• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.31-37
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• 2017

Steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency is the most prevalent form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), accounting for approximately 95% of cases. With the advent of newborn screening and hormone replacement therapy, most children with CAH survive into adulthood. Adolescents and adults with CAH experience a number of complications, including short stature, obesity, infertility, tumor, osteoporosis, and reduced quality of life. Transition from pediatric to adult care and management of long-term complications are challenging for both patients and health-care providers. Psychosocial issues frequently affect adherence to glucocorticoid treatment. Therefore, the safe transition of adolescents to adult care requires regular follow-up of patients by a multidisciplinary team including pediatric and adult endocrinologists. The major goals for management of adults with 21-hydroxylase deficiency are to minimize the long-term complications of glucocorticoid therapy, reduce hyperandrogenism, prevent adrenal or testicular adrenal rest tumors, maintain fertility, and improve quality of life. Optimized medical or surgical treatment strategies should be developed through coordinated care, both during transition periods and throughout patients' lifetimes. This review will summarize current knowledge on the management of adults with CAH, and suggested appropriate approaches to the transition from pediatric to adult care.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.14-26
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• 2013

The $1^{st}$ National Plan for Aging Society with Low Fertility, which the Korean government announced in 2006, caused the gradual increase of R&D investment in order to prepare for an aging society in Korea. This study explores if the directions and strategies of R&D projects related to aging are suitable to improve the quality of life for elderly people and establish a sustainable aging society by analyzing the features of R&D investment from 2004 to 2010. The results show that most R&D projects conducted by departments focus on the development of assistive devices for the elderly to support everyday lives. The Korean government's R&D policy to prepare for an aging society is based on the narrow interpretation of Quality of Life (QoL) in an aging society that tries to resolve the socioeconomic problems of the elderly; however, the policies have ignored the independence of active elderly individuals and the social integration of the young and elderly generations. The research shows that a paradigm shift is required from a 'Senior' to 'Aging Society' because almost 1/3 of the Korean population is over 65 years old and the expansion of the research embraces from assistive technologies for the elderly to the design of social infrastructure such as transportation, education and work.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

Total upland area for cultivating the vegetable crops in the Alpine soils of Northeastern South Korea has been extending its limit to meet the increasing demand of vegetable food in recent decades. About 70% of these alpine soils are located in over 7% of the slope and most of vegetable crops have been cultivated intensively without practicing the best management systems. Thus, soil erosion and continuous cropping system have degenerated the soil fertility and shown detrimental effects on water quality. We initiated an intensive and extensive investigation to characterize the fertility problems encountered in these uplands. Objectives of this paper were to characterize the fertility status in the Alpine soils cultivated with vegetable crops for many years and to provide the recommendations for adequate soil management measures including fertilization and erosion control. Soils in general have good drainage with textural classes of loam or sandy loam. Their topographical characteristics tended to lead them to shallow plow layers, and the steepness of the terrain created erosion hazard. Of the soils examined, about 11% of uplands over 30% gradient was found in need of an urgent reforestation. A high content of gravel and firm hardness of soil attributed to inhibit the utilization of farm machinery and plant-root development. The average soil pH 5.6 was slightly low relative to pH 5.70 of the national average. Organic matter content was high compared with 2.0% of national average, but decreased with the prolonged cultivation periods. Available $P_2O_5$ concentration was unusually high due to the consequence of over dose application with chemical and organic fertilizers. Exchangeable cations as Ca, Mg, and K were appeared to be decreased in these regions with prolonging the cultivation periods. There were no significant differences in cation exchange capacity (CEC) and electrical conductivity (EC) among locations. Heavy metal contents were mostly lower than the threshold of danger level designated by Soil Environment Conservation Law of South Korea. Results indicated that a proper countermeasure and the best management practice should be immediately implemented to conserve the top soil and fertility in the Alpine regions.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.956-966
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to examine the comparative between depression and stress related to life events among women in the menopausal stage. Menopausal stages were divided into two groups: Pre and post-menopausal stages. The degree of depression and stress related to life events between pre and post menopausal women were compared to each other. Women, aged between 41 and 59 years, answered self-reported questionnaires which included Zung's depression scale and life events scale modified by Lee (1984). Findings were as follows; 1) The mean score of premenopausal women who experienced depression was 39.66, and for post-menopausal women the score was 41.45. There was no significant differences in depression levels between pre and post menopausal group.s (t=-1.55, p=.122). 2) Menopausal women experienced low levels of stress related to life events. There were no significant differences between pre and post menopausal groups(t=.527, p>.05). Both pre and post menopausal groups were highly concerned about education issues of their children and disharmony between couples. 3) There was a significant relationship between depression and stress related to life events among post-menopausal groups (r=.22, p<.01). Based on the findings of this study, the menopausal depression was associated with stress related to life events, especially among post-menopausal women. Feelings of lost fertility and feminine attributies result in menopausal depression, which is significantly correlated with women's negative perception of their life events. Therefore, nursing intervention needs to develop to help reduce the levels of depression and overcome their negative perception of the menopausal experience. Nurses should develop nursing strategies to help menopausal women to have positive perceptions and enhance quality of life by assisting their adaptability to physiological and psychological changes related to menopause.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2009

The objectives of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the bacteria eliminated sperm by percoll gradient method on sperm quality and embryo cleavage in vitro in pig. The semen of miniature pig collected by gloved-hand method pre-warmed ($37^{\circ}C$) in thermos bottle, and separated by 65% percoll. Analysis of sperm ability was estimated by examining viability, capacitation and acrosome reaction using chlortetracycline (CTC) and the abnormality. Also, fertility of sperm was monitored with cleavage rate of embryo after IVF using separated and un-separated sperm by percoll. The result, viability of separated sperm was significantly(p<0.05) higher($83.6{\pm}$2.0 vs $59.0{\pm}4.4%$) than un-separated sperm. The results of CTC analysis showed the percentage of F- and B-patterned separated sperm was higher in separated that than un-separated sperm. On the contrary, the percentage of AR-patterned form unseparaed sperm was significantly(p<0.05) higher($13.6{\pm}0.8$ vs $8.1{\pm}0.6%$) than separated sperm. Also, abnormality of un-separated sperm was significantly(p<0.05) higher($2.2{\pm}0.4$ vs $16.8{\pm}2.8%$) than separated sperm. However, the cleavage rates of embryo using separated sperm by percoll and un-separated sperm had not significantly difference on 2 cell stage(9.25 vs 11.88%), 4 cell stage(26.76 vs 24.51%) and >4 cell stage(63.99 vs 63.61%) at 48h of IVF. Therefore, the sperm separated by percoll method showed improvement in sperm quality than un-separated sperm in miniature pig.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.657-666
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• 2022

Nitrogen (N) is a vital element in growing crops and is essential for improving the yield and quality of crops. Thus, N fertilizer is the most widely used fertilizer and the primary N input source in soil-crop systems. Inorganic fertilizers such as urea are known to improve crop productivity and increase soil fertility. However, application with excessive amounts can interfere with crop growth and accelerate soil acidification. For these reasons, the use of organic fertilizers, which mainly contain organic nitrogen, has gradually increased worldwide. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of N fertilizer on the growth of Chinese cabbage including its functional compounds glucosinolates (GSLs). For the cultivation of Chinse cabbage, inorganic fertilizer was used for urea, and organic fertilizers were divided into conventional and biochar-based fertilizers. The growth parameters of Chinese cabbage treated by organic fertilizers was better than those of the inorganic fertilizers. Additionally, it was found that their co-application was more efficient. However, their GSL contents were lower with the application of the organic fertilizers. The characteristics of the experimental soil also changed according to the type, amounts and co-application of fertilizers. Therefore, this study presents the basis for an eco-friendly method that can increase the functionality and productivity of Chinese cabbage compared to conventional cultivations.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2017

The food situation in North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK) has been in difficulty situation because of a shortage of energy, and of raw materials such as fertilizer and agricultural chemicals. The international agricultural aid programs can alleviate some difficulties in the agricultural areas, but the policies and measures in North Korea can not help difficulties in the agriculture due to the institutional obstacles enforced by DPRK. The arable area of DPRK is approximately $20,000km^2$, of which $14,000km^2$ is well for cereal cultivation. Fertilizer supplies in recent years between 700,000 and 750,000 tons annually were less than 50% of the normal requirement. Also, North Korea strongly needed to inject phosphorus fertilizer and lime to increase the fertility. Soil degradation in DPRK was characterized by physical and chemical changes caused by rapid loss of clay particles and organic matter. Intensive ploughing and tilling to grow crops may lead to massive soil degradation and declining yields. Although farmers in the DPRK have faced numerous challenges, not least of which are soil erosion, scarce inputs and extreme weather like drought, flooding and cold spells. Therefore farmers should be encouraged to adopt more environmentally sound cropping practices, to access quality seeds and planting materials and to reduce losses after the harvest.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2004

Agricultural recycling of livestock wastes by composting has lots of beneficial effects on crop production and soil fertility. Most of composts are made from pig manure and water content controller such as saw dust, bark, rice hulls etc. by aerobic processing. But the insufficient supply of saw dust, bark etc. cause the indiscreet use of industrial waste having heavy metals and toxic synthetic chemicals. This research investigated the present quality status of organic by-product fertilizers, and suggested the way of quality interpretation under the statistical approaches based on median, mean and weighted average value. Since the data of one hundred of samples for heavy metal contents (Cd, Pb, Cu, and Cr) and OM/N showed extremely left-skewed distribution, the median was more useful than the mean in representing the characteristics of distribiition for each items. The weighted average value will be a useful index for the quality based on the total amount of producing.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5-41
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• 1979

Vast volumes of studies of the medical and public health aspects of fertility and family planning have been published by the various institutes of health related research and university scholars in Korea. None of them, however, have dealed with the population problems associated with biologically and mentally handicapped people. It must be emphasized that the purpose of Korea's population policy should be to improve the quality of the population rather than to decrease its rate of increase. In this spirit, the first report of this study is to identify problems related with mentally and physically less fitted population, and to attempt to offer the possible solutions to the health planners and policy-makers. Several nation-wide surveys of the handicapped people in Korea have been compared. Each survey shows a wide range of difference in the prevalence of the handicaps(see Table 13). In this study, the data on the handicaps are collected by two independent system ; one by the nation-wide survey and the other by the reporting system existing at the Seoul National University Demonstration Health Project. The Chandrasekar-Deming technique was used to estimate the total number of handicaps. The estimates are summarized in the tables 8, 9 and 10. Estimate of total number of handicapped people in Korea is 601, 400 with the prevalence rate of 16.1 per thousand persons. Even if taking a number of conditions which may result in a biased estimate of the total number of the handicaps into consideration, the proportion of handicapped people in Korea has increased in the past two decade as the result of the rapid decline in fertility and childhood mortality, which consequently prolonged life expectancy of persons with congenital or acquired impediment. An increase in the proportion of handicapped people will eventually bring about serious problems of social welfare, medical care, and population qualities from various aspects including eugenics. To tackle the problem, there must be an increased emphasis on the prevention of handicaps from the government and private sector. Based on the amount and quality of data, and from the practical point of view, this study prepared a set of recommendations for the government to strengthen its programs of the preventive activities during the prenatal period and early childhood, early finding from routine examinations, and proper social and medical rehabilitation.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.779-791
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• 2023

This study aimed to assess the effects of embryonic developmental stage, quality grade, and fresh or frozen/thawed conditions on the pregnancy rate and sex ratio of live offspring in Hanwoo (Bos taurus coreanae) cows. The quality and developmental stage of in vivo-derived (IVD) transferred embryos were evaluated using the standard criteria of the International Embryo Technology Society. The recipient cows were synchronized using conventional (estradiol benzoate and progesterone) protocols before embryo transfer. Embryos were transferred to 297 cows, and pregnancy was monitored for 60-70 days after embryo transfer. The pregnancy rates of fresh and frozen/thawed embryos were 56.90% and 52.49%, respectively. Pregnancy rates varied according to embryo quality (56.18% for grade 1 vs. 36.67% for grade 2). Pregnancy rates also varied by developmental stage and cryopreservation (67.86% vs. 63.49% for stage 4-1, 64.00% vs. 54.72% for 5-1, and 50.00% vs. 47.83% for 6-1, in fresh embryos vs. frozen/thawed embryos, respectively). For stage 7-1, the pregnancy rates were 72.73% for fresh embryos and 20.00% for frozen/thawed embryos. In 66 fresh embryos, the sex ratio of live offspring was 5:5, whereas it was 4(female):6(male) for frozen/thawed embryos among the 95 frozen/thawed embryos. The miscarriage rate was approximately 3% higher for frozen/thawed embryos than for fresh embryos (18.1% for fresh vs. 21.1% for frozen). Seasonal fertility rates were 33.3% in spring, 55.67% in summer, 52.8% in autumn, 60.0% in winter. The following male-to-female ratios were observed in different seasons: 6.7:3.3 in spring, 4.0:6.0 in summer, 5.5:4.5 in autumn, and 3.3:6.7 in winter. The current data revealed no significant differences in pregnancy rates between fresh and frozen/thawed IVD embryos. However, there was a lower pregnancy rate with advanced-stage frozen/thawed embryos (stage 7-1). The current study provides comprehensive results for the better optimization of embryo transfer in Hanwoo cattle to obtain the desired fertility rate, pregnancy rate, and sex ratio of calves. These results provide important insights into the factors that influence the viability and success of IVD embryo transfer in Hanwoo cows and may have practical applications for improving breeding programs and reducing production costs.