• Title/Summary/Keyword: Medical organization

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Use of Glucose Oxidase Immobilized on Magnetic Chitosan Nanoparticles in Probiotic Drinking Yogurt

  • Ali Afjeh, Maryam Ein;Pourahmad, Rezvan;Akbari-adergani, Behrouz;Azin, Mehrdad
    • Food Science of Animal Resources
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    • v.39 no.1
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    • pp.73-83
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    • 2019
  • The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of glucose oxidase (GOX) immobilized on magnetic chitosan nanoparticles (MCNP) on the viability of probiotic bacteria and the physico-chemical properties of drinking yogurt. Different concentrations (0, 250, and 500 mg/kg) of free and immobilized GOX were used in probiotic drinking yogurt samples. The samples were stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 21 d. During storage, reduction of the number of probiotic bacteria in the samples with enzyme was lower than the control sample (without enzyme). The sample containing 500 mg/kg immobilized enzyme had the highest number of Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus acidophilus. The samples containing immobilized enzyme had lower acidity than other samples. Moreover, moderate proteolytic activity and enough contents of flavor compounds were observed in these samples. It can be concluded that use of immobilized GOX is economically more feasible because of improving the viability of probiotic bacteria and the physico-chemical characteristics of drinking yogurt.

Circulating HOTAIR LncRNA Is Potentially Up-regulated in Coronary Artery Disease

  • Avazpour, Niloofar;Hajjari, Mohammadreza;Yazdankhah, Saeed;Sahni, Azita;Foroughmand, Ali Mohammad
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.25.1-25.5
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    • 2018
  • Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death and disability all around the world. Recent studies have revealed that aberrantly regulated long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) as one of the main classes of cellular transcript plays a key regulatory role in transcriptional and epigenetic pathways. Recent reports have demonstrated that circulating lncRNAs in the blood can be potential biomarkers for CAD. HOTAIR is one of the most cited lncRNAs with a critical role in the initiation and progression of the gene expression regulation. Recent research on the role of the HOTAIR in cardiovascular disease lays the basis for the development of new studies considering this lncRNA as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in CAD. In this study, we aimed to compare the expression of HOTAIR lncRNA in the blood samples of patients with CAD and control samples. The expression level was examined by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction technique. Our data shows that expression of HOTAIR is up-regulated in blood samples of patients with CAD.

Sepsis: Early Recognition and Optimized Treatment

  • Kim, Hwan Il;Park, Sunghoon
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.82 no.1
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    • pp.6-14
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    • 2019
  • Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by infection and represents a substantial global health burden. Recent epidemiological studies showed that sepsis mortality rates have decreased, but that the incidence has continued to increase. Although a mortality benefit from early-goal directed therapy (EGDT) in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock was reported in 2001, three subsequent multicenter randomized studies showed no benefits of EGDT versus usual care. Nonetheless, the early administration of antibiotics and intravenous fluids is considered crucial for the treatment of sepsis. In 2016, new sepsis definitions (Sepsis-3) were issued, in which organ failure was emphasized and use of the terms "systemic inflammatory response syndrome" and "severe sepsis" was discouraged. However, early detection of sepsis with timely, appropriate interventions increases the likelihood of survival for patients with sepsis. Also, performance improvement programs have been associated with a significant increase in compliance with the sepsis bundles and a reduction in mortality. To improve sepsis management and reduce its burden, in 2017, the World Health Assembly and World Health Organization adopted a resolution that urged governments and healthcare workers to implement appropriate measures to address sepsis. Sepsis should be considered a medical emergency, and increasing the level of awareness of sepsis is essential.

Anomalies of the Healthcare Sector Using Workplace Safety and Job Satisfaction: A Case Study of Pakistan

  • AMAN-ULLAH, Attia;AZIZ, Azelin;IBRAHIM, Hadziroh
    • The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.1181-1191
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    • 2021
  • This study aims to investigate the impact of workplace safety on doctors' retention and turnover intention along with job satisfaction as the mediator. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 394 medical doctors working in thirty-five hospitals in Pakistan using a structural equation modeling. Results of the study showed that: 1) workplace safety has a significant positive relationship with employee retention; 2) workplace safety has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention; 3) workplace safety has a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction; 4) job satisfaction has a significant positive relationship with employee retention; 5) job satisfaction has a significant positive relationship with turnover intentions; 6) job satisfaction mediates between workplace safety and employee retention; while 7) job satisfaction failed to mediate between workplace safety and turnover intentions. The findings of the study suggest that in a fear-free and safe environment, employees' chance to stay will increases. The study also suggests that dissatisfied employees do not need to leave the organization. There can be other factors that can be explored in future studies. This study also provides a practical implication for the doctors' low retention and high turnover, specifically in the healthcare sector of Pakistan by providing guidelines to the human resource executives to focus on the strategic implementation of workplace safety.

Satisfaction after Running on the Online Self-introduction Consulting Program for College Students in COVID-19 Situation (코로나-19 상황에서 대학생 온라인 자기소개서 컨설팅 프로그램 운영 후 만족도)

  • Shin, Seung-Ok
    • Journal of the Health Care and Life Science
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.113-120
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    • 2020
  • This study was conducted with 92 people who participated in the online self-introduction consulting program operated for 3 weeks in August, 2020 at a university. This is a study to find out whether the application of the online self-introduction consulting program helped prepare for employment. As a result of the study, there was not enough self-introduction to be written in advance or the employment target organization was not clear. After participating in the online self-introduction consulting program, it was very helpful in preparing for employment, and the service utilization of the related self-introduction program was high. They responded that a series of questions about the templates in the program helped to write the self-introduction letter. It was said that the interview preparation process is necessary as a necessary job support education

Safe clinical photography: best practice guidelines for risk management and mitigation

  • Chandawarkar, Rajiv;Nadkarni, Prakash
    • Archives of Plastic Surgery
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    • v.48 no.3
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    • pp.295-304
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    • 2021
  • Clinical photography is an essential component of patient care in plastic surgery. The use of unsecured smartphone cameras, digital cameras, social media, instant messaging, and commercially available cloud-based storage devices threatens patients' data safety. This paper Identifies potential risks of clinical photography and heightens awareness of safe clinical photography. Specifically, we evaluated existing risk-mitigation strategies globally, comparing them to industry standards in similar settings, and formulated a framework for developing a risk-mitigation plan for avoiding data breaches by identifying the safest methods of picture taking, transfer to storage, retrieval, and use, both within and outside the organization. Since threats evolve constantly, the framework must evolve too. Based on a literature search of both PubMed and the web (via Google) with key phrases and child terms (for PubMed), the risks and consequences of data breaches in individual processes in clinical photography are identified. Current clinical-photography practices are described. Lastly, we evaluate current risk mitigation strategies for clinical photography by examining guidelines from professional organizations, governmental agencies, and non-healthcare industries. Combining lessons learned from the steps above into a comprehensive framework that could contribute to national/international guidelines on safe clinical photography, we provide recommendations for best practice guidelines. It is imperative that best practice guidelines for the simple, safe, and secure capture, transfer, storage, and retrieval of clinical photographs be co-developed through cooperative efforts between providers, hospital administrators, clinical informaticians, IT governance structures, and national professional organizations. This would significantly safeguard patient data security and provide the privacy that patients deserve and expect.

COVID-19 and Cancer: Questions to Be Answered

  • Hong, Young Seon
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.66-68
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    • 2021
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to be a pandemic on March 12, 2020. In Korea, there have been 24,027 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 420 deaths as of October 3, 2020. The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic infection to death. Cancer care in this pandemic has radically changed. The literature was reviewed. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it urgently necessary to profoundly re-organize cancer patients' care without compromising cancer outcomes. Several important questions in regard to COVID-19 infection in cancer patients have emerged. Are patients with cancer at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection? Are they at an increased risk of mortality and severe illness when infected with COVID-19? Does anticancer treatment affect the course of COVID-19? Based on the existing research, cancer patients with immunosuppression are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection, and cancer patients are more likely to experience severe COVID-19. However, chemotherapy and major surgery do not seem to be predictors of hospitalization or severe disease. Korean background data on patients with cancer and COVID-19 are lacking. Prospective multicenter studies on the outcomes of patients with cancer and COVID-19 should be conducted.

MPI-GWAS: a supercomputing-aided permutation approach for genome-wide association studies

  • Paik, Hyojung;Cho, Yongseong;Cho, Seong Beom;Kwon, Oh-Kyoung
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.14.1-14.4
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    • 2022
  • Permutation testing is a robust and popular approach for significance testing in genomic research that has the advantage of reducing inflated type 1 error rates; however, its computational cost is notorious in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here, we developed a supercomputing-aided approach to accelerate the permutation testing for GWAS, based on the message-passing interface (MPI) on parallel computing architecture. Our application, called MPI-GWAS, conducts MPI-based permutation testing using a parallel computing approach with our supercomputing system, Nurion (8,305 compute nodes, and 563,740 central processing units [CPUs]). For 107 permutations of one locus in MPI-GWAS, it was calculated in 600 s using 2,720 CPU cores. For 107 permutations of ~30,000-50,000 loci in over 7,000 subjects, the total elapsed time was ~4 days in the Nurion supercomputer. Thus, MPI-GWAS enables us to feasibly compute the permutation-based GWAS within a reason-able time by harnessing the power of parallel computing resources.

LitCovid-AGAC: cellular and molecular level annotation data set based on COVID-19

  • Ouyang, Sizhuo;Wang, Yuxing;Zhou, Kaiyin;Xia, Jingbo
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.23.1-23.7
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    • 2021
  • Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) literature has been increasing dramatically, and the increased text amount make it possible to perform large scale text mining and knowledge discovery. Therefore, curation of these texts becomes a crucial issue for Bio-medical Natural Language Processing (BioNLP) community, so as to retrieve the important information about the mechanism of COVID-19. PubAnnotation is an aligned annotation system which provides an efficient platform for biological curators to upload their annotations or merge other external annotations. Inspired by the integration among multiple useful COVID-19 annotations, we merged three annotations resources to LitCovid data set, and constructed a cross-annotated corpus, LitCovid-AGAC. This corpus consists of 12 labels including Mutation, Species, Gene, Disease from PubTator, GO, CHEBI from OGER, Var, MPA, CPA, NegReg, PosReg, Reg from AGAC, upon 50,018 COVID-19 abstracts in LitCovid. Contain sufficient abundant information being possible to unveil the hidden knowledge in the pathological mechanism of COVID-19.

A biomedically oriented automatically annotated Twitter COVID-19 dataset

  • Hernandez, Luis Alberto Robles;Callahan, Tiffany J.;Banda, Juan M.
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.21.1-21.5
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    • 2021
  • The use of social media data, like Twitter, for biomedical research has been gradually increasing over the years. With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers have turned to more non-traditional sources of clinical data to characterize the disease in near-real time, study the societal implications of interventions, as well as the sequelae that recovered COVID-19 cases present. However, manually curated social media datasets are difficult to come by due to the expensive costs of manual annotation and the efforts needed to identify the correct texts. When datasets are available, they are usually very small and their annotations don't generalize well over time or to larger sets of documents. As part of the 2021 Biomedical Linked Annotation Hackathon, we release our dataset of over 120 million automatically annotated tweets for biomedical research purposes. Incorporating best-practices, we identify tweets with potentially high clinical relevance. We evaluated our work by comparing several SpaCy-based annotation frameworks against a manually annotated gold-standard dataset. Selecting the best method to use for automatic annotation, we then annotated 120 million tweets and released them publicly for future downstream usage within the biomedical domain.