• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.13
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• pp.439-451
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• 2000

This paper aims to define country risk, review previous literature, and provide future direction for further research. Country risk is found to be analyzed in various ways in export, foreign direct investment and international finance, and thus analysis of the risk needs an integrated perspective and individual one as well. Systematic analysis, in particular, concentrating on relationship and structure within several risk is required in order to understand the country risk academically and to manage it practically.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.53-72
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• 2004

Today we are observing a lot of injuries, casualties, and property losses that are mainly caused by the defects of products. In order to derive safety designs, which minimize the possibility of such product liability-related accidents, we need to take into account the user-product interaction as an important part of the danger factor analysis. Existing risk analysis techniques, however, have some limitations in detecting comprehensive danger factors that are peculiarly involved in human errors and the functional defects of products. Researches on danger factor analysis regarding the user-product interaction have been carried out actively in ergonomics. In this paper, we suggest a novel product risk analysis technique, which is more objective and systematic compared to the previous ones, by combining a modified TAFEI (Task Analysis For Error Identification) technique with SASA (Systematic Approach to Accident Scenario Analysis) technique. By applying this technique to the product design practice in industry, corporations will be able to improve the product safety, consequently strengthening the competitiveness.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2018

Objective: Older persons with diabetes mellitus (DM) are particularly more likely to have fallen in the previous year than those without DM. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the risk of falls and type 2 DM in older adults who are 65 years of age or above. Design: A systematic review. Methods: PubMed and other two databases were searched up to August 2, 2018. Observational and cohort studies evaluating fall risk in people who are 65 years of age or above with DM were included. This review extracted the following information from each study selected: first author's surname, year of publication, country, average follow-up period, sex, age at enrollment, study population, measurement variables, relative risk, 95% confidence intervals and controlled variables. Results: This review involved nine cohort studies with 3,765 older adults with DM and 12,989 older adults without DM. Six studies compared with or without DM and two studies compared fallers with non-fallers with DM. Risk factors for falls included impaired cognitive function, diabetes-related complications (peripheral nerve dysfunction, visual impairment), and physical function (balance, gait velocity, muscle strength, and severity of physical activities). Conclusions: People who are 65 years of age or above with DM have increased risk of falling caused by impaired cognitive function, peripheral nerve dysfunction, visual impairment, and physical function in community-dwellers. For adults who are 65 years of age or older with DM, research fields and clinical settings should consider therapeutic approaches to improve these risk factors for falls.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

Due to the spread of COVID-19, many patients with severe respiratory diseases have occurred worldwide, and accordingly, the use of mechanical ventilators has exploded. However, hospitals do not have systematic risk management, and the Medical Device Regulation also provides medical device risk management standards for manufacturers, but does not apply to devices in use. In this paper, we applied the Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) risk analysis technique based on the International Standard ISO 14971 (Medical Devices-Application of risk management to medical devices) for 85 mechanical ventilators of a specific model in use in hospitals. Failure modes and effects of each parts were investigated, and risk priority was derived through multiplication of each score by preparing criteria for severity, occurrence, and detection for each failure mode. As a result, it was confirmed that the microprocessor-based Patient Unit/Monitoring board in charge of monitoring scored the highest score with 36 points, and that reliability management is possible through systematic risk management according to priority.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.155-170
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• 2023

Purpose: Nowadays, the risk assessment system is widely used in many industrial and public areas to reduce the possible risks. The system is used to determine the priorities of the government quality assurance works in Defense Agency for Technology and Quality. However, as the risk assessment system is used for other purposes, there are some items that need improvement, and in this study, we propose improvement plans by benchmarking the risk assessment systems of other institutions. Methods: In this paper, first, the procedures of risk assessment system used in many industrial sites were reviewed, and how each institution specialized and applied the system. Afterwards, by benchmarking various risk assessment systems, an improvement plan on how to operate the risk assessment system in the case of government quality assurance for centrally procured military supplies was presented, and practical application cases were presented to prove the usefulness of the improvement plan. Results: The proposed risk assessment system differs from the existing system in five major aspects. First, inputs, outputs, and key performance indicators were specified from the systematic point of view. Second, risk analysis was analyzed in four dimensions: probability of occurrence, impact, detection difficulty. Third, risk mitigation measures were classified, control, transfer, and sharing. Fourth, the risk mitigation measures were realized through document verification, product verification, process verification, and quality system evaluation. Finally, risk mitigation measures were implemented and the effectiveness of the risk mitigation measures was evaluated through effectiveness evaluation. Conclusions: In order for the risk assessment procedure proposed in this study to be applied to actual work, it is necessary to obtain the consent of the person involved in the work due to the increased time for risk identification and preparation of the government quality assurance log, and a change in the information system that performs the actual work is required. Therefore, the authors of this study plan to actively perform internal seminar presentations and work improvement suggestions to apply these research outputs to actual work.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.69-101
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• 2008

We empirically investigate the option leverage property that should be priced under much more general conditions than the Black-Scholes assumptions and the option redundancy property that is based on the assumption that the underlying asset price follows a one-dimensional diffusion process and examine the systematic risk factors implied in the return dynamics of KOSPI 200 index options. We find that the option leverage pattern is similar to the theoretical result but the options are not redundant securities and in the nonlinear structure of option payoffs, the traders of KOSPI 200 index options price the systematic higher-moments and the negative volatility risk premium significantly affects delta-hedged gains, even after accounting for jump fears. But the empirical evidence on jump risk preference is less conclusive.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6863-6869
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• 2014

Objectives: Several preclinical and observational studies have shown that anti-diabetic medications (ADMs) may modify the risk of lung cancer. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effect of metformin, sulfonylureas (SUs), thiazolidinediones (TZDs), and insulin on the risk of lung cancer in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic search of Pubmed and Web of Science, up to August 20, 2013. We also searched the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for abstracts from major meetings. Fixed or random effect pooled measures were selected based on heterogeneity among studies, which was evaluated using Q test and the I2 of Higgins and Thompson. Meta-regression was used to explore the sources of between-study heterogeneity. Publication bias was analyzed by Begg's funnel plot and Egger's regression test. Associations were assessed by odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 15 studies (11 cohort, 4 case-control) were included in this meta-analysis. In observational studies no significant association between metformin (n=11 studies; adjusted OR=0.99, 95%CI: 0.87-1.12), SUs (n=5 studies; adjusted OR=0.98, 95%CI: 0.79-1.22), or TZDs (n=7 studies; adjusted OR=0.92, 95%CI: 0.75-1.13), insulin (n=6 studies; adjusted OR=1.13, 95%CI: 0.79-1.62) use and risk of developing lung cancer was noted. There was considerable inherent heterogeneity between studies not explained by study design, setting, or location. Conclusions: Meta-analysis of existing studies does not support a protective or harmful association between ADMs use and risk of lung cancer in patients with DM. There was considerable heterogeneity across studies, and future, well-designed, prospective studies would be required for better understanding of any association.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.7011-7016
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• 2013

Background: The liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, and the associated incidence of subsequent cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are still a public health problem in Thailand, and praziquantel (PZQ) remains the antihelminthic drug of choice for treatment. Evidence in hamsters shows that repeated infection and PZQ treatments could increase the risk of CCA. However, the existing evidence in humans is inconclusive regarding increased risk of CCA with frequency of PZQ intake. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between number of repeated PZQ treatments and CCA in patients with O viverrini infection. Materials and Methods: The reviewed studies were searched in EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest, PubMed and SCOPUS from inception to October, 2012 using prespecified keywords. The risk of bias (ROB) of included studies was independently assessed by two reviewers using a quality scale from the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Risk effect of PZQ was estimated as a pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) in the random-effects model using DerSimonian and Laird's estimator. Results: Three studies involving 637 patients were included. Based on the random effects model performed in two included studies of 237 patients, the association between PZQ treatments and CCA was not statistical significant with a pooled OR of 1.8 (95%CI; 0.81 to 4.16). Conclusions: The present systematic review and meta-analysis provides inconclusive evidence of risk effect of PZQ on increasing the risk of CCA and significant methodological limitations. Further research is urgently needed to address the shortcomings found in this review, especially the requirement for histological confirmation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 2020

Background: Most meta-analyses of risk factors for severe or critical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 only included studies conducted in China and this causes difficulties in generalization. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically evaluate the risk factors in patients with COVID-19 from various countries. Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for studies published on the mortality risk in patients with COVID-19 from January 1 to May 7, 2020. Pooled estimates were calculated as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) using the random-effects model. Results: We analyzed data from seven studies involving 26,542 patients in total in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Among the patients, 2,337 deaths were recorded (8.8%). Elderly patients and males showed significantly higher mortality rates than young patients and females; the OR values were 3.6 (95% CI 2.5-5.1) and 1.2 (95% CI 1.0-1.3), respectively. Among comorbidities, hypertension (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.1-4.6), diabetes (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-3.9), cardiovascular disease (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.5-6.3), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.7-11.5), and chronic kidney disease (OR 4.2, 95% CI 2.0-8.6) were significantly associated with increased mortalities. Conclusion: This meta-analysis, involving a huge global sample, employed a systematic method for synthesizing quantitative results of studies on the risk factors for mortality in patients with COVID-19. It is helpful for clinicians to identify patients with poor prognosis and improve the allocation of health resources to patients who need them most.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3805-3807
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• 2016

Literature on the relationship between recurrent urinary tract infections and urinary bladder carcinoma risk has been inconsistent. Therefore, we carried out this systematic review of observational studies to ascertain if there is any association between chronic urinary tract infection and urinary bladder carcinoma. A total of 10 databases were searched using Boolean: CINAHL, PUBMED, Google Scholar, Medline, Science Direct, SCIRUS, Cochrane, UK PubMed central, NHS evidence and WHO-website. The search yielded an initial hit of 3,518 articles and after screening and critical appraisal, seven studies were included for this review. Four articles reported an association between chronic urinary tract infections and bladder cancer while three concluded a weak or no association at least in one gender. Main findings in this review were that most of the studies reported an association between chronic urinary tract infections and bladder cancer risk. However, inferences about the causal association between chronic urinary tract infections and bladder cancer risk should be drawn cautiously considering the methodological limitations of case-control studies included in this review. Therefore, more empirical evidence is needed to determine the causal nature of relationships between chronic urinary tract infections and bladder cancer risk.