• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2021

The most effective way to control newly emerging infectious disease, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, is to strengthen preventative or therapeutic public health strategies before the infection spreads worldwide. However, global health systems remain at the early stages in anticipating effective therapeutics or vaccines to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While maintaining social distance is the most crucial metric to avoid spreading the virus, symptomatic therapy given to patients on the clinical manifestations helps save lives. The molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been quickly elucidated, paving the way to therapeutics, vaccine development, and other medical interventions. Despite this progress, the detailed biomolecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains elusive. Given virus invasion of cells is a determining factor for virulence, understanding the viral entry process can be a mainstay in controlling newly emerged viruses. Since viral entry is mediated by selective cellular proteases or proteins associated with receptors, identification and functional analysis of these proteins could provide a way to disrupt virus propagation. This review comprehensively discusses cellular machinery necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding multifactorial traits of the virus entry will provide a substantial guide to facilitate antiviral drug development.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2021

Objectives: Non-traditional materials are used for mask construction to address personal protective equipment shortages during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Reusable masks made from surgical sterilization wrap represent such an innovative approach with social media frequently referring to them as "N95 alternatives." This material was tested for particle filtration efficiency and breathability to clarify what role they might have in infection prevention and control. Methods: A heavyweight, double layer sterilization wrap was tested when new and after 2, 4, 6, and 10 autoclave sterilizing cycles and compared with an approved N95 respirator and a surgical mask via testing procedures using a sodium chloride aerosol for N95 efficiency testing similar to 42 CFR 84.181. Pressure testing to indicate breathability was also conducted. Results: The particle filtration efficiency for the sterilization wrap ranged between 58% to 66%, with similar performance when new and after sterilizing cycles. The N95 respirator and surgical mask performed at 95% and 68% respectively. Pressure drops for the sterilization wrap, N95 and surgical mask were 10.4 mmH2O, 5.9 mmH2O, and 5.1 mmH2O, respectively, well below the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health limits of 35 mmH2O during initial inhalation and 25 mmH2O during initial exhalation. Conclusions: The sterilization wrap's particle filtration efficiency is much lower than a N95 respirator, but falls within the range of a surgical mask, with acceptable breathability. Performance testing of non-traditional mask materials is crucial to determine potential protection efficacy and for correcting misinterpretation propagated through popular media.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.289-299
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• 2020

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate current research trends of Four Pillars of Destiny and verify its values and potential in the counselling scene, as the Four Pillars of Destiny's territory has been expanding to counselling, medical and psychiatric realm nowadays. Methods: The studies were searched from psychotherapy to general consultation, directly or indirectly related to counseling and Four Pillars of Destiny. Twenty-one published research studies were selected for analysis. The studies were categorized into 7 groups, meta-analysis, comparison with other personality tests, user's trend analysis, utilization in job counseling, disease prediction study, utilization in treatment counseling, and use in Korean medicine. Results: The selected studies attempted to expand Four Pillars of Destiny's usage through combination with other fields such as artificial intelligence, Korean medicine, and personality test. Furthermore by analyzing Four Pillars of Destiny itself to extract its key elements in counseling, such as therapeutic counseling factors and occupational counseling factors. Conclusions: At present, there are no standard use of Four Pillars of Destiny in counseling scene, for no large-scale research has been conducted or completed on this subject. This current status quo leads this paper to end up just understanding the counseling factors and possibilities of Four Pillars of Destiny rather than its psychological theory and clinical effect. However, this research trend analysis will be helpful in preparing future studies investigating Four Pillars of Destiny's counseling effect, application in the counseling scene and its psychological theory. Also, further studies, including confirmation of the theory through the operational definition, prospective research, control study, statistical technique are required in order to evaluate Four Pillars of Destiny's psychological theory and its effects to verify its use in clinical scenes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.271-282
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• 2021

This study was conducted to develop a model for predicting the length of stay for premature infants through machine learning. For the development of this model, 6,149 cases of premature infants discharged from the hospital from 2011 to 2016 of the discharge injury in-depth survey data collected by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used. The neural network model of the initial hospitalization was superior to other models with an explanatory power (R²) of 0.75. In the model added by converting the clinical diagnosis to CCS(Clinical class ification software), the explanatory power (R²) of the cubist model was 0.81, which was superior to the random forest, gradient boost, neural network, and penalty regression models. In this study, using national data, a model for predicting the length of stay for premature infants was presented through machine learning and its applicability was confirmed. However, due to the lack of clinical information and parental information, additional research is needed to improve future performance.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.73-82
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• 2022

Chronic diseases such as hypertension require a differentiated approach according to age and life cycle. Chronic diseases such as hypertension require differentiated management according to the life cycle. It is also known that the cause of hypertension is a combination of various factors. This study uses machine learning prediction techniques to analyze various factors affecting hypertension by life cycle. To this end, a total of 35 variables were used through preprocessing and variable selection processes for the National Health and Nutrition Survey data of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result of the study, among the tree-based machine learning models, XGBoost was found to have high predictive performance in both middle and old age. Looking at the risk factors for hypertension by life cycle, individual characteristic factors, genetic factors, and nutritional intake factors were found to be risk factors for hypertension in the middle age, and nutritional intake factors, dietary factors, and lifestyle factors were derived as risk factors for hypertension. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data useful for hypertension management by life cycle.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.403-411
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors associated with internet health information seeking behavior of younger children's parents. The subjects included 108 parents with infants and children, the survey was conducted with structured questionnaires about attitudes to internet health information, e-health literacy, and internet health information seeking behavior. Data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, and multiple regression analysis. As a results of the study, perceived usefulness and information utilization was founded to factors associated with internet health information seeking behavior of younger children's parents. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop a program to provide health information and manage utilization by considering the characteristics, usefulness, and information utilization of infants and their parents.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

Objectives : Asthma is a chronic, complex respiratory disease, caused by airway obstruction, airway eosinophilic inflammation(AEI), and airway hyperresponsiveness(AHR). This study was conducted to determine whether oral administration of crude water extracts of Pinellia ternate Breitenbach(PTB) has an antiasthmatic potential in the treatment of asthma in mice. Methods : Asthmatic AEI and AHR were induced by systemic sensitization to ovalbumin(OVA) by intratracheal instillation with 0.1 mg/mL suspension of diesel exhaust particles(DEP) once a week for 10 weeks in BALB/c mice. Crude PTB water extracts(50 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) were orally administered 5 times a week for 10 weeks. Cyclosporin(10 mg/kg) was administrered the same manner as a positive control. Results : Long-term treatment with crude PTB water extracts suppressed the infiltration of inflammatory cells, including eosinophils, into airways from blood. It also reduced asthmatic AEI and AHR by attenuating the increase in the levels of cytokines such as interleukin(IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF), as well as the levels of histamine and OVA-specific IgE in blood. However, the effect of crude PTB water extracts(200 mg/kg) was not likely to be stronger than that of cyclosporin(10 mg/kg). Conclusion : These results suggest that crude PTB water extracts have inhibitory effects on AEI and AHR in a mouse model of asthma and may act as a potential Th2 cytokine antagonist, and have a therapeutic effect on allergic asthma.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2022

Purpose: Ventilator-associated pneumonia is the most common nosocomial infection in patients with mechanical ventilation. In 2013, the new concept of ventilator-associated events (VAEs) replaced the traditional concept of ventilator-associated pneumonia. We analyzed risk factors for VAE occurrence and in-hospital mortality in trauma patients who received mechanical ventilatory support. Methods: In this retrospective review, the study population comprised patients admitted to the Jeju Regional Trauma Center from January 2020 to January 2021. Data on demographics, injury characteristics, and clinical findings were collected from medical records. The subjects were categorized into VAE and no-VAE groups according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network VAE criteria. We identified risk factors for VAE occurrence and in-hospital mortality. Results: Among 491 trauma patients admitted to the trauma center, 73 patients who received ventilator care were analyzed. Patients with a chest Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score ≥3 had a 4.7-fold higher VAE rate (odds ratio [OR], 4.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46-17.9), and those with a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) <75 mL/min/1.73 m² had 4.1-fold higher odds of VAE occurrence (OR, 4.15; 95% CI, 1.32-14.1) and a nearly 4.2-fold higher risk for in-hospital mortality (OR, 4.19; 95% CI, 1.30-14.3). The median VAE-free duration of patients with chest AIS ≥3 was significantly shorter than that of patients with chest AIS <3 (P=0.013). Conclusions: Trauma patients with chest AIS ≥3 or GFR <75 mL/min/1.73 m² on admission should be intensively monitored to detect at-risk patients for VAEs and modify the care plan accordingly. VAEs should be closely monitored to identify infections early and to achieve desirable results. We should also actively consider modalities to shorten mechanical ventilation in patients with chest AIS ≥3 to reduce VAE occurrence.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.9-22
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was conducted to suggest the direction of follow-up research by comparing and analyzing studies related to emerging infectious diseases (EID) in the field of nursing published in Korea since 2000 and before the outbreak of COVID-19 to identify overall themes and trends. Methods: The data search period was limited to papers from 2000 to 2019, and a literature review was conducted through a domestic DB search. 1574 papers extracted through search terms were excluded according to the criteria, and the final 39 papers were selected and analyzed. Results: Nursing studies related to EID consisted of 35 quantitative studies and most of them were descriptive research studies. As for specific disease types, MERS accounted for the largest number with 22, followed by 11 influenza A, 4 EID and 2 SARS. Nurses were the most common subjects with 19 cases (48.7%), and the number of study subjects was 200 or more, 23 cases (59.0%). The outcome variables of the analysis target literature were infection prevention behavior performance, knowledge, attitude, stress, anxiety, nursing intention, and infection control. Conclusion: This study is meaningful in suggesting the direction of follow-up research by identifying the trends in EID research.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.193-200
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• 2023

This study aims to investigated the status of perceived health status, subjective body recognition, and weight change according to age. In addition, the main factors of interest of middle-aged and elderly people were analyzed. This is a secondary data analysis study using data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES VIII-3, 2016-2018), Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data were analyzed the data using IBM SPSS 21.0 program. Frequency analysis and chi-square test method was conducted. The significance level was set at p <.01. As a result of the analysis, subjective body recognition and perceived health status were identified to have a statistically significant positive relationship (r=0.256, p<.01). Perceived health status and weight change measured for a year also showed a statistically significant positive relationship (r=0.303, p<.01). Therefore, it is anticipated that the findings of this study are used as basic data for seeking ways for better health, quality of life, and well-being, as the study examines subjective health status and various variables applicable to middle-aged people.