• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.661-672
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• 2006

This study was performed to determine the dietary risk factors associated with hypertension. The hypertensive group were composed of 112 hypertensive patients (male 53, female 59) who first visited the hypertension clinic and had been diagnosed as having primary hypertension ($SBP{\ge}140mmHg\;or\;DBP{\ge}90mmHg$). The regular visitors or the subjects on special diets or medical therapies were excluded. The normal group consisted of as subjects (male 41, female 54) matched with age and socioeconomic levels. The subjects having higher intakes (above the 75 percentile) in energy, protein, iron, vitamin A or C showed significantly higher hypertension risk estimated with odds ratio after the covariance factors (age, sex and BMI) were adjusted. More than 2400 mg of sodium (6 g of salt) intake was associated with significantly higher risk of hypertension (odds ratio: 1.773, CI: 1.014-3.014 for $SBP{\ge}140mmHg$; odds ratio: 2.373, CI: 1.359-4.215 for $DBP{\ge}90mmHg$). Hypertensive group showed significantly increased intakes of vegetables and fish and shell fish compared to the normal group. When the vegetable intakes were classified into Kimchi, fresh vegetables and cooked vegetables with seasoning, the hypertensive group was observed as having higher intakes of Kimchi and cooked vegetables with seasoning. The intakes of highest quartile for vegetables (${\ge}327g/day$) (odds ratio: 3.164, CI: 1.740-5.752), fish and their products (${\ge}102g/day$) (odds ratio: 2.756, CI: 1.486-5.109), grains(${\ge}311g/day$) (odds ratio 2.393, CI: 1.186-4.832), meats and their product (${\ge}106g$) (odds ratio: 2.210, CI: 1.225 - 3.987) compared to the lower were significantly associated with the higher risk of hypertension estimated with DBP (${\ge}90mmHg$) after covariance factors were adjusted. In conclusion, our findings confirm that higher intake of energy or sodium are associated with the increased risk of hypertension. Because increased intake of vegetable or fish was associated with the higher risk of hypertension, in contrast with the finding of western countries, choosing or preparation of vegetables or fish with reduced salt is recommended.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.202-212
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• 2021

Objectives: The reproductive health of female workers has been extensively investigated in South Korea and other countries worldwide. However, few studies have discussed the reproductive health of male workers. In this study, we reviewed the recent literature that reports on the effects of occupational exposure on the reproductive health of male workers and the health of their children. Methods: In May 2020 we used the PubMed search engine to search the literature over the last 10 years and chose case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies and reviews. We selected epidemiological studies that investigated the association between pre-pregnant occupational exposure and the reproductive health of male workers and the health of their children. We excluded case reports, non-epidemiological studies (animal experiments, cellular-level experiments, and similar articles), and studies that described postnatal occupational exposure. Results: We eventually selected 23 studies. The studies that included exclusively male workers reported that those employed in the agricultural sector or those exposed to pesticides showed lower blood levels of reproductive hormones and a high risk of lympho-hematopoietic system cancer in their children. Male workers exposed to complex organic solvents and organic compounds showed a high risk of poor semen quality, increased time to pregnancy, decreased blood levels of reproductive hormones, and a high risk of lympho-hematopoietic system cancer in their children. Male workers employed in occupations that involved significant social contact, or in the leather and livestock industries, and in occupations with high levels of exposure to lead and organic solvents showed a high risk of malignancies, including lympho-hematopoietic system cancer, neuroblastoma, and central nervous system tumors in their children. Studies that investigated both male and female workers reported that children of male smelters showed a high risk of premature birth, and children of male workers exposed to metals showed a high risk of hypospadias and cryptorchidism. Children of male welders and workers employed in the glass, ceramic, and tile industries showed a high risk of premature birth. Conclusion: The findings of this study will serve as basic data for further research on male workers' reproductive health and provide a scientific basis for the development of strategies to protect the reproductive health of males employed in high-risk occupations. Moreover, the results of this study may provide guidelines to improve the understanding of and knowledge on male workers' reproductive health.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.603-609
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• 1987

The clinical, investigative, and surgical experiences were reviewed in four patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries who presented to the National Medical Center between August 1983 and August 1985. This condition is very rare congenital anomaly defined as the combination of atrioventricular discordance and transposition of the great arteries. Examples of primitive [single] ventricle inverted [that is, left sided in situs solitus] with outflow chamber were excluded in this paper. According to the sequential arrangement of the hearts there were two cases of [S,L,L] and two cases of [I,D,D]. The surgical approach should be focused on minimizing the risk of heart block and increasing the degree of relief of pulmonary outflow tract obstruction [POTO]. We experienced complete heart block in two cases of [S,L,L] and significant residual POTO in one case of [S,L,L] and one case of [I,D,D] postoperatively. There were one hospital mortality caused by complete heart block and residual POTO and two delayed mortalities caused by congestive heart failure and sepsis respectively.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.373-379
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• 2020

Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is the main procedure in carotid surgery, as well as the most frequent vascular procedure. Two techniques of CEA are available : eversion and conventional plus patch angioplasty. Eversion CEA is anatomic procedure that reduces ischemic and total operative time. Simultaneous correction of the joined carotid kinking and coiling is possible, easy and safe, while the usage of patch is excluded. Thanks to oblique shape of anastomosis, eversion CEA is associated with low risk of long-term restenosis. The false anastomotic aneurysms occurrence is very rare, almost impossible after eversion CEA. However, the usage of carotid shunt during eversion CEA is not always simple, while proximal or distal extension of the carotid plaque can make eversion CEA more difficult and risky. Eversion CEA should be the first choice in carotid surgery. Conventional CEA is indicated in cases when carotid plaque is extended more than usual, as well as, if the usage of carotid shunt is necessary.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.95-95
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• 2003

Mycoplasmas resemble H. pylori in production of ammonia and induction of inflammatory cytokines from immune and non-immne cells. In Republic of Korea infection rate of H. pylori is relatively high but only a proportion of them invite additional inflammation and progress into gastric cancers. Therefore, additional risk factors cannot be excluded. The presence and identification of mycoplasma were confirmed by semi -nested PCR and sequencing and the results were compared with pathological data. Fifty-six samples collected from Korean chronic gastritis patients were used for the study. Twenty-three (41.1%) were positive to mycoplasmas and all of them were identified as human mycoplasmas, M. faucium, M. fermentans, M. orale, M. salivarium and M. spermatophilum. Mycoplasma-infected chronic gastritis samples showed more severe, additional infiltration of neutrophils than non-infected samples and the difference was significant (P < 0.05). In conclusion human mycoplasma infection may playa role in progression of chronic gastritis to metaplasia by inducing additional inflammation.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.17-32
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• 2014

In a competitive business environment, like construction, achieving customer satisfaction has been identified as an important element for measuring project's success and sustaining competitive advantage. Traditionally, customers were expelled from the product development process. Little effort was done, in the past to identify the factors that lead to customer satisfaction and hence, use them for product improvement. Organizations that adopted that approach, encountered the risk of losing their customers. In construction, end-users of governmental housing projects were excluded from the design decision making process and accordingly, their requirements were not reflected in design. Although a number national customer satisfaction indices and barometers have been developed worldwide, they have their own limitations and shortcomings. This paper aims to develop an international index for customer satisfaction in the construction Industry. For the first time in construction literature, this research identified, validated and classified 45 drivers for achieving customer satisfaction in the construction industry.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2023

Purpose : This study systematically assessed 9 emotion-function programs for schizophrenic individuals that have been implemented over the past 10 years in Korea and abroad, with the objective of providing clinical grounds and data for further programs. Methods : This study identified 2,558 studies from among those registered in the RISS, KISS, EMbase, PubMed and Scopus databases from 2013 to September 2023, using 'schizophrenia' AND 'emotion' AND ('program' OR 'therapy') as keywords. Of the 2,558 studies retrieved from electronic databases, 602 duplicate papers were excluded. After this process, 1,915 papers that did not meet the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria were excluded based on their titles and abstracts. Following a review of the texts of the remaining 41 papers, nine papers were finally selected, excluding 32 papers according to the selection and exclusion criteria. Results : Programs for the emotional function of patients with schizophrenia have continued to be researched. The results of an evaluation on the quality of the selected literature confirmed that a majority of the reviewed items were "uncertain", confirming that there was a risk of bias. The interventions for emotions included art, cognitive-behavioral, and physical programs, of which art programs were frequently applied. Most of the interventions were implemented in hospitals. The dependent variables for evaluating emotions included emotional expression, depression, anxiety, and positive emotions, and among them, emotional expression was used most frequently. Accordingly, the Berkeley expressivity questionnaire was commonly used as an evaluation tool. Conclusion : This study is significant for intending to analyze domestic and overseas programs for the emotions of patients with schizophrenia, thereby proposing the direction for planning and applying interventions in clinical settings. In follow-up studies, it will be necessary to develop a protocol that confirms interventions according to the settings and patient characteristics of programs and expands the scope of literature reviews.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.87-94
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• 2019

Through a press release dated July 17, 2018, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission recommended that the National Fire Agency develop preventive measures against fire in the "Indoor Archery Ground" and "Room Escape Café" etc., which were originally excluded from the category of "Publicly Used Establishments." This study developed the hierarchy of domains and indicators of measurement for fire risk assessment of the new business of publicly used establishments through the Delphi Method. It analyzed the goodness of fit scores (over 3.00) and secured an average score of 4.25. Using AHP analysis, the ratio of consistency for the domains of measurement of fire risk assessment was found to be 4.0%, which was lower than CR ≤ 0.1 (10%). The consistency of subsequent measurement indicators were distributed in the range of 0.1%~3.6%, and they were identified as being commonly consistent. The indicators of measurement appeared as follows in order of importance and priority: Type of Internal Passage of Establishment and Evacuation Capacity of Exit (0.316), Control of Ignition Source (0.141), Inherent Risk (0.106), Appropriateness and Adaptiveness of Fire Detection System (0.097), Control of Inflammables/Combustibles (0.084), Guides and Facilities helping Evacuation (0.075), Fire Resistant Structure and Finishing Materials (0.060), Compartmentalization and Emergency Exit (0.049), Risk of Fire Expansion (0.046), and Appropriateness and Adaptiveness of Fire Extinguishing Facilities (0.026). The findings of this study are expected to be expansively used as data for future research on the development of fire risk assessment indicators.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.359-372
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• 2016

Background: The purpose of this study was to develop risk-adjustment models for acute stroke mortality that were based on data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) dataset and to evaluate the validity of these models for comparing hospital performance. Methods: We identified prognostic factors of acute stroke mortality through literature review. On the basis of the avaliable data, the following factors was included in risk adjustment models: age, sex, stroke subtype, stroke severity, and comorbid conditions. Survey data in 2014 was used for development and 2012 dataset was analysed for validation. Prediction models of acute stroke mortality by stroke type were developed using logistic regression. Model performance was evaluated using C-statistics, $R^2$ values, and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistics. Results: We excluded some of the clinical factors such as mental status, vital sign, and lab finding from risk adjustment model because there is no avaliable data. The ischemic stroke model with age, sex, and stroke severity (categorical) showed good performance (C-statistic=0.881, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.371). The hemorrhagic stroke model with age, sex, stroke subtype, and stroke severity (categorical) also showed good performance (C-statistic=0.867, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.850). Conclusion: Among risk adjustment models we recommend the model including age, sex, stroke severity, and stroke subtype for HIRA assessment. However, this model may be inappropriate for comparing hospital performance due to several methodological weaknesses such as lack of clinical information, variations across hospitals in the coding of comorbidities, inability to discriminate between comorbidity and complication, missing of stroke severity, and small case number of hospitals. Therefore, further studies are needed to enhance the validity of the risk adjustment model of acute stroke mortality.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2008

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiologic features of febrile illnesses in newborns and to predict the risk of serious infections in this population. Methods : A retrospective study was conducted on 123 full-term infants <30 days of age with an axillary temperature >38$^{\circ}C$ who were hospitalized between 2000 and 2006. Neonates with prenatal risk factors, congenital anomalies, antibiotic administration prior to admission to the hospital, or suspected hospital-acquired infections were excluded. We evaluated the symptoms, physical examination findings, laboratory data, and clinical course between the high- and low-risk groups for serious infections. Results : The high-risk group included 30 infants with the following diagnoses in order of frequency: aseptic meningitis, urinary tract infection, bacterial meningitis, infectious enteritis, sepsis concomitant with disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, bacteremia, pneumonia, cellulitis, and omphalitis. Leukocytosis and thrombocytopenia were statistically different between the two groups. Factors, such as moaning signs, seizures, body temperature, and pulse rate were statistically significant. Conclusion : Unlike previous studies, we included newborns with clinical bacterial infections and aseptic meningitis as the high-risk group. Leukocytosis, thrombocytopenia, moaning signs, seizures, and changes in vital signs were considered useful predictors for identifying febrile neonates at high-risk for serious infections in spite of a difference in the definition of serious infection.