• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1635-1642
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• 2013

Helicobacter pylori antigen was prepared from an isolate from a patient with a duodenal ulcer. Serum samples were obtained from culture-positive H. pylori infected patients with duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers and gastritis (n=30). As controls, three kinds of sera without detectable H. pylori IgG antibodies were used: 30 from healthy individuals without history of gastric disorders, 30 from patients who were seen in the endoscopy clinic but were H. pylori culture negative and 30 from people with other diseases. OFF-GEL electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE and Western blots of individual serum samples were used to identify protein bands with good sensitivity and specificity when probed with the above sera and HRP-conjugated anti-human IgG. Four H. pylori protein bands showed good (${\geq}$ 70%) sensitivity and high specificity (98-100%) towards anti-Helicobacter IgG antibody in culture-positive patients sera and control sera, respectively. The identities of the antigenic proteins were elucidated by mass spectrometry. The relative molecular weights and the identities of the proteins, based on MALDI TOF/TOF, were as follows: CagI (25 kDa), urease G accessory protein (25 kDa), UreB (63 kDa) and proline/pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (118 KDa). These identified proteins, singly and/or in combinations, may be useful for diagnosis of H. pylori infection in patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10933-10935
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• 2015

Background: Many scientists have reported Candida species to be of great concern because of the high frequency that they colonize and infect human hosts, particularly cancer patients. Moreover, in the last decades Candida species have developed resistance to many antifungal agents. Based on this, we aimed to identify and determine the prevalence of Candida spp from blood culture bottles among cancer patients and their antifungal resistance pattern. Materials and Methods: From the blood culture bottles isolation and identification of the Candida spp were performed by conventional microbiological techniques. The in vitro antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates was determined by CLSI guidelines. Genomic DNA was isolated and amplified. Each gene was separated by agar gel electrophoresis. Results: Identification of Candida spp was based on the presence of yeast cells in direct examination, culture and DNA extraction. Of the 68 blood samples collected during the study period (April 2013 to October 2013), five (7.35%) were positive for the presence of Candida spp, 2 (40%) of which were identified as Candida albicans and 3 (60%) were Candida non-albicans. Conclusions: High resistance to amphotricin B was observed among all the Candida non-albicans isolates. Regular investigations into antifungal resistance will help us to get an updated knowledge about their antibiotic resistance pattern which may help the physician in selecting the antibiotics for empirical therapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.631-637
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• 2013

Luteolin is a naturally occurring flavonoid present in many plants with diverse applications in pharmacology. Despite several studies elucidating its significant anti-cancer activity against various cancer cells, the mechanism of action in skin cancer is not well addressed. Hence, we investigated the effects of luteolin in HaCaT (human immortalized keratinocytes) and A375 (human melanoma) cells. The radical scavenging abilities of luteolin were determined spectrophotometrically, prior to a cytotoxic study (XTT assay). Inhibitory effects were assessed by colony formation assay. Further, the capability of luteolin to induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis were demonstrated by flow cytometry and cellular DNA fragmentation ELISA, respectively. The results revealed that luteolin possesses considerable cytotoxicity against both HaCaT and A375 cells with $IC_{50}$ values of 37.1 ${\mu}M$ and 115.1 ${\mu}M$, respectively. Luteolin also inhibited colony formation and induced apoptosis in a dose and time-dependent manner by disturbing cellular integrity as evident from morphological evaluation by Wright-Giemsa staining. Accumulation of cells in G2/M (0.83-8.14%) phase for HaCaT cells and G0/G1 (60.4-72.6%) phase for A375 cells after 24 h treatment indicated cell cycle arresting potential of this flavonoid. These data suggest that luteolin inhibits cell proliferation and promotes cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in skin cancer cells with possible involvement of programmed cell death, providing a substantial basis for it to be developed into a potent chemopreventive template for skin cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.5265-5272
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• 2016

Objective: The present study was conducted to evaluate invasive and noninvasive diagnostic methods for detection of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in patients admitted with dyspeptic complaints and to compare sensitivities and specificities. Method: Sets of four gastric biopsy specimens were obtained from a total of 126 patients included in the study. The presence of H. pylori was determined by invasive tests including culture, rapid urease test, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and histopathology. Among noninvasive tests, urea breath test, serological tests and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed. Results: H. pylori was isolated in 79 (62.7%) gastric biopsy cultures, whereas positivity was concluded for 105 (83.3%) patients by rapid urease test, for 106 (84.1%) by PCR, for 110 (87.3%) by histopathology, for 119 (94.4%) by urea breath test, and for 107 (84.9%) by ELISA. In the present study, the culture findings and histopathological examination findings were accepted as gold standard. According to the gold standard, urea breath test had the highest sensitivity (96.5%) and the lowest specificity (30%), whereas culture and histopathology had the highest specificities (100%). Conclusion: The use of PCR invasively with gastric biopsy samples yielded parallel results with the gold standard. PCR can be recommended for routine use in the diagnosis of H. pylori.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.523-531
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to determine the mediating effects in the relationships among nursing organizational culture, workplace bullying, and job stress of nurses. For the descriptive correlational study design, data were collected using a structured questionnaire from nurses at university hospitals (N=130). Statistical analysis was performed on the collected data using SPSS 22.0 statistics program. The mean scores of nurses for nursing organizational culture, workplace bullying, and job stress were 2.99±0.74, 1.85±0.65, and 2.50±0.35, respectively. Nursing organizational culture of nurses had a negative correlation with both workplace bullying (r=-0.45, p=0.001) and job stress (r=-0.61, p=0.001), whereas workplace bullying showed a positive correlation with job stress (r=0.42, p=0.001). Sobel test was conducted to verify the mediating effects, and nursing organizational culture was statistically significant as a partial mediating effect of 0.13 (sobel'z=-2.287, p<0.05) on the effect of workplace bullying of nurses on job stress. These results indicate that nursing organizational cultures need to be established to reduce workplace bullying. It is important to create a nursing work environment that can reduce job stress, a better understanding of the nursing organization cultures related to nursing tasks is crucial, and it is necessary to develop an institutional education strategy for prevention education in hospital organizations.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.19-25
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• 2023

This study was conducted to confirm the level of stress and infection prevention behavior of nursing college freshman during the COVID-19 pandemic. 119 nursing college freshmen who took remote classes because face-to-face classes were not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using SPSS WIN/PC 26.0 statistics program. As a result of this study, the sensitivity to stress was significantly higher when the attitude towards college life was passive (F=5.92, p=.004), and when people perceived themselves as healthy, their stress was significantly lower (t=-2.22, p=.029). In addition, those who responded that they were very uncomfortable due to activity restrictions due to COVID-19 had a significantly higher level of infection prevention behavior than those who responded that they did not feel any discomfort (F=3.51, p=.018). In a pandemic environment such as COVID-19, efforts to promote a positive attitude and awareness of health conditions are needed to reduce the stress of college freshmen and increase infection prevention behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.34-46
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• 2020

Unlike research focused on existing technologies and individual errors to analyze the causes of incidents, this study approached them from an organization and culture. And this study is not a one way study but cyclical study what can track cause down using causal loop diagram methodology. Four diagnostic criteria for the negative state of the safety culture : secretive, blame, failure to learning, and incremental learning, combine literature study and expert opinion to derive 41 variables. Connecting these variable make 4 causal loop diagrams and total causal loop diagram. Case accumulation in secretive, accident report in blame, knowledge accumulation in failure to learning, near miss discovery in incremental learning are the main variables. Safety incident is the objective variable by classifying them into 4 stages in total loop, leading track as the most affect is case accumulation, and Step 4 as you can see accident report and near miss discovery are the result of tracking down the cause. This study can be used as a basis for improving the management priority and the system in incident prevention.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2019

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the most important disease screened for upon patient history review during preimmigration medical examinations as performed in South Korea in prospective immigrants to certain Western countries. In 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the TB screening protocol from a smear-based test to the complete Culture and Directly Observed Therapy Tuberculosis Technical Instructions (CDOT TB TI) for reducing the incidence of TB in foreign-born immigrants. Methods: This study evaluated the effect of the revised (as compared with the old) protocol in South Korea. Results: Of the 40,558 visa applicants, 365 exhibited chest radiographic results suggestive of active or inactive TB, and 351 underwent sputum tests (acid-fast bacilli smear and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture). To this end, using the CDOT TB TI, 36 subjects (88.8 per $10^5$ of the population) were found to have TB, compared with only seven using the older U.S. CDC technical instruction (TI) (p<0.001). In addition, there were six drug-resistant cases which were identified (16.7 per $10^5$ of the population), two of whom had multidrug-resistance (5.6 per $10^5$ of the population). Conclusion: The culture-based 2007 TI identified a great deal of TB cases current to the individuals tested, as compared to older U.S. CDC TI.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.239-250
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• 2016

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine effects of patient safety culture and burnout on safety management activities with a focus on clinical experience of nurses in general hospitals. Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were given to nurses in a general hospital in C Province, and 107 questionnaires were used for final analysis. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 Program for t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. Results: The highest score as perceived by general hospital nurses for patient safety culture was for 'Immediate superior/Manager' (3.84), for burnout, the highest score was for 'Emotional exhaustion' (4.13), and for safety management activities, the highest score was for 'Prevention of infection' (3.96). Patient safety culture and safety management activities perceived by general hospital nurses showed significant positive correlations (r=.35 p<.001). The correlations between burnout and safety management activities perceived by the nurses showed significant negative correlations (r=-.37, p<.001). Results of hierarchical regression analysis conducted to identify factors that affect safety management activities showed that patient safety culture (${\beta}=.40$ p<.001) was effective for controlling safety management activities. Conclusion: The findings indicate a need to build a patient safety culture that fits the characteristics and situations of various hospitals.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.61 no.11
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• pp.366-370
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• 2018

Purpose: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important diseases that cause significant mortality and morbidity in young children. Data on TB transmission from an infected child are limited. Herein, we report a case of disseminated TB in a child and conducted a contact investigation among exposed individuals. Methods: A 4-year-old child without Bacille Calmette-$Gu{\acute{e}}rin$ vaccination was diagnosed as having culture-proven disseminated TB. The child initially presented with symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, and nosocomial and kindergarten exposures were reported. The exposed individuals to the index case were divided into 3 groups, namely household, nosocomial, or kindergarten contacts. Evaluation was performed following the Korean guidelines for TB. Kindergarten contacts were further divided into close or casual contacts. Chest radiography and tuberculin skin test or interferon-gamma-releasing assay were performed for the contacts. Results: We examined 327 individuals (3 household, 10 nosocomial, and 314 kindergarten contacts), of whom 18 (5.5%), the brother of the index patient, and 17 kindergarten children were diagnosed as having latent TB infection (LTBI). LTBI diagnosis was more frequent in the children who had close kindergarten contact with the index case (17.1% vs. 4.4%, P=0.007). None of the cases had active TB. Conclusion: This is the first reported case of TB transmission among young children from a pediatric patient with disseminated TB in Korea. TB should be emphasized as a possible cause of chronic diarrhea and failure to thrive in children. A national TB control policy has been actively applied to identify Korean children with LTBI.