• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.143-154
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• 2017

This paper presents the mathematical model for the MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea, and the optimal control for two intervention strategies (contact, hospitalization) is implemented. After the MERS-CoV outbreak, hospitalizing infected individuals did not help to prevent the spread of infection. However, the intervention to control contact was effective. It was effective the intervention to controlling both of contact and hospitalization of infection population.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.222-230
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• 2017

Background: Varicella is the most common infectious disease reported despite the high vaccination rate. Interventions that target humans are particularly effective for varicella because humans are its only natural host. On the other hand, the existing national varicella surveillance systems lack the information to identify an outbreak. Therefore, a new index to assess varicella outbreaks was developed. Methods: The residential addresses of 2,718 varicella cases reported in Daegu in 2016 were converted to geographic coordinates and the distances between new varicella case and previous cases within 21 days were calculated from the date analyzed. Two cases were considered to be adjacent if the distance between them was less than 1 km. Finally, a proximity index was introduced by dividing the number of adjacent cases by the number of new cases on the date analyzed. Results: First, time-series charts and scatter plots were used to verify that the proximity index reflected the spatial closeness of the different varicella cases. The proximity index is helpful in identifying outbreaks from a list of single varicella cases. In addition, in this study, a new epidemic characteristic of varicella based on the proximity index was shown. Conclusion: The proximity index introduced in this study can be used to determine the likelihood of an outbreak from a single case of varicella, and it can be embedded in a web-based national varicella surveillance system that is currently in operation.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.105-113
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• 2020

As the COVID-19 outbreak has prolonged, social distancing movements are encouraged and non-face-to-face lifestyle trends are spreading. As a result, it is necessary for general restaurants and small marts to provide delivery services like large-scale distribution companies. Large distribution companies have also suffered significant economic losses from COVID-19 because epidemiological investigations were conducted after the distribution center was closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in several large domestic distribution companies. In this thesis, in order to examine whether COVID-19 actually affects distribution companies, we attempt to understand the relationship between the number of confirmed cases per month and the sales share and growth rate by categories of distribution companies.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.158-169
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• 2020

Modern people live in the age of plastics. It has been widely used due to its easy molding processing, mass production, and excellent durability. However, over-produced plastics for convenience cause plastic disasters and adversely affect the ecosystem. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the use of single-use plastic waste due to the use of delivery services has increased. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a plastic pandemic. Currently, domestic recycling policies depend only on recycling collection companies and market prices of recyclable resources. This paper confirms whether the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the price of plastic waste. It also shows that the price of plastic waste is more unstable than metals with a high recycling rate. This urges businesses to share the cost of recycling on plastic waste, no longer being dependent on market prices for recyclable resources.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.667-682
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the changes in health behavior, mental health, and nutritional status of Korean adolescents before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. Methods: A total of 800 adolescents (12~18 years old) who participated in the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were included as study subjects and divided into four groups (204 middle school boys, 172 middle school girls, 219 high school boys, and 205 high school girls). The 2019 and 2020 KNHANES data were classified into data collected before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, respectively. Results: After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, middle school boys showed an increased tendency toward becoming overweight and obese, with significantly increased levels of diastolic blood pressure and insulin. While there was no major change in the subjective health status among adolescents, the high school boys showed a significantly decreased physical activity after COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, the proportion of middle school students feeling a little stressed significantly increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. The rate of skipping breakfast significantly increased in middle school girls, but the rate of having lunch with companions significantly increased among all adolescents after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the intake of milk, vegetables, fruits, seaweeds, and pulses significantly decreased, although the intake of sugars, beverages, and seasonings significantly decreased as well, during this period. These changes may lead to an increased proportion of adolescents with insufficient intake of nutrients, including potassium, vitamin C, and riboflavin. Conclusion: These results highlight the impact of COVID-19 on comprehensive changes in physical and mental health status, lifestyle behavior, and nutritional status in adolescents, suggesting the need for targeted prevention and intervention for physical and mental well-being during the pandemic.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.979-985
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• 2023

After the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for home-enjoyable video games has surged, driven by extended pandemic conditions and resulting in rapid graphic technology advancements. Consequently, games with diverse expression techniques have emerged, captivating players. Virtual Reality (VR) environments predominantly feature natural landscapes, with advancing graphic technology enabling lifelike scenes. The rise in individuals seeking solace through natural elements in games has followed suit. As VR technology and metaverse interest grow, more people are exposed to digital imagery. However, evidence on the influence of graphic expression methods on emotional response to that is lacking. Our study examined user emotional responses, focusing on natural landscapes in digital graphics of games. Analyzing a group of 47 young adults as frequent digital media consumers, we studied reactions to different image styles (Realism, Semi-Realism, Stylized). In the analysis, Realism-style images were perceived the most positively, while emotional responses to natural landscapes with different graphical expressions showed no significant differences. Results suggest that recognizing digital natural landscapes may outweigh expression style impacting the evaluation of digital nature. This study's empirical analysis enhances the understanding of digital nature's application to actual situations.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.209-216
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• 2004

The circular leaf spot of persimmon is occurred almost every place where persimmon is cultivated, especially the disease outbreak severely in southern part of Korea. The disease reveals unusually long incubation period after pathogen invade into leaf tissue and no practical control measure is available once the symptom has appeared. Most of the farmers just follow the suggested spray schedules calculated on the basis of weather condition of ordinary years. Therefore the damages due to circular leaf spot greatly differ year after year. In this article, we tried to describe and summarized the investigation on the circular leaf spot pathogen, Mycosphaerella nawae, related to disease outbreak such as overwintering of pathogen, inoculum formation and spread, incubation period after infection, and secondary inoculum. With the summary of these results, we suggest the disease cycle of circular leaf spot of persimmon. The pathogen overwinters in diseased leaves as mycelial form or pseudoperithecial premodium. The pseudoperitheria become matured in spring as the temperature raise and forms asci and ascospores. The maturation of pseudoperithecia are closely related to the temperatures during March and early April. The ascospores completely mature in early May and the ascospores released when the pseudoperithecia absorbed enough moisture after rainfall. The release of ascospores are diverse greatly with the variation of maturity of pseudoperithecia. Generally the spore start to release from middle of May to early of July. Duration of ascospore release is depend on the weather condition of particular year, especially amount and number of precipitation. The ascospores produced from pseudoperithecia is known to the only inoculum for circular leaf spot disease. But according to the results obtained from our investigations, the conidia formed on the lesions which incited by natural infection. This conidia are infectious to persimmon leaves and formed identical symptom as natural infection. The time of producing secondary inoculum of circular leaf spot of persimmon is considered too late to develop new disease. Generally the importance of secondary inoculum is low but the conidia produced in early September are competent to develop new disease and new infection also significantly affect to harvest of persimmon. The importance of circular leaf spot disease is recognized well to farmers. The approaches to control of the disease should be initiated on the basis of the knowledges of inoculum dynamics and ecology of disease development. The forecasting system for circular leaf spot is need to be developed.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2014

Entomopathogenic fungi were isolated from Bemisia tabaci in an Oriental melon field, and their growth characteristics, factors related to a natural outbreak, and infectivity against Bemisia tabaci, Tetranychus urticae, and Frankliniella intonsa were investigated. The isolates had erect conidiophores bearing whorls of 4-6 phialides with a swollen base where cylindrical conidia of $3.0-3.4{\mu}m$ were attached. The isolates were identified as Isaria fumosorosea on the basis of morphological characteristics and an ITS sequence with 99% similarity. I. fumosorosea IFs-08 grew well on Sabouraud dextrose agar+yeast extract medium(3.2 mm/day/$24^{\circ}C$); it grew better at $35^{\circ}C$ than at $15^{\circ}C$. The isolates of I. fumosorosea-IFs were highly infective and killed 93.9-96.7% B. tabaci, 84.9-92.0% T. urticae, and 81.5-84.4% F. intonsa in bioassay, whereas three isolates (Isaria tenuipes, Isaria farinosa, and Isaria fumosorosea) from KACC showed a low infectivity of 10-20%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of I. fumosorosea isolated from B. tabaci in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.505-510
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• 2001

A total of 701 swine sera from 55 swine farms (Mar, 1998 through Feb, 2001) were nation-widely collected for the presence of antibody to porcine parvovirus (PPV) in sows and 30-, 60-, 90-day-old pigs. Sero-prevalence by haemagglutination inhibition assay with guinea pig red blood cells was investigated on the basis of year, region and season, respectively. In general, there was no significant difference with gradual decrease of passive immunity for the sero-prevalence to PPV in sows and 30-, 60-, 90-day-old pigs for the period of 1999 and 2000. However, regional variation was observed in the provinces of Kyonggi, Choongnam and Kyungnam, Natural infection of the virus in 90-day-old pigs was increased during the fall and the winter. Thus, it seems that the natural infection of PPV in growing pigs may be attributed to the increased outbreak of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndorme in co-infection with porcine circoviruses.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.173-182
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• 2020

Human Astrovirus (HuAstV), known as a waterborne virus, is a group IV positive-sense single-stranded RNA that belongs to Astroviridae. The first outbreak of HuAstV was reported in England in 1975. HuAstV can exist not only among clinical patients but also in various water environments, such as water for agriculture and vegetables. For diagnosis of HuAstV from water samples, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system has been developed. However, the PCR-based diagnostic method has problems in field application, such as reaction time, sensitivity and specificity. For this reason, in this study we developed the loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay (LAMP) system, aimed specifically at HuAstV. Three prepared LAMP primer sets were tested by specificity, non-specificity and sensitivity; one LAMP primer set was selected with optimum reaction temperature. The developed LAMP primer set reaction conditions were confirmed at 62℃, and detection sensitivity was 1 fg/μL. In addition, restriction enzyme HaeIII (GG/CC) was introduced to confirm that the LAMP reaction was positive. As a result, selected LAMP primer set was 100 - 1000 times more specific, rapid, and sensitive than conventional-nested PCR methods. For verification of the developed LAMP assay, twenty samples of cDNA from groundwater samples were tested. We expect that the developed LAMP assay will be used to diagnose HuAstV from various samples.