• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4895-4900
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• 2015

Physician recommendation is an important predictor of HPV vaccine acceptance; however, physician willingness and preferences regarding HPV vaccination may be influenced by factors including patient age, vaccine type, and cost. A cross-sectional survey was administered to a convenience sample of health care providers in Da Nang, Vietnam, to evaluate awareness, perceptions about HPV and HPV vaccines, and willingness to vaccinate a female patient. Willingness to vaccinate was evaluated using a full-factorial presentation of scenarios featuring the following factors: vaccine cost (free vs 1,000,000 VND), patient age (12, 16, or 22 years), and HPV vaccine type (bivalent vs quadrivalent). Responses from 244 providers were analyzed; providers had a mean age of $34{\pm}11.9$ years; a majority were female, married, and had children of their own. Thirty-six percent specialized in obstetrics/gynecology and 24% were providers in family medicine. Of the three factors considered in conjoint analysis, vaccine cost was the most important factor in willingness to vaccinate, followed by patient age, and vaccine type. The most favorable scenario for vaccinating a female patient was when the vaccine was free, the patient was 22 years of age, and the HPV4 vaccine was described. In multivariable analysis, older age, being a physician, being married, and having children were all associated with increased willingness to recommend HPV vaccination (p<0.05). Provider willingness is an important aspect of successful HPV vaccination programs; identifying preferences and biases in recommendation patterns will highlight potential areas for education and intervention.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.61 no.9
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• pp.291-300
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• 2018

Purpose: Understanding changes in pathogen and pneumonia prevalence among pediatric pneumonia patients is important for the prevention of infectious diseases. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of children younger than 18 years diagnosed with pneumonia at 117 Emergency Departments in Korea between 2007 and 2014. Results: Over the study period, 329,380 pediatric cases of pneumonia were identified. The most frequent age group was 1-3 years old (48.6%) and the next was less than 12 months of age (17.4%). Based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision diagnostic codes, confirmed cases of viral pneumonia comprised 8.4% of all cases, pneumonia due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae comprised 3.8% and confirmed cases of bacterial pneumonia 1.3%. The prevalence of confirmed bacterial pneumonia decreased from 3.07% in 2007 and 4.01% in 2008 to 0.65% in 2014. The yearly rate of pneumococcal pneumonia also decreased from 0.47% in 2007 to 0.08% in 2014. A periodic prevalence of M. pneumoniae pneumonia (MP) was identified. Conclusion: The increased number of patients with pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, pleural effusion, and empyema in 2011 and 2013-2014 resulted from an MP epidemic. We provide evidence that the frequency of confirmed cases of bacterial pneumonia and pneumococcal pneumonia has declined from 2007 to 2014, which can simultaneously reflect the effectiveness of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.57-64
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• 2009

Fibrinogen alpha chain (FGA), a subunit of fibrinogen, might be a potential player for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), since the plasma levels of fibrinogen is known to be related to the incidence of T2DM. To elucidate the potential role of FGA in T2DM, we investigated whether FGA genetic variations are relevant in T2DM in the Korean population. Seven FGA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in Ansung and Ansan cohorts (474 T2DM subjects and 470 normal controls) in Korea. The association between SNPs and T2DM was determined by logistic regression analysis. Genetic relevance of SNPs to T2DM-related phenotypes was investigated by multiple linear regression analysis. Statistical analysis revealed that among seven FGA SNPs, significant associations with T2DM were observed in FGA rs2070011 (p=0.013-0.034, OR=0.72${\sim}$0.79), rs6050 (p=0.026${\sim}$0.048, OR=1.24${\sim}$1.37), and rs2070022 (p=0.016${\sim}$0.039, OR=0.70${\sim}$0.72). Two SNPs, rs2070011 and rs6050, also showed significant association with T2DM-related phenotypes such as triglyceride (p=0.005${\sim}$0.011 for rs2070011 and p=0.003${\sim}$0.008 for rs6050), total cholesterol (p=0.01 for rs2070011 and p=0.024 for rs6050) and fasting glucose (p=0.035${\sim}$0.036 for rs2070011 and p=0.048 for rs6050) in 470 normal controls. Our association study implies that FGA might be an important genetic factor in T2DM pathogenesis in the Korean population by affecting plasma lipid and glucose levels.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.192-200
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• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the gene expression profile in mesenchymal stem cells derived from dental tissues and bone marrow for characterization of dental stem cells. Methods: We employed GeneChip analysis to the expression levels of approximately 32,321 kinds of transcripts in 5 samples of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) (n=1), periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) (n=2), and dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) (n=2). Each cell was sorted by a FACS Vantage Sorter using immunocytochemical staining of the early mesenchymal stem cell surface marker STRO-1 before the microarray analysis. Results: We identified 379 up-regulated and 133 down-regulated transcripts in BMSCs, 68 up-regulated and 64 down-regulated transcripts in PDLSCs, and 218 up-regulated and 231 down-regulated transcripts in DPSCs. In addition, anatomical structure development and anatomical structure morphogenesis gene ontology (GO) terms were over-represented in all three different mesenchymal stem cells and GO terms related to blood vessels, and neurons were over-represented only in DPSCs. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the genome-wide gene expression patterns of STRO-$1^+$ mesenchymal stem cells derived from dental tissues and bone marrow. The differences among the expression profiles of BMSCs, PDLSCs, and DPSCs were shown, and 999 candidate genes were found to be definitely up- or down-regulated. In addition, GOstat analyses of regulated gene products provided over-represented GO classes. These data provide a first step for discovering molecules key to the characteristics of dental stem cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.357-367
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• 2015

With the ongoing development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and advancements in the latest bioinformatics tools at an unprecedented pace, the ultimate goal of sequencing the human genome for less than $1,000 can be feasible in the near future. The rapid technological advances in NGS have brought about increasing demands for statistical methods and bioinformatics tools for the analysis and management of NGS data. Even in the early stages of the commercial availability of NGS platforms, a large number of applications or tools already existed for analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing NGS data. However, the availability of this plethora of NGS data presents a significant challenge for storage, analyses, and data management. Intrinsically, the analysis of NGS data includes the alignment of sequence reads to a reference, base-calling, and/or polymorphism detection, de novo assembly from paired or unpaired reads, structural variant detection, and genome browsing. While the NGS technologies have allowed a massive increase in available raw sequence data, a number of new informatics challenges and difficulties must be addressed to improve the current state and fulfill the promise of genome research. This review aims to provide an overview of major NGS technologies and bioinformatics tools for NGS data analyses.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2009

The quality assurance (QA) is of utmost importance in biobanks when archived biomaterials are distributed to biomedical researchers. For sample authentication and cross-contamination detection, the two fundamental elements of QA, STR genotyping is usually utilized. However, the incorporated number of STR markers is highly redundant for biobanking purposes, resulting in time and cost inefficiency. An index to measure the cross-contamination detection capability of an STR marker, the mixture probability (MP), was developed. MP as well as other forensic parameters for STR markers was validated using STR genotyping data on 2328 normal Koreans with the commercial AmpFlSTR kit. For Koreans, 7 STR marker (D2S1338, FGA, D18S51, D8S1179, D13S317, D21S11, vWA) set was sufficient to provide discrimination power of ${\sim}10^{-10}$ and cross-contamination detection probability of ${sim}1$. Interestingly, similar marker sets were obtained from African Americans, Caucasian Americans, and Hispanic Americans under the same level of discrimination power. Only a small subset of commonly used STR markers is sufficient for QA purposes in biobanks. A procedure for selecting optimal STR markers is outlined using STR genotyping results from normal Korean population.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.617-621
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• 2004

In recent, researchers in the field of Bioinformatics need to analyze thousands of genome sequences efficiently according to introduce of new analysis methods and technologies such as genome expression microchip. This rapid growth in the field of bio-engineering needs computing resources to analyze rapidly for genome sequences, but it does not introduce the computing resources due to an enormous investment expense. The core factor of this study is integrated environment based PC-Cluster system & high speed access rate up to 155Mbps, continuous collection system for bio-information at home and abroad. The results of the study are establishment & stabilization of information and communication infrastructure, establishment & stabilization of high performance computer network up to 155Mbps, development of PC-Cluster system with 32 nodes, a parallel BLAST on Cluster system, which can provides scalable speedup in terms of response time, and development of collection & search system for bio-information.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.7599-7606
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to examine the correlations between smart phone addictions (SPA) and learning disorder (LD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression of post secondary level students, who were believed to have decent degree of self-commands. The correlation between the degree of smart phone addiction and learning disorder was 46 (p<0.001) and the correlation between the degree of smart phone addiction and ADHD was 48 (p<0.001). Meanwhile, the correlation between learning disorder and ADHD was 64 (p<0.001). From the multiple comparison of learning disorders, bothe the learning disorder and the ADHD of a group with lower degree of smart phone addiction showed mean differences that were more statistically significant than those of a group with higher degree of smart phone addiction. The depression of a group with lower degree of smart phone addition was also more statistically significant than that of a group with higher degree of smart phone addiction.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.211-217
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• 2013

Many biobanks were established as biorepositories for biomedical research, and a number of biobanks were founded in the 1990s. The main aim of the biobank is to store and to maintain biomaterials for studying chronic disease, identifying risk factors of specific diseases, and applying personalized drug therapies. This report provides a review of biobanks, including Korean biobanks and an analysis of sample volumes, regulations, policies, and ethical issues of the biobank. Until now, the top 6 countries according to the number of large-scale biobanks are the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, and there is one major National Biobank of Korea (NBK) and 17 regional biobanks in Korea. Many countries have regulations and guidelines for the biobanks, and the importance of good management of biobanks is increasing. Meanwhile, according to a first survey of 456 biobank managers in the United States, biobankers are concerned with the underuse of the samples in their repositories, which need to be advertised for researchers. Korea Biobank Network (KBN) project phase II (2013-2015) was also planned for the promotion to use biospecimens in the KBN. The KBN is continuously introducing for researchers to use biospecimens in the biobank. An accreditation process can also be introduced for biobanks to harmonize collections and encourage use of biospecimens in the biobanks. KBN is preparing an on-line application system for the distribution of biospecimens and a biobank accreditation program and is trying to harmonize the biobanks.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.201-210
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• 2015

Repeated measurements on each variables of interest often arise in bioscience or medical research. We need to account for correlations among repeated measurements to assess the correlation between two variables in the presence of replication. This paper reviews methods to estimate a correlation coefficient between two variables in repeated measurements using the variance-covariance matrix of linear mixed effect models. We analyze acoustic radiation force impulse imaging (ARFI) data to assess correlation between three shear wave velocity (SWV) measurements in liver or spleen and spleen length by ultrasonography. We present how to obtain parameter estimates for the variance-covariance matrix and correlations in mixed effects models using PROC MIXED in SAS.