• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.577-584
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the potential of chicken feather (CF), which is a by-product in poultry industry, as a partial substitute of wood fiber in the production of wood-based fiberboard. Keratin-type protein constituted the majority of CF, and its appearance did not differ from that of wood fiber. When the formaldehyde (HCHO) adsorptivities of CF compared by its pretreatment type, feather meal (FM), which was pretreated CF with high temperature and pressure and then grounded, showed the highest HCHO adsorptivity. In addition, there was no difference between the adsorbed HCHO amounts, which was measured by dinitrophenylhydrazine method, of scissors-chopped CF and CF beated with an electrical blender. Mechanical properties and HCHO emission of medium-density fiberboards (MDF), which were fabricated with wood fiber and 5 wt% CF, beated CF or FM based on the oven-dried weight of wood fiber, were not influenced by the pretreatment type of CF. However, when the values compared with those of MDF made with just wood fiber, thickness swelling and HCHO emission of the MDF were improved greatly with the addition of CF, beated CF or FM. Based on the results, it might be possible to produce MDF with improved dimensional stability and low HCHO emission if CF, beated CF or FM is added partially as a substitute of wood fiber in the manufacturing process of MDF produced with the conventional urea-formaldehyde resin of $E_1$ grade. However, the use of CF or FM in the production of MDF has a low economic feasibility at the current situation due to the securing difficulty and high cost of CF. In order to enhance the economic feasibility, it requires to use CF produced at small to medium-sized chicken meat plants. More importantly, it is considered that the technology developed from this research has a great potential to make provision for the prohibition of animal-based feed and to dispose environmentally avian influenza-infected poultry.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2022

Background: Although respiratory tract infection is one of the most important factors triggering acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD), limited data are available to suggest an epidemiologic pattern of microbiology in South Korea. Methods: A multicenter observational study was conducted between January 2015 and December 2018 across 28 hospitals in South Korea. Adult patients with moderate-to-severe acute exacerbations of COPD were eligible to participate in the present study. The participants underwent all conventional tests to identify etiology of microbial pathogenesis. The primary outcome was the percentage of different microbiological pathogens causing AE-COPD. A comparative microbiological analysis of the patients with overlapping asthma-COPD (ACO) and pure COPD was performed. Results: We included 1,186 patients with AE-COPD. Patients with pure COPD constituted 87.9% and those with ACO accounted for 12.1%. Nearly half of the patients used an inhaled corticosteroid-containing regimen and one-fifth used systemic corticosteroids. Respiratory pathogens were found in 55.3% of all such patients. Bacteria and viruses were detected in 33% and 33.2%, respectively. Bacterial and viral coinfections were found in 10.9%. The most frequently detected bacteria were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.8%), and the most frequently detected virus was influenza A (10.4%). Multiple bacterial infections were more likely to appear in ACO than in pure COPD (8.3% vs. 3.6%, p=0.016). Conclusion: Distinct microbiological patterns were identified in patients with moderate-to-severe AE-COPD in South Korea. These findings may improve evidence-based management of patients with AE-COPD and represent the basis for further studies investigating infectious pathogens in patients with COPD.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.109-124
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• 2008

Background: The incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing and the disease is becoming an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is important to implement evidence-based guidelines by primary care physicians (PCPs) to establish qualified management of COPD patients. The aim of this survey is to investigate the pattern of COPD management among PCPs and to apply it to the development of Korean COPD guidelines. Methods: A web-based questionnaire was prepared that consisted of 25 questions on the pattern of COPD management. A total of 217 PCPs participated in the survey from June 2006 to May 2007. Results: Many PCPs (61.8%) possessed a spirometer, but the application rate was relatively low (35.8%) and more than half of the COPD patients (57%) did not receive a diagnosis based on spirometry. Administration of oral medication was preferred than the administration of inhaled medication for both stable COPD and acutely exacerbated COPD. More than 90% of the PCPs endorsed educational measures to quit smoking and vaccinate against influenza. It was noted that 56.7% of the PCPs were aware of the GOLD guidelines, but only 7.3% tended to fully implement the recommendations of the guidelines in daily practice. Conclusion: The results of the survey indicate that despite the high awareness rate of the current COPD guidelines, deficits exist among the PCPs with respect to the diagnosis and treatment of COPD. The results of this survey should be applied for the development of new COPD guidelines in order to decrease the discrepancy between the guidelines and the daily practice of the PCPs.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.481-489
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• 2005

Lonicerae Flos has antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, streptococci, pneumococci, Bacillus dysenterii, Salmonella typhi, and paratyphoid. It is an antiviral agent. The herb has a cytoprotective effect against $CCl_{4}-induced$ hepatic injury. It has antilipemic action, interfering with lipid absorption from the gut. Nowadays this herb is used mainly in the treatment of upper respiratory infections, such as tonsillitis and acute laryngitis. It is also used in the treatment of skin suppurations, such as carbuncles, and to treat viral conjunctivitis, influenza, pneumonia, and mastitis. Lonicerae Flos is dried flower buds of Lonicera japonica, L. hypoglauca, L. confusa, or L. dasystyla. But, for the most part, we use whole plant of Lonicera japonica, as a flower bud of it. And, little is known of the original copy of effects of whole plant, except for the 'Bon-Cho-Gang-Mok', which is written the effects of flower of Lonicera japonica are equal to effects of leaves and branch of it. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica on the regulatory mechanism of cytokines, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX-2) for the immunological activities in Raw 264.7 cells. In Raw 264.7 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic inflammation, flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extracts inhibited nitric oxide production in a dose-dependent manner and abrogated iNOS and COX-2. Flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extract did not affect on cell viability. To investigate the mechanism by which flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extract inhibits iNOS and COX-2 gene expression, we examined the on phosphorylation of inhibitor ${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and assessed production of $TNF-{\alpha}$, $interleukin-1{\beta}$ $(IL-1{\beta})$ and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Results provided evidence that flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica inhibited the production of $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6 and activated the phosphorylation of inhibitor ${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ in Raw 264.7 cells activated with LPS. These findings suggest that flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica can produce anti-inflammatory effect, which may play a role in adjunctive therapy in Gram-negative bacterial infections, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Pintail (Anas acuta) is the major wintering bird in South Korea and known as a major mediator of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Pintail migrates long distances between Russian Siberia and Korea. This species prefers a rice paddy area as their winter habitat. The purpose of this study is to provide the data necessary for the conservation and management of bird habitats in Korea by understanding the wintering home-range and habitat of pintail in Korea. We captured six pintails using a cannon-net in the winter of 2015 and attached the GPS-mobile phone based telemetry (WT-300) on them to study the wintering home-range and wintering habitat. We analyzed the tracking location data using ArcGIS 9.0 Animal Movement Extension and calculated Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP). The average home-range in the wintering ground analyzed by MCP was $677.3km^2$ (SD=130.2, n=6) while the maximum and minimum were $847.7km^2$ and $467.5km^2$, respectively. Extents of home-range analyzed by KDE were $194.7km^2$ (KDE 90%), $77.4km^2$ (KDE 70%), and $35.3km^2$ (KDE 50%). The pintails mostly used both sea and paddy field as habitat in the winter season and utilized paddy fields more during the nighttime and than the daytime. We concluded that the home-range and habitat of pintails in the winter could be used as the reference data for the preservation of species, management of habitats, and coping with a breakout of HPAI.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.129-137
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• 2008

Alien apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata, Pomacea insularus) used in environmentally-friendly agriculture are different from indigenous snails found in Korea. Due to high herbicidal effects and cost-effectiveness, the number of farmers using the snails has been growing every year since 2000. Moreover, in 2008, because of the outbreaks of avian influenza throughout the country from March to May, 2008, central and local governments recommended the use of alien apple snails in agriculture as an alternative to the ducks-oriented environmentally-friendly agriculture. Therefore, it is expected that the use of alien apple snails in agriculture should be expanded in a near future. Since alien apple snails lay eggs with 95.8% of eclosion rate, they are considered to be potential pests unlike indigenous snails. In addition, Japan, Taiwan and most of the southeast Asian countries had already experienced severe ecological and agricultural damage by the alien apple snails. Subsequently, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) designated P. canaliculata as one of "the 100 of the world's worst invasive alien species". It seems highly likely that the alien apple snails in Korea pose a potential threat to conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity since the snails were either found or invaded into the natural environments in some regions of Gangwon-Do and southern parts of Korean Peninsula. However, just recently, agricultural authorities and farmers using alien apple snails in agriculture opposed a proposition of designating the alien apple snails as an ecosystem-disturbing animal described by the Wildlife Protection Act. This is because there has been no concrete evidence of the ecological risk imposed by the alien snails up to now in Korea. Subsequently, in this paper, we analysed the ecological and agricultural risks imposed by the alien snails from the studies done in domestic and abroad. In addition, we proposed an urgent need and reasoning for ecological risk management of the alien snails at the national level as well as using the snails in agriculture.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.1241-1248
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• 2009

Purpose:The etiology of Kawasaki disease (KD) is still unknown. Recently, an association between human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) and KD was implicated. Hence, we attempted to determine the association between KD and acute respiratory viral infections. Methods:Nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were obtained from 54 patients diagnosed with KD at the Seoul National University (SNU) Children's Hospital and SNU-Bundang Hospital between October 2003 and September 2006. Viral diagnoses of 11 respiratory viruses were made using multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR): respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus, rhinovirus (RV), parainfluenza viruses (PIVs) 1 and 3, influenza viruses (IFVs) A and B, human metapneumovirus (HMPV), human bocavirus (HBoV), HCoV OC43/229E, and HCoV-NL63. Clinical data were reviewed retrospectively. Results:The median age was 32 months (6 months-10.4 years). Respiratory symptoms were observed in 37 patients (69%). The following respiratory viruses were identified in 12 patients (22%): RV (n=4), PIV-3 (n=2), HBoV (n=2), and adenovirus, RSV, PIV-1, IFV-A, and HCoV-NL63 (n=1). Co-infection with PIV-3 and RV was observed in one patient. Respiratory symptoms were observed in 7 (58.3%) and 30 (71.4%) patients of the virus-positive and virus-negative groups (P>0.05). Response rate to intravenous immunoglobulin administration was 67% (n=8) and 86% (n=36) in the virus- positive and virus-negative groups (P>0.05). Conclusion:Respiratory symptoms were commonly observed in KD patients but the association between respiratory viruses and KD were not found. Large multicenter-based investigations are required to confirm the association between acute respiratory viral infections and KD.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.716-722
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• 2005

Purpose : A full view of the spectrum of all bacterial diseases in healthy children is essential to the establishment of public health priorities. Accurate information on the relative importance of the various pathogens in terms of the age of the affected patients, the site of infection and the case fatality rate are valuable to the clinician in choosing antimicrobial treatments. Methods : Fifty-nine episodes of bacteremia were analysed. Data were collected at Ilsan Paik Hospital from January 2000 to December 2003. Analysis of each collected episode included isolating pathogen from blood culture, diagnosis, hospital course, isolating pathogens from other tissue sites, and studying results of antimicrobial sensitivity tests. Results : Fifty-nine cases of community-acquired bacteremia were reviewed. The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus(11 cases, 18.6 percent), followed by Salmonella(10 cases, 16.9 percent), E. coli(7 cases, 11.9 percent), Streptococcus pneumoniae(five cases, 8.5 percent), Streptococcus viridans(5 cases 8.5 percent). The most common diagnosis was bacteremia without an indentified focus(61 percent), followed by meningitis(12 percent), bacteremia with enteritis(10.2 percent) and bacteremia with urinary tract infection(8.5 percent). Salmonella was still an important causative agent of bacteremia. The relative importance of Haemophilus influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae was lower than in other studies. The most common organism responsible for bacteremia without an identified focus was Staphylococcus aureus. The case-fatality was 3.4 percent for all cases of bacteremia. Conclusion : We reviewed the etiology of community-acquired bacteremia. These data may be useful in the establishment of public health priorities and serve as a reference for selection of antibiotics in the empirical therapy of suspected invasive bacterial infection.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.49-65
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• 1991

This study was carried out to assess the problems with the pregnant women, and check out the risk-factors in the high-risk pregnancies, using a simplified antepartum risk-scoring system, which was revised from Edwards' scoring system to be suitable for Korean situaition. This instrument was included 4 categories, demographic, obstetric, medical and miscellaneous factors. This survey was based on the 1300 pregnant women who were admitted, $x^2$-test, F-test, Pearsons correation, using statistical package SAS in NAS computer system, KIST. The results of the study were as follows; 1. 1313 infants were deliveried of these 560 infants(42.7%) were born to mothers with risk-scores > 7, and 753 infants(57.3%) were born to mothers risk-scores <7. 2. Maternal age" parity, education level, of the demographic factors were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk pregnancies($X^2$=20.88, 42.87, 15.60 P < 0.01). 3. C-section, post term, incompetent cervix, uterine anomaly, polyhydramnios, congenital anomaly, sensitized RH negative, abortion, preeclampsia, excessive size infant, premature, low birth weight infanl, abnormal presentation, perinatal loss, multiple pregnancy, of the obstetric factors were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk-pregnancies. ($X^2$ = 175.96, 87.5, 16.28, 21.78, 9.46, 8. 10, 6.75, 22.9, 64.84, 6.93, 361.43, 185.55, 78.65, 45.52, P < 0.01). 4. Abnormal nutrition, anemia, UTI, other medicalcondition(pulmonary disease, severe influenza), heart disease, V.D., of the miscellaneous and medical factors, were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk-pregnancies. 5. Premature, low birth weight infant, contracted pelvis, abnormal presentation, of the risk factors were significantly related with Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth and neonatal body weight. 6. Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after, birth and neonatal body weight were significantly negative correlated with risk-score. 7. There were statistically significant difference between risk-score and Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth, 3 group(0-3, 4-6, above 7), and neonatal body weight, 2 group(below 2.5kg, the other group) (F=104.65, 96.61, 284.92, P<0.01). 8. Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth(below 7), and neonatal body weight(below 2.5kg), were significant relation statistically with risk score.($x^2$=65.99, 60.88, 177.07, P<0.01) were 60.8 %, 60% . 9. Correct classifications of morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) were 77.8%, 83.8% and that of nonmorbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score > 7) were 60.8%, 60%. 10. There were statistically significant difference between dislribution of maternal risk-score among the morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) and non morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score> 7) ($x^2$=64.8, 58.8, P < 0.001). 11. There were statistically significant difference between distribution of morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) and fetal death. 12. The predictivity for classifying high.risk cases was 12 % and for classifying low-risk cases was 98.3 % in 5 minute Apgar score. Suggestions for further studies are as follows; 1. Contineous prospective studies, using this newly revised scoring system are strongly recommended in the stetric service. 2. Besides risk facto~s used in this study, assessmenl of risks by factors in another scoring system and paralled studies related to perinatal outcome are strongly recommended.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 2010

An immunochromatograhy (IC) based infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) detection kit, which employed two anti-IBDV VP2 monoclonal antibodies, was evaluated for rapid diagnosis of infectious bursal disease virus (IBD). The detection limit of the IC kit for IBDV was $10^{3.1}$ to $10^{3.9}$ $EID_{50}$/mL, indicating that the IC kit detected IBDV sensitively as same as double antigen capture ELISA but less than a RT-PCR assay. The IC kit did not detect other viral pathogens such as Newcastle disease virus, infectious bronchitis, avian influenza virus, and infectious larynotracheitis virus. When applied to tissue samples of experimental chickens died 3 or 4 days post infection after very virulent IBDV (strain Kr/D62) infection, the IC kit detected IBDV in all samples of the bursa of Fabricius, spleen, kidney, cecal tonsil and in 87.5%, 37.5% and 0% of liver, thymus and proventriculus samples. In particular, BF tissue samples showed stronger signal bands than other tissues. Positive signal was observed. All except for one thymus sample of samples having negative results by the IC kit showed the same result with DAS-ELISA but RT-PCR assay detected IBDV in some of IC kit negative samples of thymus and proventriculus. When swab samples from the bursa of Fabricius of dead chickens (n=231) on field farms were tested, the sensitivity and specificity of the IC assay relative to RT-PCR was 100% (109/109) and 97.5% (119/122), respectively and kappa value between both assay was 0.97. The kit can provide a useful aid for rapid detection of IBDV in chickens under field circumstances.