• Korean Journal of Transplantation
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.144-153
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• 2014

Background: Normal renal function and health have been recognized as important factors in living donors after kidney donation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the health status and health-promoting lifestyle in living donors after kidney donation. Methods: A total of 678 living-kidney donors were counted in our center from January 1990 to December 2011. Only 84 donors agreed to participate in the survey by telephone. We received consent for participation in our survey from 48 donors (57.1%). Data were collected from May to August 2013 using donor characteristics, health status, and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile I (HPLP-I). Results: The donors were predominantly female (62.5%) and the average age was 48.9±11.8 years, and the average period after nephrectomy was 9.7±5.7 years. The characteristics of donors included ideal body weight (37.5%), overweight (37.5%) in body mass index, and good health status (81.3%). Most donors underwent an annual medical check-up (56.2%), no health problem (81.3%), and no disease (64.6%). However, one patient was treated with dialysis for renal failure due to diabetes. The total average score for HPLP-I was 128.3±13.9. Higher than average scores (116.3±19.1) were observed for the general middle-aged woman. There were statistically significant differences in self-realization and nutrition in subsection of HPLP-I. Self-realization showed a higher score for Christian (F=2.743, P=0.041) and good health (F=3.389, P=0.017). Nutrition showed a higher score for overweight, obesity (F=6.783, P=0.000), and older than 60 (F=3.854, P=0.009). Conclusions: Most living kidney donors were healthy after their donation and had relatively high scores for health-promoting lifestyle. However, one patient had a serious health problem. In addition, younger, longer period after donation, and the rare health examination of donors showed a lower health-promoting lifestyle. Designed and continuous health-care management after transplantation is needed for kidney donors.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.125-159
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• 2020

Amid global pandemic of covid-19, Korean government's response has drawn wide attention among social scientists as well as medical studies. The role of Korean state and civil society has attracted particular attention among others. Yet, this paper criticizes extant studies on Korean case which focus on the extensive intervention of the strong state and subjective attitude of Korean citizens in coping with covid-19. The concept of the strong state lacks social scientific specification and subjective citizens do not match with Korean realities. This article argues that Korean state's capacity in collecting and mobilizing digital data may offer better understanding for the successful responses to the pandemic. First, Korean state is the ultimate coordinator in collecting, analyzing and applying big data about the expansion of covid-19 with its huge network of dataveillance. Also, such role has been largely based upon relevant legal framework and well prepared manuals and cooperation with civic actors and companies. In other words, Korean digital dataveillance had demonstrated its transparency and cooperative governance. Second, such dataveillance capacity has deep roots in the long-term development of Korean state's big data management. Korean state has evolved about thirty years while enhancing digital data network within governments, companies and private sectors. Third, the relationship between Korean state's dataveillance and civil society can be characterized as a state centered push model. This model demonstrates highly effective governmental responses to covid-19 crisis but fall short of building social consensus in balancing individual freedom, human rights and effective containment policies. It means communitarian solidarity among citizens has not been a major factor in Korea's successful response yet.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• 제44권4호
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• pp.661-674
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• 2023

Abstract: This retrospective study delved into the effects and safety considerations associated with the concomitant usage of hypoglycemic agents and herbal extracts, specifically Pyeongwi-san (PWS) or HyangsaPyongwi-san (HSPWS) in the context of type 2 diabetes mellitus management. Methods: The investigation involved 38 inpatients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who received PWS or HSPWS treatment at Kyung Hee University Korean Medical Hospital from January 2012 to December 2022. By investigating clinical attributes and conducting laboratory assessments, this study aimed to discern the impact of these herbal extracts on blood glucose levels, encompassing fasting blood sugar (FBS) and mean 2-hour postprandial glucose (PP2) levels. Furthermore, the safety profile of the herbal extracts was assessed by comparing liver function indicators, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alongside kidney function markers, such as blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr). Results: Following the administration of the herbal extracts, no statistically significant alterations in FBS and mean PP2 levels emerged compared to the baseline levels. Notably, the safety evaluation revealed no significant differences in liver and kidney function parameters following herbal extract administration. Conclusion: The results of this research indicate that using PWS or HSPWS alongside hypoglycemic medications could be a beneficial additional method for addressing digestive symptoms in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Notably, this combination seems to have no negative interactions with other drugs.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.269-273
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• 2023

After participating in the Second Boer War in 1899, the Australian Army participated in world wars such as World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. To overcome the decline in the social recognition of soldiers and the continuous shortage of troops caused by the protracted war, the status and role of female personnel were expanded. The use of female manpower, which started as medical support during the Second Boer War, expanded to combat support missions such as communications, maintenance, driving, secret document management, and radar surveillance during World War II. After the Vietnam War, the Chiefs of Staff of the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force established a committee to expand women's participation in the military, improved service conditions for female personnel and supplemented regulations so that they were treated as soldiers, not women, and reached a turning point in expanding the role of female personnel in the Australian military. As a result, all combat positions, including special forces, were opened to women in 2014, and a plan was established to increase the proportion of women in each service by 2030. As a result, all combat positions, including special forces, were opened to women in 2014, and the Australian Armed Forces set a plan to increase the proportion of women by 2030. Like the Australian military, South Korea is also experiencing a demographic cliff and shortage of troops due to the continuing low birthrate problem. Through the history and current state of the use of female personnel in the Australian military, we would like to draw implications for the direction our military should go.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.526-532
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• 2023

Falls are fatal accidents that occur more than 420,000 times a year worldwide. Therefore, to study patients with falls, we found the association between extrinsic injury codes and principal diagnosis S-codes of patients with falls, and developed a prediction model to predict extrinsic injury codes based on the data of principal diagnosis S-codes of patients with falls. In this study, we received two years of data from 2020 and 2021 from Institution A, located in Gangneung City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, and extracted only the data from W00 to W19 of the extrinsic injury codes related to falls, and developed a prediction model using W01, W10, W13, and W18 of the extrinsic injury codes of falls, which had enough principal diagnosis S-codes to develop a prediction model. 80% of the data were categorized as training data and 20% as testing data. The model was developed using MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) with 6 variables (gender, age, principal diagnosis S-code, surgery, hospitalization, and alcohol consumption) in the input layer, 2 hidden layers with 64 nodes, and an output layer with 4 nodes for W01, W10, W13, and W18 exogenous damage codes using the softmax activation function. As a result of the training, the first training had an accuracy of 31.2%, but the 30th training had an accuracy of 87.5%, which confirmed the association between the fall extrinsic code and the main diagnosis S code of the fall patient.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.533-539
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• 2023

This study aimed to analyze patients hospitalized for injuries who fell using the data from 2020 to 2021 at institution A located in Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, using codes for causes of injury. After classifying 20 codes from W00 to W19, which are external cause codes for fall patients, the most frequently occurring W18, W01, W10, and W13 were analyzed. The external cause of injury code W18 was other falls on the same plane, with the highest frequency of S72 and Z47, S72 being a fracture of the femur, and Z47 being orthopedic follow-up treatment. The external injury code W01 was determined to be a fall on the same plane due to slipping, tripping, and tripping, and like W18, S72, a fracture of the femur, and Z47, orthopedic follow-up treatment, were frequently reported. In W10, intracranial injuries such as concussion and epidural hemorrhage due to a fall on the stairs, S06, were common. Lastly, in W13, 91% of cases occurred in people in their 40s to 70s due to falls from buildings or structures, confirming that they occur frequently in middle-aged people, Z47 had the most frequent orthopedic follow-up treatment, and S72 had a fracture of the femur. It was found to be the second most common. In this way, the frequency of falling patients was analyzed, and the age and main diagnosis code at which most falls occurred were analyzed.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제22권7호
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• pp.1172-1184
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• 2021

Objective: The purposes of this study were to analyze the radiation doses for pediatric abdominopelvic and chest CT examinations from university hospitals in Korea and to establish the local diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) based on the body weight and size. Materials and Methods: At seven university hospitals in Korea, 2494 CT examinations of patients aged 15 years or younger (1625 abdominopelvic and 869 chest CT examinations) between January and December 2017 were analyzed in this study. CT scans were transferred to commercial automated dose management software for the analysis after being de-identified. DRLs were calculated after grouping the patients according to the body weight and effective diameter. DRLs were set at the 75th percentile of the distribution of each institution's typical values. Results: For body weights of 5, 15, 30, 50, and 80 kg, DRLs (volume CT dose index [CTDI_vol]) were 1.4, 2.2, 2.7, 4.0, and 4.7 mGy, respectively, for abdominopelvic CT and 1.2, 1.5, 2.3, 3.7, and 5.8 mGy, respectively, for chest CT. For effective diameters of < 13 cm, 14-16 cm, 17-20 cm, 21-24 cm, and > 24 cm, DRLs (size-specific dose estimates [SSDE]) were 4.1, 5.0, 5.7, 7.1, and 7.2 mGy, respectively, for abdominopelvic CT and 2.8, 4.6, 4.3, 5.3, and 7.5 mGy, respectively, for chest CT. SSDE was greater than CTDI_vol in all age groups. Overall, the local DRL was lower than DRLs in previously conducted dose surveys and other countries. Conclusion: Our study set local DRLs in pediatric abdominopelvic and chest CT examinations for the body weight and size. Further research involving more facilities and CT examinations is required to develop national DRLs and update the current DRLs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.171-177
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• 2024

In this study, two general X-ray device, CT, and MRI inspection devices were selected from general hospitals in the Daejeon area and an experiment was conducted to predict the level of infection by measuring the surface contamination of the inspection devices at different times and to use it as basic data for infection prevention. As a result, the surface contamination level by time zone for general X-ray devices and MRI examination devices was in the order of 13H > 8H > 16H, and for CT examination devices, it was 13H > 16H > 8H, which appeared to be influenced by the number of tests. In addition, the surface contamination results for each part of the test device showed that the highest ATP contamination value was found on the stand bucky handle for the general X-ray device, the headrest for the CT examination device, and the operation switch for the MRI examination device, which was closely related to the number of contacts. As a result of comparing before and after disinfection, all devices showed a significant decrease after disinfection. Based on the results of the experiment, it is believed that it can be used as basic data to identify the level of contamination in radiology laboratories and prevent infectious diseases.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제54권2호
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• pp.129-137
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• 2024

Purpose: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who undergo dental procedures during radiotherapy (RT) face an increased risk of developing osteoradionecrosis (ORN). Accordingly, new tools must be developed to extract critical information regarding the dose delivered to the teeth and mandible. This article proposes a novel approach for visualizing 3-dimensional planned dose distributions on panoramic reconstruction computed tomography (pCT) images. Materials and Methods: Four patients with HNC who underwent volumetric modulated arc therapy were included. One patient experienced ORN and required the extraction of teeth after RT. In the study approach, the dental arch curve (DAC) was defined using an open-source platform. Subsequently, pCT images and dose distributions were generated based on the new coordinate system. All teeth and mandibles were delineated on both the original CT and pCT images. To evaluate the consistency of dose metrics, the Mann-Whitney U test and Student t-test were employed. Results: A total of 61 teeth and 4 mandibles were evaluated. The correlation coefficient between the 2 methods was 0.999, and no statistically significant difference was observed (P>0.05). This method facilitated a straightforward and intuitive understanding of the delivered dose. In 1 patient, ORN corresponded to the region of the root and the gum receiving a high dosage (approximately 70 Gy). Conclusion: The proposed method particularly benefits dentists involved in the management of patients with HNC. It enables the visualization of a 3-dimensional dose distribution in the teeth and mandible on pCT, enhancing the understanding of the dose delivered during RT.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.209-220
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• 2024

Cavier is graded as Beluga, Osetra, and Sevruga based on the species of sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis). In this study, we developed an analytical method for determining the grade of black caviar using DNA barcodes and KASP markers. To identify the sturgeon species, ten black caviar samples were collected, and a reference DNA barcode library was developed using five genes (namely, 16S ribosomal RNA, cytochrome b, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 genes). To develop the KASP markers, we selected 11 markers that could distinguish between the five grades of black caviar. As a result, specific markers for each of the targeted caviars were clustered into FAM-positive sections. DNA barcoding and the KASP assay revealed that one Beluga, six Osetra, and three Sevruga were identified among the ten caviar samples. Moreover, we found that the sturgeon species were mislabeled in two products. Here, we aimed to develop a KASP assay based on SNP that allows rapid and easy identification of caviar grade. These methods are expected to contribute to preventing the distribution of illegal products.