• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.433-443
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• 2022

Purpose: This qualitative study was to understand the awareness of epidemiological investigation tasks for nurses who were in charge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemiological investigations. Methods: Before data collection, written consent was obtained from 13 participants, and the data were then collected from September 1 to December 31, 2021. Individual interviews were conducted and recorded by video interview using Zoom, and data were transcribed verbatim. Four themes were derived by using the qualitative thematic analysis method. Results: The participants perceived that epidemiological investigations were burdensome but that the field work was important, and that expertise and collaboration were required. The participants started work without preparation due to the explosive increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and they recognized work conflicts, unstable employment, and exhaustion as obstacles to their work performance. On the other hand, the participants took pride in contributing to the national epidemiological investigation and control and felt a sense of responsibility as nursing professionals. Finally, participants mentioned that the training of infectious disease practitioner was important for work improvement. Conclusion: Further research is needed on the development of standardized manuals for the training of nursing personnel as infectious disease specialists through the job analysis of epidemiological investigators.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.253-262
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• 2018

Objectives: We reviewed digital epidemiological studies to characterize how researchers are using digital data by topic domain, study purpose, data source, and analytic method. Methods: We reviewed research articles published within the last decade that used digital data to answer epidemiological research questions. Data were abstracted from these articles using a data collection tool that we developed. Finally, we summarized the characteristics of the digital epidemiological studies. Results: We identified six main topic domains: infectious diseases (58.7%), non-communicable diseases (29.4%), mental health and substance use (8.3%), general population behavior (4.6%), environmental, dietary, and lifestyle (4.6%), and vital status (0.9%). We identified four categories for the study purpose: description (22.9%), exploration (34.9%), explanation (27.5%), and prediction and control (14.7%). We identified eight categories for the data sources: web search query (52.3%), social media posts (31.2%), web portal posts (11.9%), webpage access logs (7.3%), images (7.3%), mobile phone network data (1.8%), global positioning system data (1.8%), and others (2.8%). Of these, 50.5% used correlation analyses, 41.3% regression analyses, 25.6% machine learning, and 19.3% descriptive analyses. Conclusions: Digital data collected for non-epidemiological purposes are being used to study health phenomena in a variety of topic domains. Digital epidemiology requires access to large datasets and advanced analytics. Ensuring open access is clearly at odds with the desire to have as little personal data as possible in these large datasets to protect privacy. Establishment of data cooperatives with restricted access may be a solution to this dilemma.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.86-94
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• 2011

In recent years, there has been a rise in epidemiological evidence suggesting the health benefits of a physically active lifestyle. However, it is not always easy for individuals to personally recognize the optimal conditions for exercise and physical activity. Wearable acceleration-based pedometers have become widely used in estimating the amount of physical activity, and to a limited extent, providing information regarding exercise intensity, but they have never been used to assess adaptation to exercise. In order to realize simultaneous activity monitoring for multiple users exercising outdoors, we developed a prototype wireless local area network (WLAN) based system. In our system, a WLAN is deployed outside, and a user wearing a smart phone and monitoring device exercises freely within the coverage area of the wireless network. By doing so, the developed system is able to monitor the activity of each user andmeasures various parameters including those related to exercise adaptation. In a demonstration experiment, the developed system was evaluated and used to monitor users enjoying a Nordic walk, after which users were immediately able to receive their exercise report. In this paper, we discuss the requirements and issues in developing an activity monitoring system and report the findings we obtained through the demonstration experiment.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.240-253
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• 1997

The main problems contributing to food poisoning outbreaks in institutional settings and a home were reviewed and analyzed through the epidemiological investigations of food poisoning. The major documented factors included improper holding temperatures, inadequate cooking, poor personal hygiene, cross-contamination and contaminated equipment, food from unsafe sources, failure to follow food hygiene policies, and lack of education, training, monitoring and superivision. Usually more than one factor contributed to the development of an outbreak. (1) Use of improper holding temperatures was the single most important factor contributing to food poisoning. They included improper cooling, allowing a laps of time (12 hours or more) between preparing food and eating it, improper hot holding, and inadequate or improper thawing. Food thermometers were not used in most of the instances. (2) In inadequate cooking, the core temperature of food during and after cooking had not been measured, and routine monitoring was limited to recording the temperature of plated meals. Compared with conventional methods of cooking, microwave ovens did not protect against food poisoning as effectively. Centralized food preparation potentially increased the risk of food poisoning outbreaks. (3) Poor personal hygiene both at the individual level (improper handwashing and lack of proper hygienic practices) and at the institutional level (poor general sanitization) increased the risk of transmission. Person to person transmission of enteric pathogens through direct contact and via fomites has been noted in several instances. (4) Obtaining food from unsafe sources was a risk factor in outbreaks of food poisoning. Food risks were high when food was grown or harvested from contaminated areas. Possibilities included contamination in the field, in transport, at the retail site, or at the time it was prepared for serving. (5) Cross-contamination and inadequate cleaning/handling of equipment became potential vehicles of food poisoning. Failure to separate cooked food from raw food was also a risk factor. (6) Failure to follow food hygiene policies also provided opportunities for outbreaks of food poisoning. It included improper hygienic practices during food preparation, neglect of personnel policies (involvement of symptomatic workers in food preparation), poor results on routine inspections, and disregarding the results and recommendations of an inspection. (7) Lack of formal and in-service education, training, monitoring, and supervision of food handlers or supervisors were critical and perhaps neglected elements in occurrences of food poisoning.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.32-40
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• 1994

The concentration of ozone in 5 major cities in Korea( Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Kwangjoo, Incheon ) has been shown increasing trend after 1984, while decreasing trend in Hsan. According to the data from 12 monitoring stations in 9 cities of metropolitan area from January 1994 to August 1994, ozone concentration exceeded short term standard 99 times and 87%(861imes) of those was occurred during July and Augusta while the maximum ozone concentration was appeared mainly between 14: 00 and 17: 00 daily. As the result of epidemiological survey, main substances which irritate eyes were identified to be PAN and formaldehyde rather than ozone while ozone was identified to be reachable to deep part of respiratory system main target organ of ozone.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-30
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• 1985

Mycotoxins are a group of toxicants giving a risk potential to human health in connection with the daily food intake. Food commodities once contaminated with mycotoxins can not be detoxified by any economic means and prevention was suggested as the only measure. In order to minimize the economic loss and health hazard posed by mycotoxins and toxicoses, systematic and toxicological studies on the subject should be undertaken. Most reports in Korea were concentrated on the mycological studies of relatively easy techniques and the confirmation or quantitation of mycotoxins was rarely done. Research topics to be undertaken in future may be exemplifid below: (1) Establishing assay methods for individual or multi-residue of mycotoxins (2) Monitoring of mycotoxins for suspicious food or feed samples in Korea (3) Epidemiological survey of mycotoxicoses (4) Etiological survey of disease outbreaks associated with mycotoxins (5) Accumulation of testing method and data on the toxicity of mycotoxins (6) Legal regulation to control mycotoxins and development of their detoxification / elimination methods

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.531-536
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• 2019

Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia duodenalis are the main diarrhea-causing parasitic pathogens; however, their prevalence in Korea is unknown. Here, we conducted a survey to determine the prevalence and genotype distribution of these 2 pathogens causing acute diarrhea in 8,571 patients hospitalized in 17 Regional Institute of Health Environment sites in Korea, during 2013-2016. C. parvum and G. duodenalis were detected and genotyped by nested PCR, and the isolate were molecularly characterized by sequencing the glycoprotein 60 (Gp60) and ${\beta}-giardin$ genes, respectively. The overall prevalence of C. parvum and G. duodenalis was 0.37% (n=32) and 0.55% (n=47), respectively, and both pathogens were more prevalent in children under 9 years old. Molecular epidemiological analysis showed that the C. parvum isolates belonged to the IIa family and were subtyped as IIaA13G2R1, IIaA14G2R1, IIaA15G2R1, and IIaA18G3R1. Analysis of the ${\beta}-giardin$ gene fragment from G. duodenalis showed that all positive strains belong to assemblage A. This is the first report on the molecular epidemiology and subtyping of C. parvum and G. duodenalis in such a large number of diarrheal patients in Korea. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring of these zoonotic pathogens and provide a basis for implementing control and prevention strategies. Further, the results might be useful for epidemiological investigation of the source of outbreak.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.25-30
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• 2021

Many people reported suspected food poisoning after consuming food at the same snack bar on June 18, 2020. Thus, an in-depth epidemiological investigation was conducted to identify the infectious agent and establish additional food poisoning prevention measures. The study included people who reported to the local public health center after June 18 with acute gastroenteritis symptoms within 4 days of consuming food from the snack bar. The onset of symptoms and food items consumed by individuals were then investigated via phone calls and on-site visits. Afterward, the infectious agent was identified from human samples (stool or rectal swab) of four restaurant employees and 89 people and from environmental samples (materials, cooking utensils, and water). The analysis revealed that the incubation period ranged from 2 hours to 92 hours, with a median and mode of 16 hours and 12 hours, respectively. Moreover, the epidemic curve had a unimodal shape because of common exposure, which reached its peak on June 18. After monitoring for 8 days, which is more than twice the maximum incubation period of 92 hours, the end of the epidemic was declared on June 28 as no additional cases were reported. Analysis of human and environmental samples revealed Salmonella bareilly of the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pulsotype SAPX01.017 as the causative agent. Therefore, it was concluded that the food poisoning outbreak was caused by S. bareilly.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.415-419
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• 2021

The circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium spp. is a diagnostic antigen and useful biomarker for monitoring short-term/seasonal changes to malaria transmission. Using P. vivax CSP antibody ELISA, epidemiological characteristics were analyzed in the residents of Ganghwa, Cheorwon, Paju, and Goseong from 2017 to 2018. In Ganghwa and Cheorwon, 1.6% and 1.2% of residents, respectively, were PvCSP-antibody-positive in 2018, which indicates a decrease of 0.4% in the positive rate compared to 2017. The annual parasite incidence (API) in Ganghwa and Cheorwon was 24.9 and 10.5 in 2017 and 20.3 and 10.7 in 2018, respectively. Although the changes were not significant, the API in Ganghwa decreased slightly by 4.5 in 2018 compared to the previous year. In Paju and Goseong, 3.9% and 2.0% of residents were positive for the PvCSP antibody. The API in Paju was 13.1 in 2017 and 16.0 in 2018, although no malaria patients were reported for the 2 years. Therefore, the results suggest that PvCSP is a useful antigen for confirming initial malaria infection. Additionally, considering that the antibody is relatively transient, it can be employed for sero-epidemiological studies to determine the extent of malaria transmission in the current year.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.730-737
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• 1999

A national animal health monitoring system(NAHMS) in Gyeongnam area was started from 1997 to develop statistically valid data for use in estimating disease frequencies in dairy cattle, and the associated costs. The objectives of this study were to : (1) discribe what was done to implement and maintain the system in Gyeongnam ; (2) present selected disease frequencies ; (3) discuss the epidemiological consideration of what was done and implications for the results obtained. Veterinary Medical Officers(VMOs-professors and graduate students from Gyeongsang National University, Faculty of Gyeongnam Livestock Promotion Institute, and Clinic veterinarians) served as data collectors. After training on current disease and management problems of dairy cattle, interview techniques, sampling methods, and data collection instruments, the VMOs participated in selection of the sample herds and data gathering. Forty of 167 dairy herds were selected randomly and the VMOs visited farms once a month for 12 months to collect data about management, disease, inventory, production, preventive treatment, financial and any other relevant data. Strict data quality control devices were used. Specific feed-back was developed for the producers and data collectors. Of the three age groups studied, cows had the greatest number of disease problems. The six disorders found most frequently were (from the highest to the lowest) breeding problems, clinical mastitis, birth problems, gastrointestinal problems. metabolic problems, and lameness. In young stock, respiratory, multiple system, breeding problems, and gastrointestinal problems were pre dominant, whereas in calves, gastrointestinal, respiratory, and integumental problems were major.