• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.48-56
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• 2023

Background: Few studies have assessed exposure to chemicals in the context of environmental vulnerability with a focus on exposure among populations living in certain geographical areas. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate cadmium exposure levels and kidney damage indices in environmentally and socioeconomically vulnerable populations, with further subgrouping according to economic status. Methods: Four areas were selected to represent geographical vulnerability (two environmentally vulnerable populations and two socioeconomically vulnerable populations). Among them, population groups with lower socioeconomic status (SES) were separately classified. Urinary cadmium (UCd), beta2-microglobulin (β2-MG), and N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) levels were analyzed in samples from 245 residents of these four areas. Results: Geometric means of concentrations of UCd (0.97~2.02 ㎍/g creatinine) in all selected populations (N, 245; mean age, 67.8~70.9 years old) were higher than the national reference values (0.39 for adults and 0.78 ㎍/g creatinine for people in their 60s). Participants with a lower SES had higher UCd and NAG concentrations than did non-low SES participants. In the lower SES group, there was a significant association between UCd and NAG concentrations; however, there was no such correlation in the non-low SES group. Conclusions: Consistent with the findings of previous studies evaluating chemical exposure and associated health effects in specific populations, the findings of this study suggest that individuals with a low SES may be more vulnerable to exposure and related health effects.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.109-116
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• 2020

This study aims to establish an approach to assess urban flood vulnerability by identifying social characteristics such as the road transportation and the vulnerable groups. Assessment procedures comprise three steps as: (1) composing the assessment criteria to reflect the urban characteristics; (2) calculating the weight; and (3) evaluating the vulnerability. The criteria were adopted by Delphi survey technique. Four criteria as land cover, residents, vulnerable areas, and disaster response were adopted in the current study. To determine the weight set of criteria, subjective and objective methods were combined. The weight set was determined using the combined method which reflects the Delphi method and Entropy analysis. In the process of data-based construction, GIS tools wwere used to extract administrative unit materials such as land cover, road status, and slope. Data on population and other social criteria were collected through the National Statistical Office and the Seoul Metropolitan statistical data. TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) technique, which uses materials from cell units in order to rank the closest distance to the best case and the farthest distance from the worst case by calculating the distances to the area of assessment, was applied to assess. The study area was the Dorimcheon basin, a flood special treatment area of Seoul city. The results from the current study indicates that the established urban flood vulnerability assessment approach is able to predict the inherent vulnerable factors in urban regions and to propose the area of priority control.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2024

Despite the continuous efforts to mitigate pedestrian accidents at crosswalks, the problem persist. Vulnerable groups, including the elderly and disabled individuals are at a risk of being involved in traffic incidents. This paper proposes the implementation of object detection algorithm using the YOLO v5 model specifically for pedestrians using assistive devices like wheelchairs and crutches. For this research, data was collected and utilized through image crawling, Roboflow, and Mobility Aids datasets, which comprise of wheelchair users, crutch users, and pedestrians. Data augmentation techniques were applied to improve the model's generalization performance. Additionally, ensemble techniques were utilized to mitigate type 2 errors, resulting in 96% recall rate. This demonstrates that employing ensemble methods with a single YOLO model to target transportation-disadvantaged individuals can yield accurate detection performance without overlooking crucial objects.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.189-195
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• 2011

Starry flounder, which are recently increasingly cultured in Korea, are known to highly vulnerable to Streptococcus parauberis infection. Five groups of starry flounder (n=30 for each group) were vaccinated with S. parauberis formalin-killed whole cells by intraperitoneal injection at a final concentration of 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg $fish^{-1}$. Specific antibody production of 1 and 10 mg $fish^{-1}$ administered groups significantly increased at four weeks post immunization. All vaccinated groups showed higher survival rates than a control group when five groups of fish were challenged with S. parauberis at a dose of $1.14{\times}10^4$ cfu $fish^{-1}$ and $1.14{\times}10^2$ cfu $fish^{-1}$, respectively. In particular, 0.1 or higher concentrations of formalin killed bacterial cells are able to confer the fish high protection against S. parauberis infection.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.434-441
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• 1995

The model rats with postmenopausal osteoporosis were comparatively observed with regard to the effects of bovine ash and calcium phosphate on calcium metabolism. The modelling design involved the five week-old week-old female SD-strain rats ovariectomized and fed a low-Ca diet(20% casein, 0.06% Ca and 0.38% P) for three weeks. The rats were divided into five groups, one of which was fed the low-Ca diet(basal), and the rest of which were divided into five groups, one of which was fed the low-Ca diet(basal), and the rest of which were fed four kinds of Ca-supplemental diets(20% protein, 1.06% Ca and 0.8% P) for three weeks. The Ca-suplements diets contained two kinds of Ca sources, bovine bone ash(BBA) or calcium phosphate, tribasic [Ca3(PO4)2] and two kinds of protein sources, casein or isolated soy protein(ISP). The model rats of postmenopausal osteoporosis fed basal diet showed a significant decrease in Ca utilization in reference to serum Ca concentration, breaking force of bone, Ca and P contents of bone, and Ca absorption and retention. However, the supply of Ca for three weeks demonstrated the improved utilization of Ca. One step further, BBA was more effective than calcium phosphate in improving Ca utilization in ISP-fed groups. On the other hand, no significant difference was seen in casein-fed groups. It is to conclude that BBA could be more effective in accelerating Ca utilization under vulnerable dietary or physiological conditions such as vegetable protein intake and osteoprosis.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.37-50
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• 2012

This research was conducted for the analysis the middle-old aged empty nest households' debt holdings and their financial status(emergency fund index, liquidity index, debt burden index) considering the level of income and assets. In order to accomplish this study, we made use of the KReIS third beta-version data. The results of the analysis were as follows. First, in all income asset groups there were more non-debts holding houses compared to debt holding houses. Moreover in debts holding houses, compared to other groups high income high assets groups were more. Second, the households that possessed more assets, had more debts. Third, the financial status of the households holding debts were more vulnerable compared to households that had no debts. Moreover, all income asset groups' emergency fund index were low. Households having no debts possessed low real assets and so the liquidity index was higher in holding debts households. In holding debts households, debt burden index was high. And especially these houses suffered from high debt burden when their income and asset were low.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2021

Purpose: Malnutrition affects all age groups, but older adults are particularly more vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies. This study evaluated the age-specific factors affecting malnutrition in hospitalized older adults. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on inpatient elderly people who received artificial nutrition from 2010 to 2017. Data of demographics, diagnosis, type of nutrition therapy, number of comorbidity, fall risk assessment, Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) score, and intensive care unit admission were collected. Malnutrition was defined as a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 kg/m². Patients were classified as the young-old (65~74 years old), the old-old (75~84 years old), or the oldest-old (85 years old or older). Results: A total of 7,130 older adults were included, and 4,028 patients were classified as the young-old, 2,506 into the old-old, and 596 into the oldest-old. Proportion of malnutrition was higher in the oldest-old compared to the other groups. In multivariate analysis, parenteral nutrition, alcohol, and high risk of falls were factors affecting malnutrition in all groups. Parenteral nutrition and alcohol in the young-old, high risk of falls in the old-old, and male sex in the oldest-old were the factors affecting malnutrition by the age group. Conclusion: Older age was the most significant factor affecting malnutrition. Specific strategies by age are needed to improve nutritional status in hospitalized older adults as influencing factors for malnutrition vary among different age groups.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide a disease management, nutrition education, and group exercise program for three months to the moderately frail elderly whose physical functions have deteriorated, and to investigate its effects in order to develop an intervention program. Methods: As a quasi-experiment, this study was conducted based on non-equivalence studies designed as a similar experiment. The milk intake group and calcium intake group participated in the disease education, individual nutrition education, and group exercise program for three months, and the control group was visited once in the three months by a nurse who provided disease education, nutrition education, and oral instruction of exercise, and asked them to exercise on their own every day. For the data analysis, ${\chi}^2$-test, ANOVA and $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test were used. Results: After three months of intervention, there was a significant difference in the frailty level (p=.029) and bone density (p=.001) between the groups. Conclusion: The comprehensive intervention program had an effect on the bone density and the frailty level of the socially-vulnerable and moderately frail elderly, suggesting that the program can be used as a nursing intervention to prevent functional deterioration and damage of the moderately frail elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.201-207
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• 2007

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the subjects' health status according to the needs of visiting health and the function of the family in home care nursing. Sample and Method. The data collection period was from 07/01/04 to 10/31/04 and the subjects were 488 of those above 60 years of age staying at home or living alone who registered at a visiting health service of public health center at an urban area in Korea. This survey was carried out by visiting health nurses and participation was agreed on by the elderly people. Results. The extent of the subjects' total health status to the general characteristics had differences according to the age, sex, monthly income, perceived health status, known functional disorder, and yes-or-no for disease. At all health status domains, visiting health need care in the group I was very lower than one in II, III, or IV groups. Also the severe dysfunctional family was lower than lightly dysfunctional family and normal functional family in all health status domains. Conclusion. Nurses must provide their characteristics considered nursing intervention for the elderly who have high visiting health needs and severe dysfunctional family with vulnerable health care.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.715-727
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• 2020

It is well known that atmospheric environments, including both meteorology and air quality, significantly affect public health, such as chronic lung disease and cancer, and respiratory infections. In this study, we have analyzed correlations between the number of daily respiratory outpatients and the atmospheric environments data for about ten years for the city of Busan, South Korea. The respiratory problem patients data have been categorized into two health-vulnerable groups by age over 65(DayPA_O65) and under 20(DayPA_U20), each of which shows relatively higher correlations with air quality and meteorology, respectively. However, time series analysis with factor separation results in that DayPA_O65 and DayPA_U20 show a higher relation with variance components and daily irregular factors of atmospheric concentrations, respectively.