• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.69-99
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• 2011

Objective : Scutellaria baicalensis is one of the most popular and multi-purpose herb in traditional medicine. It is also useful for its practicability to cultivate in Korea. The purpose of this study is to contribute to researches and applications of scutellaria baicalensis by analyzing and reviewing international researches on the compositions and the effects of scutellaria baicalensis. Methods : This study analyzed 146 articles from PubMed by searching with the keyword "Scutellaria baicalensis", "Huang quin", "Baical Skullcap", "Huang qin", "baical skullcap root", "ogon", "Hwanggeum" and "Hwangkeum", published within the last 10 years(from 2000 to 2009). We reviewed the 146 articles on Scutellaria baicalensis and its active constituents in terms of 'Active constituents', 'Experimental studies', 'Clinical studies', 'Drug interaction', 'Side Effects/Toxicity' and 'Pharmacokinetics'. Results : The active constituents of Scutellaria baicalensis are flavonoids such as baicalein, baicalin, wogonin and oroxylin-A. It is reported that scutellaria baicalensis and its active compounds have antiinflammatory activity, antitumor activity, antioxidant activity, antiviral and antibiotic activity, neuroprotective effects, hepatoprotective effects and cardiovascular effect. Conclusions : This study is aimed to summarize the results obtained within the last 10 years and to contribute to following researches and applications of Scutellaria baicalensis.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.393-399
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• 2019

Objective: This study investigates the impact of multimorbidity on work through a literature review of longitudinal studies. Methods: A systematic review was carried out in the databases Lilacs, SciELO, PAHO, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane. There were no restrictions regarding the year of publication or language to maximize the identification of relevant literature. The quality of studies was assessed by the protocol STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE). Results: An initial database search identified 7522 registries, and at the end of the analysis, 7 manuscripts were included in the review. Several studies have demonstrated direct and indirect impacts of multimorbidity on the health of workers. For this, the number of missed days due to health-related issues was evaluated, as well as the reduction in work productivity of the unhealthy worker, vulnerability of the worker with multimorbidity regarding higher indices of dismissal and recruitment difficulties, and incidence of early retirement and/or receipt of benefits due to disabilities. Conclusions: Multimorbidity has a negative impact on work, with damages to quality of life and work productivity, worsening the absenteeism/presenteeism indices, enhancing the chances of temporary or permanent leaves, and lowering employability and admission of individuals with multimorbidity.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2017

Purpose: Researchers found that blocks of evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation lacked opportunities for EBP education. The study found that physical therapists had negative views of research as well as their roles in EBP, lacked confidence in EBP, and had limited access to web-based materials. The purpose of this study was to highlight the importance of information research technology for efficient EBP in a clinical environment. Methods: The web-based information research technologies that should be used for sustainable EBP include: the clinical practice guideline (CPG) and PubMed's My NCBI service. Journal mailing services and other academic information sources should also be used to gather information from RSS feeds. An EBP library or archive must be created. A site that provides EBP-specific information is also needed. Results: We should usually do EBP. Practitioners must learn and use information technologies that will help them improve their EBP skills. Conclusion: Facilitating EBP implementation and building an EBP system require related education as well as a practical work environment and equipment. However, the highest priority is individual efforts and trial. Information technology will complement the lack of time. It is important to use information research technology to overcome real obstacles. Lasting EBP must use a number of web-based information research technologies to overcome the practical challenges encountered in EBP implementation.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.396-412
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• 2014

Background: As a reform plan of health care system, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has became an object of attention in the United States after Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted. ACO is a group of various health care providers and provide coordinated care to its assigned beneficiaries. If ACOs improve the quality level and reduce the cost of care, they can get financial incentives. Under the discussion for a quite long time and demonstration projects, ACO has been established. We aimed to analysis and discuss the history, policy mechanism, contents, status and outcomes of ACO. Also, we intended to suggest political implication Korean health care system with regard to ACO. Methods: We searched the articles related ACO in PubMed and selected several available papers about ACO. Total 56 studies were reviewed and categorized three parts; demonstration projects for formation of ACO, policy mechanism and agenda, empirical results of ACO performance. Results: As a result, establishment of ACO was successful partly in the US. It seems to be due to various project and pilot test for verification in the long time. The empirical effect of ACO was also identified in a few study but it needs more evidences to judge its positive effect. Conclusion: In Korea, there are arguments for the application of ACO. However it is difficult to implement a ACO by different political conditions between Korean and US. Nevertheless ACO proposed us the necessity of paradigm shift in our health policy and could be significant to national policy orientation in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-40
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• 2008

In this paper, I examine the welfare effects of various revenue-neutral tax reforms in the case of two vertically-related oligopolies(downstream and upstream), where the upstream industry is polluting. I show analytically when and how government can improve welfare by initiating various tax reforms, regardless of either the feasibility of a lump sum transfer or the availability of a tax on pollution. The profit wedge that is the difference between the unit price and the unit cost and the marginal environmental damages(MED) becomes important to decidethe direction of a tax reform and is crucial to determine the direction of welfare-improving tax-subsidy schemes. I also show that a tax on pollution(Pigouvian tax) is superior to a tax on intermediate good even in the case of vertically-related oligopolies, because the former always brings in positive welfare effect from the upstream firms' input substitutability, which a tax on intermediate good cannot provide. Some policy implications for 'reducing environmentally-harmful subsidies' are also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-29
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the effects of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep disturbance amongst adults aged 55 and above. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CINAHL and several Korean databases were searched. The main search strategy combined terms including non-pharmacological interventions and presence of insomnia. Non-pharmacological interventions included cognitive behavioral therapy, auricular acupuncture, aromatherapy, and emotional freedom techniques. Methodological quality was assessed using Cochrane's Risk of Bias for randomized studies and Risk of Bias Assessment tool for non randomized studies. Data were analyzed by the RevMan 5.3 program of Cochrane Library. Results: Sixteen clinical trials met the inclusion criteria with a total of 962 participants. Non-pharmacological interventions was conducted for a mean of 5.5 weeks, 7.7 sessions, and an average of 70 minutes per session. The effects of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep quality (ES=-1.18), sleep efficiency (ES=-1.14), sleep onset latency (ES=-0.88), awakening time after sleep onset (ES=-0.87), and sleep belief (ES=-0.71) were significant, and their effect sizes were ranged from moderate to large. However, the effects on total sleep time and insomnia severity were not significant. Conclusion: The findings of the current study suggest that non-pharmacological interventions have a positive impact on attitudes and beliefs about sleep, sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency. Therefore, the findings of the study provide an evidence to incorporate various non-pharmacological interventions into nursing practice to improve both sleep quality and quantity in patients with insomnia.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.137-148
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• 2016

Objectives : This study was performed to review articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Methods : On-line databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Ovid-EMBASE, NDSL and OASIS were searched to find articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Several overlapping articles and those not relevant to the topic were excluded, as well as review articles and commentaries. Results : 16 case reports were selected through the procedure, all of which presented successful treatment cases of Complex Regional Pain Syndromes with acupuncture and moxibustion. Most of them presented one single patient case and were published in Korea. However, almost half of them were printed in English, and had been continuously published since 2005. It was remarkable that pharmacopuncture was predominantly used to treat Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Also, we noted that Chinese scalp acupuncture needs to be studied further as two successful cases were presented from the U.S army. Conclusion : The results show that several case reports have been published regarding Complex Regional Pain Syndromes treated with acupuncture and moxibustion. However, all of them were case reports which are given low status in Evidence-Based Medicine. We expect that a more diverse range of articles, including case control studies, cohort studies and randomized controlled trials will be performed in the near future, and that a unified outcome measure will be developed for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was performed to analyze the characteristics and effect sizes of intervention studies on foot-reflexo-massage applied to cancer patients. Methods: For meta-analysis, a total of 159 studies were retrieved from search engines such as RISS, nanet, KISS, richis and KoreaMed. 16 studies published from 1990 to 2010 were selected based on the inclusion criteria. The data were analyzed with the RevMan 5.0 program of Cochrane library. Results: 1) The mean score of 1 implement time on foot-reflexo-massage was 25.62 minutes, the average number of days was 4.12 days, and the total number of average intervention frequency was 4.25 times. 2) Intervention studies on foot-reflexo-massage included 9 studies on anxiety (56.3%), 7 for pain (43.8%), 5 for BP/pulse (31.3%), 5 for fatigue (31.3%), 3 for nausea/vomiting (18.8%), 3 for sleep satisfaction (18.8%), and 2 for depression (12.5%). 3) The effect sizes of the intervention studies that showed higher effect size were in order, anxiety (d=-1.76), fatigue (d=-1.43), depression (d=-1.03), nausea and vomiting (d=-0.83), pain (d=-0.77), pulse rate (d=-0.61), blood pressure (d=-0.55), and sleep satisfaction (d=0.43). Conclusion: This study suggests that foot-reflexo-massage can increase sleep satisfaction, whereas decreasing blood pressure, pulse rate, anxiety, fatigue, depression, nausea, vomiting and pain.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.691-698
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• 2008

The aims of this study are to search herbal medicines that have anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, anti-oxidant and whitening effects. This is preliminary study as a finding for excellent and specific natural agents which inhibit the skin aging and whitening formation. In this study, the articles and the documents, which have been published in domestically or internationally, have been searched and analyzed. Articles were gathered by taking advantage of Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea's documents, Pub med database, Korean Medical Database and Korean Studies Information Service System. Among the many species of herbal medicines, we selected the herbal medicines showing superoxide scavenging activities, and 1.1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) scavenging effects. The herbal medicines were showed anti-wrinkle effects on Metrixmetallo proteinase (MMP-1) inhibition activity and elastase inhibition activity. Also we found herbal medicines that have highly effect of tyrosinase inhibition, L- DOPA inhibition and melanin synthesis inhibition.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.335-341
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• 2013

Balamuthia mandrillaris is one of the 4 amebas in fresh water and soil that cause diseases in humans. Granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE), caused by B. mandrillaris, is a rare but life-threatening condition. A 4-year-old, previously healthy, Thai girl presented with progressive headache and ataxia for over a month. Neuroimaging studies showed an infiltrative mass at the right cerebellar hemisphere mimicking a malignant cerebellar tumor. The pathological finding after total mass removal revealed severe necrotizing inflammation, with presence of scattered amebic trophozoites. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) obtained from lumbar puncture showed evidence of non-specific inflammation without identifiable organisms. A combination of pentamidine, sulfasalazine, fluconazole, and clarithromycin had been initiated promptly before PCR confirmed the diagnosis of Balamuthia amebic encephalitis (BAE). The patient showed initial improvement after the surgery and combined medical treatment, but gradually deteriorated and died of multiple organ failure within 46 days upon admission despite early diagnosis and treatment. In addition to the case, 10 survivors of BAE reported in the PubMed database were briefly reviewed in an attempt to identify the possible factors leading to survival of the patients diagnosed with this rare disease.