• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.266-275
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• 2023

Purpose: Although long-term viral suppression and antiretroviral therapy (ART) success depend on sustained adherence, adolescents' adherence rates are suboptimal. Optimal adherence is influenced by various factors. Since Sub-Saharan Africa is home to over 80% of adolescents living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and considering their unique characteristics and susceptibility to poor adherence, it is crucial to provide updated knowledge on adherence rates and their determinants among this population. This review aims to present up-to-date data on adherence rates and associated factors among HIV-positive adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The PubMed and Scopus databases were used to identify documents corresponding to the study's objectives. Eleven studies were included in this review after being selected from among all studies that were found online from 2017 to 2023. Results: The reported adherence rates ranged from 55% to 86%. In total, 32 factors were found to be related to adherence among HIV-positive adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa. These included 12 adherence-facilitating factors and 20 adherence-inhibiting factors. The most often mentioned factors affecting adherence were advanced World Health Organization clinical stage (i.e., stage IV), ART dose and regimens, a lack of support, and violence victimization. Conclusion: Our findings can help healthcare providers collaborate with HIV-positive adolescents to improve ART adherence and ensure the best possible health outcomes.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.39-72
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to conduct an empirical analysis on the effect of aid proliferation on government spending on health by the recipient nations using panel data and acquire information on the direction of future ODA operations. In this study, calculated excessive foreign aid index with regard to the health sector of Sub-Sahara African nations and conducted an empirical analysis on the effect of aid fragmentation on government spending on health sector. The result of the analysis disclosed that aid fragmentation significantly reduced government spending on health. It is anticipated that such trend came from the mutual pursuit of profit between the attribute (the needs of the donor nation) of ODA projects after new businesses and the governments of recipient nations that want ODA funding. Because competitive and excessive supports in ODA projects induce distortion in the government budget operation of the recipient nations and thereby trigger disutility in ODA projects, Based on the result of the analysis, We proposed to incorporate a more comprehensive deliberation with regard to the capacity of the recipient nations as well as a need for the role of mediating body such as DAC.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.29-34
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• 2014

This study aimed to clarify the relationship which exists between democracy and economic development within Sub-Saharan Africa. It strived to bring out a comprehensive analysis of the reasons why the pace of democratization is slow within this region and why until present date, there are just patches of real democracies there. The work also focuses on the reasons why despite democratic movements, economic growth rates have remained lagging behind average until of recent that, and some few countries have emerged to join the list of fastest growing economies in the world. The study further highlights the unique path of Sub-Saharan Africa democratization process should follow since it does not possess the various factors that favored the democratization processes of most developed countries. In order to obtain the objectives, previous studies and statistical data published by official institutes were analysed by using contents analysis methods. Lastly, it proceeds to explain the important role that democracy plays in inclusive economic growth.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.277-298
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• 2008

This study develops the market attractiveness assessment model and draws the strategic target markets and their corresponding exporting strategies through identifying the market positions in the dimensions of market attractiveness scores and market positional strength to achieve the innovative export promotion of Korean heavy electric industry and the resulting improvement and reversal of comparative-disadvantage position. In chapter 2, we analyze the stages of selecting target markets, the constructs and their measure variables of market attractiveness models, and the components and strategic policy implications of directional policy matrix. And in chapter 3, we identify the comparative advantage positions of Korean heavy electric industry in the global market through analyzing its trade structure, trends, balance, ratio-balance, and specialization index by the item and the region respectively. We find that the Asia/Pacific region is the most attractive export market of the Korean heavy electric equipment industry, the following important strategic target markets are the America, MENA, CIS/East Europe Regions in the order of their attractiveness and competitive position dimensions. In the mean time, the sub-Sahara Africa and West Europe region is shown to be the long-run-viewpoint target market requiring the innovation or divest strategies owing to their low attractiveness and the low market share of Korean exports.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.588-600
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• 2019

Each year Malaria affects over 200 million people worldwide. Particularly, African continent is highly hit by this disease. According to many researches, this continent is ideal for Anopheles mosquitoes which transmit Malaria parasites to thrive. Rainfall volume is one of the major factor favoring the development of these Anopheles in the tropical Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). However, the surveillance, monitoring and reporting of this epidemic is still poor and bureaucratic only. In our paper, we proposed a method to fast monitor and report Malaria instances by using Social Network Systems (SNS) and precipitation volume in Nigeria. We used Twitter search Application Programming Interface (API) to live-stream Twitter messages mentioning Malaria, preprocessed those Tweets and classified them into Malaria cases in Nigeria by using Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification algorithm and compared those Malaria cases with average precipitation volume. The comparison yielded a correlation of 0.75 between Malaria cases recorded by using Twitter and average precipitations in Nigeria. To ensure the certainty of our classification algorithm, we used an oversampling technique and eliminated the imbalance in our training Tweets.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.121-131
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• 2023

African breast cancer patients benefit less from classical pathology services owing to the complex molecular and clinicopathological nature of the disease, poor quality of laboratory supplies, and shortage of experts in the field. This review presents evidence and confirms the need for improving anatomic pathology services in Africa. Peer-reviewed international journal articles available in Medline, Scopus, PubMed, and Google scholars, describing the status of pathology services in Africa, were included. Besides the late presentation of patients, anatomic pathology laboratories are accountable for the escalated mortality of breast cancer patients in several parts of Africa. Conversely, molecular diversity and biological heterogeneity of breast cancers, which disprove the one-size-fits-all therapeutic approach, have been reported from different parts of the continent. Irrespective of the geographical background, the choice of therapeutic options and predicting disease outcome depends on the right identification of the molecular signature of the cancer type. In conclusion, we propose that upgrading and integrating anatomic pathology with molecular diagnostic pathology is essential in order to provide better diagnostic results that will profoundly impact curbing mortality from breast cancers.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2015

Sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] grows well in harsh environmental conditions, and is cultivated as one of the top seven food crops in the world. Recently, sweetpotato is drawing interest from people as a healthy food because it is high in dietary fiber, vitamins, carotenoids and overall nutrition value. However, few studies have been conducted on sweetpotato genome sequencing in spite of its importance. This review is aimed at increasing the efficiency of sweetpotato genome sequencing research as well as establishing a base for gene utilization in order to control useful traits. Recently, animal and plant genome sequencing projects increased significantly. However, sweetpotato genome sequencing has not been performed due to polyploidy and heterogeneity problems in its genome. Meanwhile research on its transcriptome has been conducted actively. Recently, a draft of the diploid sweetpotato genome was reported in 2015 by Japanese researchers. In addition, the Korea-China-Japan Trilateral Research Association of Sweetpotato (TRAS) has conducted research on gene map construction and genome sequencing of the hexaploid sweetpotato Xushu 18 since 2014. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the 'sweetpotato genomic sequencing to develop genomic tools for Sub-Sahara Africa breeding program'. The chloroplast genome sequence acquired during sweetpotato genome sequencing is used in evolutionary analyses. In this review, the trend of research in the sweetpotato genome sequencing was analyzed. Research trend analysis like this will provide researchers working toward sweetpotato productivity and nutrient improvement with information on the status of sweetpotato genome research. This will contribute to solving world food, energy and environmental problems.