• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.523-532
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• 2017

A field survey studying intestinal parasites in humans and microbial pathogen contamination at environment was performed in a Laotian rural village to identify potential risks for disease outbreaks. A parasitological investigation was conducted in Ban Lak Sip village, Luang Prabang, Lao PDR involving fecal samples from 305 inhabitants as well as water samples taken from 3 sites of the local stream. Water analysis indicated the presence of several enteric pathogens, i.e., Aeromonas spp., Vibrio spp., E. coli H7, E. coli O157: H7, verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC), Shigella spp., and enteric adenovirus. The level of microbial pathogens contamination was associated with human activity, with greater levels of contamination found at the downstream site compared to the site at the village and upstream, respectively. Regarding intestinal parasites, the prevalence of helminth and protozoan infections were 68.9% and 27.2%, respectively. Eight helminth taxa were identified in fecal samples, i.e., 2 tapeworm species (Taenia sp. and Hymenolepis diminuta), 1 trematode (Opisthorchis sp.), and 5 nematodes (Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Strongyloides stercoralis, trichostrongylids, and hookworms). Six species of intestinal protists were identified, i.e., Blastocystis hominis, Cyclospora spp., Endolimax nana, Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar, Entamoeba coli, and Giardia lamblia. Questionnaires and interviews were also conducted to determine risk factors of infection. These analyses together with a prevailing infection level suggested that most of villagers were exposed to parasites in a similar degree due to limited socio-economic differences and sharing of similar practices. Limited access to effective public health facilities is also a significant contributing factor.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.262-267
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• 2010

Magnesium ($Mg^{2+}$) is an essential co-factor for over 325 physiological and biochemical processes so that plays a central role of neuronal activity, cardiac excitability, neuromuscular transmission, muscular contraction, vasomotor tone, and blood pressure significantly related to physical performance. However, only limited information on blood ionized $Mg^{2+}$ ($iMg^{2+}$) regarding to physical exercise is available and the data from blood total $Mg^{2+}$ detection are inconsistent. This present study investigated the changes of blood $iMg^{2+}$ correlated with metabolic demands during acute high-intensive exhaustive physical exercise in rats. After exhausted swimming (3-4 hours), blood pH, glucose, $HCO_3{^-}$, oxygen and ionized $Ca^{2+}$ ($iCa^{2+}$) were significantly decreased, whereas lactate, carbon dioxide, $iMg^{2+}$, ionized $Na^+$ and ionized $K^+$ were significantly increased. During the exhausted swimming, the changes in $iMg^{2+}$ showed a significant negative correlation with changes in pH, glucose, $HCO_3^-$ and $iCa^{2+}$, however a significant negative correlation with changes in lactate and anionic gap. It is concluded that the acute high-intensive exhaustive physical exercise could produced hypermagnesemia, an increase in blood $iMg^{2+}$ via stimulation of $iMg^{2+}$ efflux following increase in intracellular $iMg^{2+}$ from muscle induced by metabolic and respiratory acidosis.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.78-83
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• 2015

This study was conducted to verify the potential of Allium hookeri to control glucose metabolism in a diabetes model. We fed the experimental diets (AL, AR, Dex) supplemented with the powder of leaf, root, or dextrin as a positive control, respectively at 3% of diet to the diabetic mice (C57BLKS/J, db/db) for 8 weeks. Control mice were fed with the diet supplemented with cornstarch (Cont) at 3% level of diet. At 8th week of feeding the diets, we measured body weight, blood glucose, HbA1c, and plasma insulin levels and conducted an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and staining insulin immunoreactive cells in islets of pancreas. AL group treated with the leaf of A. hookeri showed significantly lower blood glucose and HbA1c levels, higher plasma insulin levels, and increased density of insulin immunoreactive cells compared with the Cont group. During the OGTT, AL group showed lower blood glucose levels than the Cont group for 120 min. Based on these results, leaf of A. hookeri is considered to be effective in improving glucose tolerance by partially affecting insulin secretion and it may be used to prevent and treat diabetic disease.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.359-365
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• 2020

This study aimed to investigate the causes of bacterial growth to prevent infection caused by ultrasound gel and gel containers in contact with patients during ultrasonography. To investigate bacterial contamination during manufacturing or storage, we cultured ultrasound gels originally supplied from three manufacturers. To analyze bacterial growth according to the lapse of time and frequency of use of the ultrasound gel container, the gel and container were cultured at regular intervals every week for 4 weeks. In addition, to determine the source of infection, the examiner's hand was inspected with hand plate and the degree of bacterial contamination was measured before the test. As a result of the study, bacteria were not detected in the gel provided at the initial supply, and in the gel and gel container used repeatedly for 4 weeks, the same bacteria residing on the skin were identified in the examiner's hand, such as Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus luteus, Leuconostoc mesenteroid spp cremoris, Kocuria rhizophila, and etc. Separated strains were classified as those of the low- or non-pathogenicity; however, most of these strains may render fatal consequences to patients of lower level of immunity due to acquired tolerance to antibiotics. At week 1, when the number of tests was the highest, 44 colonies were identified, and at week 4, when the number of tests was the lowest, 4 colonies were identified. As r=0.994, it was found that the number of colonies increased as the number of tests increased. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the cause of the infection was not the ultrasound gel, but the examiner's hand. The ultrasound gel or gel container may be contaminated by skin flora of examiner's hands, which can cause opportunistic infection in patients with low immunity. The ultrasound gel or gel container may be contaminated by skin flora of examiner's hands, which can cause opportunistic infection in patients with low immunity. Therefore, it was confirmed that thorough hand disinfection was necessary to block healthcare-associated infections.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.289-304
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• 2013

In Korea the consumption of coffee has been continuously increased last 10 years. During the period the market size and the numbers of the coffee shop also has been expanded dramatically. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the consumer's selection attributes of coffee shop affect the revisit intention of coffee shop and the brand trust had moderating effects between consumption attributes and revisit intention. Also it was analyzed whether there were statistic differences according to the demographic characteristics. For this study the survey was conducted on Seoul City and Kyeongki-do province and 600 questionnaires were distributed and 480 were collected and 470 samples were analyzed. The results of this study were as follows. All the factors of the consumer's consumption attributes of coffee shop had affected the revisit intention. And the factors of brand trust had moderating effects on revisit intention. There were statistic difference by gender for the additional services and there were also statistic difference according to the age group for the new technology environmental service of the inside of coffee shop. The implications of this study were the selection attributes of coffee shop were diverse and the brand trust were considered significant and the consumer's preferences were different according demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and incomes.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.219-234
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• 2020

As the Korean society ages, the number of women who specialize in community health care is expected to increase. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and structure the nature of suffering due to job stress among female community health care professionals, and to provide basic data supporting the performance of female health care professionals. To use Parse's theory of human becoming, nine female health care professionals were selected in the community. After forming the "you and me" relationship, the researcher recorded the participants' distress through honest conversations. It was converted to the structure of human becoming through the extraction-synthesis and discovery interpretation process. Through conceptual interpretation, the structure of the experience was developed. At the results, the female health care professionals were the process of overcoming difficulty due to poor working conditions and conflict in roles between work and family through their skills and communication reinforcements in hopes for change. The stable national welfare policies must be established to sustain jobs with female community health care experts through improved working conditions.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.194-202
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• 2020

This study was conducted to identify and compare the needs of the integrated by local government, and to provide basic data for the provision of integrated care services. This is a secondary data analysis study using data from 10,299 elderly people living in 17 local governments who participated in the '2017 National Survey on the Aged People in Korea'. The difference in medical needs, daily living support needs, and social activity support needs were 2.4, 6.0, and 2.0 times higher in the highest regions than in the lowest regions. In addition, the size of the medical needs group, welfare needs group, and integrated care needs group varied by region. Through this study, it was confirmed that the level of integrated care needs varied by region. Therefore, in order to efficiently provide the services at the national level, it is necessary to accurately assess the needs of the aged in each local government, and accordingly, prioritize and identify available resources within the care service and appropriate allocation.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.87-96
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the convergence effectiveness of treadmill training in patients with chronic stroke through a meta-analysis. After searching the literature based on the patients, intervention, comparison, outcome criteria, and study desigan, a total of 22 studies related to "stroke" and "treadmill" were eligible for inclusion. Effect size was calculated using the comprehensive meta-analysis program for the meta-analysis. Based on the forest plot results, the overall effect size of treadmill training was 0.661 (95% confidence interval: 0.456-0.865), which was statistically significant with a medium effect size (p < 0.05). The effects of treadmill training on patients with stroke were separated by dependent variables of interest-plantar pressure (1.147), lower limb muscle function (0.875), and balance (0.664). The effect sizes were evaluated for the subdomains of timed up and go test (0.553), Berg Balance Scale (0.760), and static balance index (0.654) for balance. Therefore, treadmill training can be expected to have a positive impact on improving the quality of life of patients with chronic stroke. This meta-analysis of treadmill training may the lead to an industry paradigm shift toward healthcare convergence of information, communication, and medical technology.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2019

Fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5 refers to the atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter less than 2.5 micrometer identified as dangerous element for human health and its concentration can provide us a clear picture about air dust concentration. Humans stay indoor almost 90% of their life time and also there is no official indoor dust concentration data, so our study is focused on measuring the indoor air quality. Indoor dust data monitoring is very important in hospital environments beside that other places can also be considered for monitoring like classrooms, cements factories, computer server rooms, petrochemical storage etc. In this paper, visible light communication system is proposed by Manchester encoding technique for electromagnetic interference (EMI)-free indoor dust monitoring. Important indoor environment information like dust concentration is transferred by visible light channel in wide range. An average voltage-tracking technique is utilized for robust light detection to eliminate ambient light and low-frequency noise. The incoming light is recognized by a photo diode and are simultaneously processed by a receiver micro-controller. We can monitor indoor air quality in real-time and can take necessary action according to the result.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.387-394
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• 2010

In the field of healthcare, the conventional sterilization treatments have been replaced by irradiation methods which are in accordance with internationally well established quality standards. The quality control in radiation sterilization assures that the absorbed dose of the irradiated material is in agreement with its requirements and standards. The electron beam irradiation requires technical assessments of more process parameters than gamma irradiation does. Korea has witnessed wide uses of electron accelerators since early 2000 but there hasn't been research experiences relating to quality system in accordance with international standards. The new large scale e-beam irradiation system with the specification of 10 MeV, 8 kW was installed and operated in 2008 by Seoul Radiology Services Co. It consists of the electron accelerator, product handling system, safety, documentation and control subsystems into an integrated system to meet the requirement of the Good Manufacturing Practice such as process quality assurance and management of product tracking records. To implement the international standard such as EN ISO11137, it is necessary to understand the purposes aimed in the standard and carry out the tests following the procedures required. This study presented the specification of the e-beam facility and showed what its design requirements and features are. The test results on a variety of process parameters were presented and validated it they are within the required limits.