• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2008

Medical nutrition therapy (MNT) is considered a keystone of medical treatment of chronic diseases. However, only few studies have evaluated medical and economical outcome of MNT. The study was performed on the patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus to evaluate the effect of clinical and cost-effective outcomes of MNT. Subjects from two general hospitals were randomly assigned to two different groups; One receiving basic nutritional education (BE) (n = 35), and the other receiving intensive nutritional education (IE) (n = 32) for a 6-month clinical trial. The group which received BE had a single visit with a dietitian, while the other group which received IE had an initial visit with a dietitian addition to two visits during the first 4 weeks of the study periods. Anthropometric parameters, blood components, and dietary intake were measures at the beginning of study period and after 6 month. Cost-effective analysis included direct labor costs, educational materials and medication cost difference during 6 months. After 6 month, subjects from IE group showed significant reduction of body weight (p <0.05) and systolic blood pressure (p <0.05), whereas BE group did not show any significant changes. Result from biochemical indices showed glycated hemoglobin concentration was significantly reduced by 0.7% (p <0.05) only in the IE group. The ratio of energy intake to prescribed energy intake decreased significantly in both groups (p <0.05). Mean time taken for a dietitian to educate the subject was 67.9 ${\pm}$ 9.3 min/person for BE group, while 96.4 ${\pm}$ 12.2 min/person for IE group. Mean number of educational materials was 1.9 ${\pm}$ 0.7/person for BE group and 2.5 ${\pm}$ 0.7/person for IE group. Change in glycated hemoglobin level along the 6 month period of study can be achieved with an investment of \88,510/% by implementing BE and \53,691/% by implementing IE. Considering the net cost-effect of blood glucose control and HbA Ic, IE which provides MNT by dietitian had a cost efficiency advantage than that of BE. According to this study, MNT provided by dietitian had a significant improvements in medical and clinical outcomes compared to that of BE intervention. Therefore, MNT protocol should be performed by systemic intensive nutrition care by dietitian in clinical setting to achieve good therapeutic results of DM with lower cost.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.332-341
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• 2019

Purpose: Poor nutrition in hospitalized patients is closely linked to an increased risk of infection, which can result in complications affecting mortality, as well as increased length of hospital stay and hospital costs. Therefore, adequate nutritional support is essential to manage the nutritional risk status of patients. Nutritional support needs to be preceded by nutrition screening, in which accuracy is crucial, particularly for the initial screening. To perform initial nutrition screening of hospitalized patients, we used the Catholic Kwandong University (CKU) Nutritional Risk Screening (CKUNRS) tool, originally developed at CKU Hospital. To validate CKUNRS against the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) tool, which is considered the gold standard for nutritional risk screening, results from both tools were compared. Methods: Nutritional status was evaluated in 686 adult patients admitted to CKU Hospital from May 1 to July 31, 2018 using both CKUNRS and PG-SGA. Collected data were analyzed, and the results compared, to validate CKUNRS as a nutrition screening tool. Results: The comparison of CKUNRS and PG-SGA revealed that the prevalence of nutritional risk on admission was 15.6% (n = 107) with CKUNRS and 44.6% (n = 306) with PG-SGA. The sensitivity and specificity of CKUNRS to evaluate nutritional risk status were 98.7% (96.8 ~ 99.5) and 33.3% (28.1 ~ 39.0), respectively. Thus, the sensitivity was higher, but the specificity lower compared with PG-SGA. Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.34, indicating valid agreement between the two tools. Conclusion: This study found concordance between CKUNRS and PG-SGA. However, the prevalence of nutritional risk in hospitalized patients was higher when determined by CKUNRS, compared with that by PG-SGA. Accordingly, CKUNRS needs further modification and improvement in terms of screening criteria to promote more effective nutritional support for patients who have been admitted for inpatient care.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.4
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• pp.128-141
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• 2022

Baengnyeongdo Island, which belongs to Ongjin-gun, Incheon, is an island in the northernmost part of the West Sea in South Korea. Baengnyeong Island is the 15th largest island in Korea and covers an area of 51 km². The Korea Ginseng Corporation (KGC) investigated the possibility of growing ginseng on Baengnyeong Island in 1996. In 1997, thanks to the support of cultivation costs from Ongjin-gun, the first ginseng seedbed was built on Baengnyeong Island. In 1999, the seedlings were transplanted to a permanent field under a contract with KGC. In 2003, the first six-year-old ginseng harvest was performed, and KGC purchased all production according to the contract. Since then, KGC has signed on to grow ginseng until 2012 and purchased six-year-old ginseng until the fall of 2016. Since 2014, the GimpoPaju Ginseng Agricultural Cooperative Association has signed a ginseng production contract. According to a survey of nine 6-year-old ginseng fields (total 5,961 units) on Baengnyeong Island, the top five with good growth had a survival rate of 42.6 to 68%, and the bottom four with poor growth had an extremely low survival rate of 11.1 to 21.3%. The four fields with low survival rates were where hot peppers were planted before ginseng cultivation. It is believed that the excess nitrogen remaining in the soil due to the treatment of compost or manure during pepper cultivation causes ginseng roots to rot. The average incidence of Alternaria blight was 8.6%. Six six-year-old ginseng gardens were low at 1.1 to 4.7%, while the other three were high at 16.7 to 20.9%. It is assumed that the reason for the low survival rate and high incidence of Alternaria blight is a rain-leaking shield. Farmers used rain-leaking shields because the precipitation on Baengnyeong Island was smaller than on land. One field showed 3% of leaves with yellowish brown spots, a symptom of physiological disturbance of the leaf, which is presumed to be due to the excessive presence of iron in the soil. To increase the production of ginseng on Baengnyeong Island, it is necessary to develop a suitable ginseng cultivation method for the island, such as strengthening the field management based on the results of a scientific study of soil, using rain-resistant shading, and installing drip irrigation facilities. I hope that ginseng will become a new driving force for the development of Baengnyeong Island, allowing ginseng products and food to thrive in the beautiful natural environment of the island.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2022

The aquaculture industry has developed rapidly over the last three decades and is an important industry that supplies over 15% of humans' animal protein intake; therefore, there is a need to increase production to meet the continuous demand. The fish cage farms on the southern coast (Kyengsangnam-do and Jeollanam-do) of Korea are critical resources in aquaculture because they account for approximately 90% of the national total fish cage farms by water area ratio. However, the current aquaculture environment is being gradually affected by climate change, which is a global issue, and its effects are expected to intensify in the future. Therefore, it is urgently imperative to accurately evaluate the effects of climate change on South Korean aquaculture industries and to develop social and national strategies to minimize damage to the fishing industry. The damage to fish farmed in cage farms on the southern coast is increasing annually and the leading causes are high and low water temperature and red tides, which are directly or indirectly related to climate change. At present, global warming can provide opportunities for aquaculture industrialization of fish or other novel species, with economic implications. However, despite such opportunities, the influx of new species can also cause problems such as ecological disturbances, increase in the reproduction frequency of microalgae such as red tide, increase in disease incidence, and occurrence and periods of high water temperatures in summer. The scale of farmed fish mortality is increasing due to the complex effects of these factors. Increased damages due to fish mortality not only have severe economic impacts on the aquaculture industry, but the social costs of responding to the damage and follow-up measures also increase. various active responses can reduce the mortality damage in fish farms such as improving the management skills in aquaculture, improved species breeding, efficient food management, disease prevention, proactive responses, and system-wide improvements. This review article analyzes the large-scale mortality cases occurring in fish cage farms on the southern coast of Korea and proposes measures to mitigate mortality and enhance responses to such scenarios.