by ingestion of contaminated water. There are many water- borne infectious agents such as bacteria, virus, and parasite. Among many of water- borne infectious diseases, health authorities of Korean government has particularly intensified to prevent and control typhoid fever(class I ), shigellosis(class I ), cholera(class I ), paratyphoid fever(class I), amebiasis(class II ) and leptospirosis(euivalent to class II ) under the communicable disease control law. Water- borne disease Prevention and control guideline itself has been also well provided by the health authorities. However, in practical public health point of view, there are still many problems remained to be solved out; no prospective investigation project to survey water borne infectious diseases under the national disease prevention and control programmes, incredible statistic data of annual notifiable disease report frequent appearance and varieties of drug resistance water- borne infectious agents, little cooperation and information- exchange system in between the related government authorities( the health authorities, the environment sanitation authorities and the food hygiene authorities) which should be closely collaborated, lack of health consciousness of the people, necessity of evaluation and Hndification on to the outcomes of performed health activities and programmes, neglect activities for water quality investigation, shortage of expertise and human resources in the related field, and poor investment of the government budget to develope and improve public health and sanitation field. In order to prevent and control water- borne infectious diseases effectively, it is emphasized that all the above indicated should be considered and performed to improve under the national health and sanitation development programmes.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.237-241
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• 1974

A number of chemotherapeutic agents, namely antibiotics, sulfonamides and nitrofuran derivatives have been used, as a fred additive, for the purposes of growth improvement of chicken, increase of feed efficiency, decrease of animal mortality, and disease prevention. In these experiments, furamizole which is one of nitrofuran derivatives and feed additive was test, in field, its antibacterial activity against Mycoplasma gallisepticum causing air sac disease, its effect on pullorum disease control, its effect on the lowering the mortality of chicken and finally the increase of feed efficiency. Throughout the studies, furamizole, in concentration of 0.025% in feed fed to baby chicken continuously resulted as following: 1. Tested chicken showed no avian mycoplasma infection compared to 3.7% outbreak in control chicken. 2. Tested chicken showed a low degree of outbreak of pullorum disease. However, its outbreak was much more surpresed compared to that of control chicken. 3. Total mortality rate of 5.5% and 30.8% were obtained in test and control chicken respectively. 4. Feed efficiency were 2.83 and 2.97 in test and control chicken respectively.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2003

Clubroot disease of curcifer crops caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae had been first reported in 1928 in Korea, and maintained mild occurrence until 1980s. Since 1990s the disease has become severe in alpine areas of Kyonggi and Kangwon, gradually spread to plain fields throughout the country, and remains as the great-est limiting factor for its production. Researches on the disease has begun in late 1990s after experiencing severe epidemics. Survey of occurrence and etiological studies have been carried out, particularly, on the pathogen physiology, race identification, quantification of soil pathogen population, and host spectrum of the pathogen. Ecology of gall formation and its decay, yield loss assessment associated with time of infection, and relationships between crop rotation and the disease incidence was also studied during late 1990s. In studies of its control, more than 200 crucifer cultivars were evaluated for their resistance to the disease. Lime applica-tion to field soil was also attempted to reduce the disease incidence. Resistant radish and welsh onion were recommended as rotation crops with crucifers after 3-year field experiments. However, so for, most studies on clubroot disease in Korea have been focused on chemical control. Two fungicides, fluazinam and flusulfamide, were selected and extensively studied on their application technologies and combination effects with lime application or other soil treatment. To develop environmentally-friendly control methods, solar-disinfection of soil, phosphoric acid as a nontoxic compound, and root-parasiting endophytes as biocontrol agents were examined for their effects on the disease in fields. In the future, more researches are needed to be done on development of resistant varieties effective to several races of the pathogen, establishment of economically-sound crop rotation system, and improvement of soil-disinfection technique applicable to Korean field condi-tion, and development of methodology of pretreatment of fungicides onto seeds and seedbeds.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2007

Effective communicable disease surveillance systems are the basis of the national disease prevention and control. Following the increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases since late 1990s, the Korean government has strived to enhance surveillance and response system. Since 2000, sentinel surveillance, such as influenza sentinel surveillance, pediatric sentinel surveillance, school-based sentinel surveillance and ophthalmological sentinel surveillance, was introduced to improve the surveillance activities. Electronic reporting system was developed in 2000, enabling the establishment of national database of reported cases. Disweb, a portal for sharing communicable disease information with the public and health care workers, was developed. In general, the survey results on usefulness and attributes of the system, such as simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, timeliness, and representa-tiveness, received relatively high recognition. Compared to the number of paid cases of national health insurance, reported cases by national notifiable disease surveillance system, and various sentinel surveillance system, the result of the correlation analysis was high. According to the research project conducted by KCDC, the reporting rate of physicians in 2004 has also greatly improved, compared with that in 1990s. However, continuous efforts are needed to further improve the communicable disease surveillance system. Awareness of physicians on communicable disease surveillance system must be improved by conducting education and information campaigns on a continuous basis. We should also devise means for efficient use of various administrative data including cause of death statistics and health insurance. In addition, efficiency of the system must be improved by linking data from various surveillance system.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.66-79
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study were to develop a respiratory communicable disease prevention program for preschoolers and measure it's effects. Method: The respiratory communicable disease prevention program for preschoolers consisted of texts, cartoons, photographs, discussions, demonstrations, puzzle games, die games, compensation/reinforcement, and token economy which were directed under the systematic design of instruction by Dick ％amp; Carey. This study was a quasi experimental study under the nonequivalent control group with pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this study were 45 preschool children who are attending 3 different district nursery schools and they were matched by the age, pretest knowledge, and pretest behavior. The instrument used in this study was criterion referenced test items that were developed by a researcher for evaluating the subject's knowledge, attitude, and behavior about respiratory communicable disease prevention. A pretest was administered a week before treatment. Experimental group Ⅰ was administered by the treatment of respiratory communicable disease prevention program. Experimental group Ⅱ was administered by above program with token economy program. The posttest was conducted on the eighth day. The third test for behavior was completed 15th day. To determine the effect of the program, the data were analyzed by the SAS 6.12 program with Kruskal Wallis test, ANCOVA, ANOVA, Duncan's test and paired t-test. Result: 1) There was a significant difference in knowledge between the experimental groups and control group(F=5.89, P=0.0197). 2) There was a significant difference in attitude between the experimental groups and control group(F=3.29, P=0.0469). 3) There was a non-significant difference in behavior between the experimental groups and control group(F=0.00, P=0.9512). 4) In the experimental groupⅡ, there was highly significant increase in behavior after token economy(t=4.5252, P=0.0005). Conclusion: It was found that the respiratory communicable disease prevention program for preschool children was effective in changing the preschoolers' knowledge and attitude on the respiratory communicable disease prevention, but not enough for changing the preschoolers' behavior. Token economy was improved as an effective and strong method for inducing desirable changes of preschoolers' behavior.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 1998

Effects of soil disinfection, fungicide application, and narrow ridge cultivation on ginger rhizome rot development were examined in two naturally-infested fields at Seosan, Choongnam province. Soil disinfection treatments were assigned to main plots, and fungicide and ridge treatments to sub-plots in a split plot design with three replications. The rhizome rot started in late July, and progressed rapidly until late September with the peak incidence in mid-august to early September. Soil disinfection by dazomet application showed the most prominent inhibition effects in both fields, where the disease was reduced by the treatment from 17.5% to 4.8% in one field, and from 51.0% to 2.2% in the other field. Three to five applications of fungicide metalaxyl-copper during the growing season inhibited the disease by 89.7% in one field, but less effectively in the other field. Narrow ridge cultivation reduced the disease effectively by 78.1% and 63.9%, compared to the unridged control plots in each field, respectively. Germination rate of seed-rhizomes and growth of ginger plants were similar between treatments, except when the plots received improper aeration after applying dazomet, and then the germination rate was significantly reduced. The greatest yields were obtained in the disinfected plots, regardless of rhizome rot incidence, except one control plot with very little disease. Ginger yield was negatively correlated with disease severity. However, the yield of ridge plots averaged 58∼59% compared to those of the unridged plots, due mainly to the half planting rate of the ridge plots. In spatial progress, the disease in the disinfected plots started from a single focus of the inoculum, and spread into the adjacent areas only, whereas in the untreated plots, the disease started from many foci that were distributed over the plot, and rapidly progressed to make an epidemic during the season. The soil density of P. myriotylum in the disinfected plots was not changed or, if not, increased slightly during the season. However, in the untreated plots it increased rapidly to reach the density 3 to 5 times greater by the end of the season.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.391-400
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of smart phone video educational program on disease-related knowledge and anxiety in patients with coronary artery disease. A quasi-experimental study used a non-equivalent control group pre-post test design. A smart phone video educational program was developed and offered to the experimental group. Participants were drawn from a inpatient ward. Twenty eight were selected for the experimental group while 30 were assigned to a control group. The results of this study were as followed: Disease-related knowledge in the experimental group showed a significant increase after smart phone video education compared with the control group. But the score of anxiety did not show a significant difference between experimental and control group. Thus, it is necessary to develop interventions considering both educational and psychological factors at the same time for the patients with coronary artery disease.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.319-324
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• 2010

A family of calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) is a unique enzyme which plays crucial roles in intracellular calcium signaling in plants, algae, and protozoa. CDPKs of malaria parasites are known to be key regulators for stage-specific cellular responses to calcium, a widespread secondary messenger that controls the progression of the parasite. In our study, we identified a gene encoding Plasmodium vivax CDPK4 (PvCDPK4) and characterized its molecular property and cellular localization. PvCDPK4 was a typical CDPK which had well-conserved N-terminal kinase domain and C-terminal calmodulin-like structure with 4-EF hand motifs for calcium-binding. The recombinant protein of EF hand domain of PvCDPK4 was expressed in Echerichia coli and a 34 kDa product was obtained. Immunofluorescence assay by confocal laser microscopy revealed that the protein was expressed at the mature schizont of P. vivax. The expression of PvCDPK4-EF in schizont suggests that it may participate in the proliferation or egress process in the life cycle of this parasite.