• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.39-47
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• 2021

Purpose : This study aimed to investigate age-related mechanical changes in the erector spinae muscles, specifically in terms of tone, elasticity, and stiffness, in the elderly population compared to the younger population Methods : The mechanical properties, including tone, elasticity, and stiffness, of the erector spinae muscles were measured using myotonometry in 47 male adult subjects, divided into the younger group (23 subjects aged 19 to 28 years) and the elderly group (22 subjects aged 69 to 83 years). The measurements were performed in both the prone and sitting positions. The tone, elasticity, and stiffness of the erector spinae muscles were statistically compared between the two groups using a t-test. Results : The study showed increased stiffness and decreased elasticity in the erector spinae muscles in the elderly group compared to the younger group (p<0.01~0.001). The results were similar in both the prone and sitting positions. Conclusion : There are age-related degenerative changes that affect the mechanical properties of the erector spinae muscles. In addition, myotonometry can be suggested to be a useful examination tool in evaluating these changes provided that further studies are conducted and standard methods of application have been established in the future.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.9
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• pp.692-698
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• 2016

Advances in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have enabled population-level studies for many animals to unravel the relationships between genotypic differences and traits of specific populations. The objective of this study was to perform evolutionary analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in genes of Korean native cattle Hanwoo in comparison to SNP data from four other cattle breeds (Jersey, Simmental, Angus, and Holstein) and four related species (pig, horse, human, and mouse) obtained from public databases through NGS-based resequencing. We analyzed population structures and differentiation levels for the five cattle breeds and estimated species-specific SNPs with their origins and phylogenetic relationships among species. In addition, we identified Hanwoo-specific genes and proteins, and determined distinct changes in protein-protein interactions among five species (cattle, pig, horse, human, mouse) in the STRING network database by additionally considering indirect protein interactions. We found that the Hanwoo population was clearly different from the other four cattle populations. There were Hanwoo-specific genes related to its meat trait. Protein interaction rewiring analysis also confirmed that there were Hanwoo-specific protein-protein interactions that might have contributed to its unique meat quality.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.63-80
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the Kwang-yang Iron and Steel Co.(KSCO) on the industrialization of the economic structure in Kwang-yang area. The research used the shift-share analysis and regional growth rate differential analysis. KSCO has influenced this area by changing the economic structure from traditional agriculture and fisheries to the manufacturing industry. KSCO also has influenced the population of Kwang-yang area. The number of employees grew from 594 in 1981 to 29,865 in 1992. However, after 1992, employee numbers decreased to 23,399 in 1998. KSCO was constructed in the region of traditional agriculture and fisheries in 1981. The social and economic status of the Kwang-yang area has changed greatly due to the growth of KSCO and the corresponding influx in population. KSCO has developed the related industry and changed this area into a booming industrial city. The number of employee has rapidly increased. At the end of the year 2000, 17,240 people work for KSCO and 39,593(28.7%) of the total population of Kwang-yang are related to KSCO.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.142-153
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• 2019

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine environmental chemical exposure related to residential and personal lifestyle characteristics in the adult Korean population. The observations of this study can provide information useful for developing reduction approaches for exposure to chemicals among the general adult population. Methods: The second stage of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNHES) was conducted from 2012 to 2014, with 6,478 persons participating. Using the results of the survey, the relationship between exposure levels of heavy metals and organic chemicals and exposure factors, e.g. residential and personal lifestyle characteristics, were analyzed. Results: The exposure levels of VOCs and PAHs were significantly lower in participants living at a distance of more than 100 m from roads versus living closer to roads. Home ventilation lowered VOC and PAH exposure but did not lower chemical exposure from household products. Use of public transportation showed lower exposure to heavy metals, VOCs, and PAHs. Current smoker was significantly higher for levels of heavy metals, VOCs, and PAHs, and the exposure trend was similar for current drinkers. Physical activity was related with higher exposure to phthalates and environmental phenols. Conclusion: Our observations based on a nationally representative population for Korea show that exposure to chemicals varies by residential and personal lifestyle, and this should be considered for developing appropriate mitigation measures and policies. Given the health concerns surrounding environmental chemicals, it is necessary to develop comprehensive measures to reduce chemical exposure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2021

This study was to analyze the Life-Cycle Physical Activity Therapy Programs (PATPs) in Hoseo Region and to suggest the Activation of the program. The subjects were the 81 PATPs performed in 36 of the Community Health Centers in the region. The basic data was collected by Official Documents, the Homepage of the Centers, Telephone Interview, and e-mail with the person in charge of the programs. All the data were classified to the administrative districts (Rural, Urban-Rural Intergration and Urban Region), the Life Cycles (Children, Youth, Adult and Old Adult) and the Health-related Fitness Variables (Strength/Muscle endurance, Flexibility and Aerobics). The ACSM's (American College Sports Medicine) Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription were used to evaluate the PATPs. In the results, the number of the PATPs was too low compared to the population. Also, the PATPs were not considered to the Life-Cycle proportion of the population. The management of the PATPs was principally inadequate. The frequency and duration of the PATPs were deficient in order to improve the Health-related Fitness. In conclusion, the number of the PATPs should be increased proportionally compared to the population, operated and developed on the Specificity of the Life-Cycle Population in the administrative districts. Further, the PATPs should be managed on the scientific knowledge of physical activity therapy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 1977

Personalized Patient centered nursing care is increasingly difficult to achieve despite the fact that it remains one of our consistent goals. So, we must find away to individualized nursing care. One means, to achieve this is by use of the nursing history form, which has been developed to help the nurse make maximum use of her limited time with the patient, by obtaining systematically the information needed to plan his nursing care. The nursing history form can be used to collect data about individual nursing needs but also it lends itself to the collection of epidemiological data relevant to the needs of patient population. So this study was undertaken in an attempt to describe the general characteristics of the population studied, to find out their perceptions and expectations related to their illness and hospitalization, to find out specific basic needs and to examine the relationship between the patients nursing needs and demographic characteristics through the responses to the nursing history questions. The study population defined and selected was all the patients (70) who were admitted to Yonsei University Hospital from October 1 - 15, 1975. The direct interview method was used and the data were categorized by the investigator, according to the nature of responses to each question and were subjected to the percentile and the chi- square tests. The findings can be summarized as follows 11. General characteristics of the study population ; The population was made up mainly of urban patients who were highly educated. The age was equally distributed. 2. Patients, perceptions and expectations related to illness and hospitalization ; 88.6% of the patients knew about the reason for hospitalization but 64. 5% could state symptoms only. 37.5% recognized the cause of illness. Approximately three fourth of the patients expressed on expectation for early recovery. 60.0% of the patient responses indicated, that they expected less than 10 days of hospitalization. Of the total responses regarding hospitalization, 45.7% were negative about the post -hospitalization expectation, 45.7% expected to return to work. As a result of these findings, we can see that there is a great educational need, a psychological need and environmental need for adaptation to the hospital and a socio- economic need for the post - hospitalization period. 3. Specific basic needs : The physical needs include the problem of getting sufficient sleep (50.0%), difficulty in food intake(47.1%), problems with hospital diet (47.0%), abnormal condition of the skin(44.3%), problems with bowel elimination(35.7%), assistance with bathing(35.7%), pain(30.0%), difficulty in walking(30.0%) , difficulty in seeing(30.0%) problems in urinary elimination(20.0%) , and difficulty in hearing(10.0%), 4. Nursing needs and epidemiological characteristics ; Age distribution was related to the rendition of the mouth but no significant differences were observed statistically with the patients responses to the other nursing history questions according to the epidemiological variables of age, sex, education and residence.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.173-186
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• 2005

Genomic DNA was isolated from two geographic populations of largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) in Korea and the Atlantic Ocean. The eight arbitrarily selected primers were found to generate common, polymorphic, and specific fragments. The complexity of the banding patterns varied dramatically between primers from the two locations. The size of the DNA fragments also varied widely, from 150 bp (base pairs) to 3,000 bp. Here, 947 fragments were identified in the largehead hairtail population from Korea, and 642 in the largehead hairtail population from the Atlantic Ocean: 148 specific fragments (15.6%) in the Korean population, and 61 (9.5%) in the Atlantic population. In the Korean population, 638 common fragments with an average of 79.8 per primer were observed.; 429 common fragments, with an average of 53.6 per primer, were identified in the Atlantic population. The number of polymorphic fragments in the largehead hairtail population from Korea and the Atlantic Ocean was 76 and 27, respectively. Based on the average bandsharing values of all samples, the similarity matrix ranged from 0.784 to 0.922 in the Korean population, and from 0.833 to 0.990 in the Atlantic population. The bandsharing value of individuals within the Atlantic population was much higher than in the Korean population. The dendrogram obtained by the eight primers indicated two genetic clusters: cluster 1 (KOREAN 01~KOREAN 11), and cluster 2 (ATLANTIC 12~ATLANTIC 22). Individual KOREAN no. 10 from Korea was genetically most closely related to KOREAN no. 11 in the Korean population (genetic distance = 0.038). Ultimately, individual KOREAN no. 01 of the Korean population was most distantly related to ATLANTIC no. 16 of the Atlantic population (genetic distance = 0.708).

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2012

Objectives: Asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) have increased globally over the decades, causing an economic burden and increased health care costs. It is difficult to predict the risk of development of ARDs and of respiratory disability among workers with a history of asbestos exposure. Blood based biomarkers have been reported as promising tools for the early detection of malignant mesothelioma. This study investigated whether serum soluble mesothelin-related peptide (SMRP) would reflect severity of disablement in compensable ARDs. Methods: SMRP levels were measured in a cohort of 514 asbestos-exposed subjects. Severity of ARDs was assessed by a Medical Authority comprising four specially qualified respiratory physicians. Severity of ARDs and SMRP levels were compared. Results: Mean (standard deviation) serum SMRP level in the population with compensable ARDs (n = 150) was 0.95 (0.65) nmol/L, and was positively associated with disability assessment (p = 0.01). Mean SMRP level in healthy asbestos-exposed subjects was significantly lower than those with pleural plaques (p < 0.0001) and in subjects with ARDs who received compensation (p < 0.01). Conclusion: This study indicates that serum SMRP levels correlate with severity of compensable ARDs. Serum SMRP could potentially be applied to monitor progress of ARDs. Further prospective work is needed to confirm the relationship between SMRP and disability assessment in this population.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9177-9183
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• 2014

Polymorphisms of inflammation-related genes have been found to be associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or some of its subtypes, but only a few relevant data have been reported in China. In this study, the Snapshot method was used to assess genetic variation; a total of 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for 6 inflammatory factors in 157 NHL cases (64 Uygur ethnic subjects, 93 Han Chinese) and 435 controls (231 Uygur and 204 Han Chinese) were studied from the Xinjiang province of China. Haplotype distribution was estimated using PHASE 2.3 software. Statistical differences in the genotype and haplotype frequencies between case and control groups were also considered and estimated. For the Han population, the geneotype distributions for TNF-${\alpha}rs1800629$, TNF-${\alpha}rs1800630$, IL-6 rs1800795, IL-6 rs1800797, NF-KB1 rs1585215 and TLR-4 rs4986790 showed significant differences between the case and control groups (p<0.05). The TNF-${\alpha}$ gene frequencies of ACG and CCA haplotypes in the cases were higher than in the controls (OR=2.45, 95% CI: 1.55-3.89, p=0.0002, OR=2.53, 95% CI: 1.10-5.80, p=0.029, respectively), and the same findings were detected for TNF-${\beta}$ gene CA haplotype (OR=1.87, 95% CI: 1.21-2.90, p=0.0054). However, for the Uygur population, no such significant differences were detected within the gene-type distribution of the 14 SNPs. The TNF-${\alpha}$ gene frequency of the CCA haplotype between the two groups (OR=1.98, 95% CI: 1.11-3.51, p=0.021) revealed a statistically significant difference. Our results showed that polymorphic variations of inflammation-related genes could be important to the NHL etiology of the Han population, and that these may only have limited influence on the Uygur population.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.21 no.4_spc
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• pp.501-516
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• 2014

Rapidly shifting to aging population is a global trend, and one of the challenging issue for the government, business and welfare perspective. In this paper, we focus on application potentials of information and communication technologies, to capture the insights for effectively coping with population aging issue. As the research for silver ICT field is rather limited, we adopt case study research method to extract policy implications and related foundation research agenda. As such, we first investigated comprehensive up-to-date trends, cases for innovative ICT applications, and policy initiatives mainly from the works of OECD nations. With reference to the review findings, we propose policy implications and guidelines for ICT innovations which contributes better quality of life and continuing job opportunities for silver population. The results provides insights for government policy initiative and further research in silver ICT area.