• Title/Summary/Keyword: scientific challenges

Search Result 144, Processing Time 0.031 seconds

Importance of Meta-Analysis and Practical Obstacles in Oncological and Epidemiological Studies: Statistics Very Close but Also Far!

  • Tanriverdi, Ozgur;Yeniceri, Nese
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.16 no.3
    • /
    • pp.1303-1306
    • /
    • 2015
  • Studies of epidemiological and prognostic factors are very important for oncology practice. There is a rapidly increasing amount of research and resultant knowledge in the scientific literature. This means that health professionals have major challenges in accessing relevant information and they increasingly require best available evidence to make their clinical decisions. Meta-analyses of prognostic and other epidemiological factors are very practical statistical approaches to define clinically important parameters. However, they also feature many obstacles in terms of data collection, standardization of results from multiple centers, bias, and commentary for intepretation. In this paper, the obstacles of meta-analysis are briefly reviewed, and potential problems with this statistical method are discussed.

A Study on the Evidence-Based Herbal Medicine

  • Park, Jin-Han;Cho, Young-Mook;Choi, Sun-Kyung;Kim, Na-Hyun;Lee, Ki-Taeg;Hong, Seung-Heon
    • Journal of Evidence-Based Herbal Medicine
    • /
    • v.3 no.1
    • /
    • pp.9-18
    • /
    • 2010
  • The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is currently widespread and appears to be growing. As an increasing proportion of the population turns to CAM therapies, whether singly or in combination with allopathic medicine, the need for quality research in this area is reinforced. Much of this research consists of clinical studies aim ed primarily at clinicians, yet challenges arising from poor methodological quality will occur w hen interpreting study findings and their implications. For clinicians to be effective consumers of the scientific literature, familiarization with the principles of evidence based medicine (EBM) is essential. The goal of this review is to introduce clinicians to the concept of critical appraisal of clinical studies and foster critical thinking when reading research articles in order to best evaluate and incorporate study findings into their daily practice.

  • PDF

COVID-19 Vaccine: Critical Questions with Complicated Answers

  • Haidere, Mohammad Faisal;Ratan, Zubair Ahmed;Nowroz, Senjuti;Zaman, Sojib Bin;Jung, You-Jung;Hosseinzadeh, Hassan;Cho, Jae Youl
    • Biomolecules & Therapeutics
    • /
    • v.29 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-10
    • /
    • 2021
  • COVID-19 has caused extensive human casualties with significant economic impacts around the globe, and has imposed new challenges on health systems worldwide. Over the past decade, SARS, Ebola, and Zika also led to significant concerns among the scientific community. Interestingly, the SARS and Zika epidemics ended before vaccine development; however, the scholarly community and the pharmaceutical companies responded very quickly at that time. Similarly, when the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 was revealed, global vaccine companies and scientists have stepped forward to develop a vaccine, triggering a race toward vaccine development that the whole world is relying on. Similarly, an effective and safe vaccine could play a pivotal role in eradicating COVID-19. However, few important questions regarding SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development are explored in this review.

Ginseng, a promising choice for SARS-COV-2: A mini review

  • Ratan, Zubair Ahmed;Mashrur, Fazla Rabbi;Runa, Nusrat Jahan;Kwon, Ki Woong;Hosseinzadeh, Hassan;Cho, Jae Youl
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
    • /
    • v.46 no.2
    • /
    • pp.183-187
    • /
    • 2022
  • The current Covid-19 pandemic has changed the entire world and bought so many unprecedented challenges to the scientific community. More than 5 million people died due to the SARS-COV-2 outbreak. For many thousands of years, ginseng, the traditional herb has been used for various infectious diseases by traditional healers. Ginseng showed promising antiviral effects by modulating both natural and acquired immunity. Ginseng might be used as a potential therapeutic agent to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection along with the vaccine. In this current review, we offer an alternative approach for SARS-COV-2 prevention during this unprecedented pandemic.

Numerical Weather Prediction and Forecast Application (수치모델링과 예보)

  • Woo-Jin Lee;Rae-Seol Park;In-Hyuk Kwon;Junghan Kim
    • Atmosphere
    • /
    • v.33 no.2
    • /
    • pp.73-104
    • /
    • 2023
  • Over the past 60 years, Korean numerical weather prediction (NWP) has advanced rapidly with the collaborative effort between the science community and the operational modelling center. With an improved scientific understanding and the growth of information technology infrastructure, Korea is able to provide reliable and seamless weather forecast service, which can predict beyond a 10 days period. The application of NWP has expanded to support decision making in weather-sensitive sectors of society, exploiting both storm-scale high-impact weather forecasts in a very short range, and sub-seasonal climate predictions in an extended range. This article gives an approximate chronological account of the NWP over three periods separated by breakpoints in 1990 and 2005, in terms of dynamical core, physics, data assimilation, operational system, and forecast application. Challenges for future development of NWP are briefly discussed.

The potential of Panax notoginseng against COVID-19 infection

  • Yeye Hu ;Ziliang He ;Wei Zhang ;Zhiqiang Niu ;Yanting Wang;Ji Zhang ;Ting Shen;Hong Cheng;Weicheng Hu
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
    • /
    • v.47 no.5
    • /
    • pp.622-626
    • /
    • 2023
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world and has presented the scientific community with unprecedented challenges. Infection is associated with overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines secondary to hyperactivation of the innate immune response, inducing a cytokine storm and triggering multiorgan failure and significant morbidity/mortality. No specific treatment is yet available. For thousands of years, Panax notoginseng has been used to treat various infectious diseases. Experimental evidence of P. notoginseng utility in terms of alleviating the cytokine storm, especially the cascade, and improving post-COVID-19 symptoms, suggests that P. notoginseng may serve as a valuable adjunct treatment for COVID-19 infection.

Applications of response dimension reduction in large p-small n problems

  • Minjee Kim;Jae Keun Yoo
    • Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
    • /
    • v.31 no.2
    • /
    • pp.191-202
    • /
    • 2024
  • The goal of this paper is to show how multivariate regression analysis with high-dimensional responses is facilitated by the response dimension reduction. Multivariate regression, characterized by multi-dimensional response variables, is increasingly prevalent across diverse fields such as repeated measures, longitudinal studies, and functional data analysis. One of the key challenges in analyzing such data is managing the response dimensions, which can complicate the analysis due to an exponential increase in the number of parameters. Although response dimension reduction methods are developed, there is no practically useful illustration for various types of data such as so-called large p-small n data. This paper aims to fill this gap by showcasing how response dimension reduction can enhance the analysis of high-dimensional response data, thereby providing significant assistance to statistical practitioners and contributing to advancements in multiple scientific domains.

The Advent of Cuffless Mobile Device Blood Pressure Measurement: Remaining Challenges and Pitfalls

  • Hae-Young Lee;Thilo Burkard
    • Korean Circulation Journal
    • /
    • v.52 no.3
    • /
    • pp.198-204
    • /
    • 2022
  • Blood pressure measurement (BPM) is an essential part of medical examination, and therefore accuracy of BPM devices is crucial. Over the past few years, there has been a rise in new BPM techniques using photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals and complex algorithms for blood pressure estimation. Especially the combination of a mobile device or a smartphone with a camera using PPG may potentially revolutionize BPM in the future. The first-ever BPM application to be approved as a medical device was one by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2020, despite the lack of robust scientific evidence proving its validity. While the prospect of using these novel BPM devices is an opportunity, there are also some critical issues around calibration and utility in different patient groups that need to be resolved before they can be incorporated into daily clinical practice.

Hydrogen Absorption/Desorption and Heat Transfer Modeling in a Concentric Horizontal ZrCo Bed (수평식 이중원통형 ZrCo 용기 내 수소 흡탈장 및 열전달 모델링)

  • Park, Jongcheol;Lee, Jungmin;Koo, Daeseo;Yun, Sei-Hun;Paek, Seungwoo;Chung, Hongsuk
    • Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
    • /
    • v.24 no.4
    • /
    • pp.295-301
    • /
    • 2013
  • Long-term global energy-demand growth is expected to increase driven by strong energy-demand growth from developing countries. Fusion power offers the prospect of an almost inexhaustible source of energy for future generations, even though it also presents so far insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges. One of the challenges is safe handling of hydrogen isotopes. Metal hydrides such as depleted uranium hydride or ZrCo hydride are used as a storage medium for hydrogen isotopes reversibly. The metal hydrides bind with hydrogen very strongly. In this paper, we carried out a modeling and simulation work for absorption/desorption of hydrogen by ZrCo in a horizontal annulus cylinder bed. A comprehensive mathematical description of a metal hydride hydrogen storage vessel was developed. This model was calibrated against experimental data obtained from our experimental system containing ZrCo metal hydride. The model was capable of predicting the performance of the bed for not only both the storage and delivery processes but also heat transfer operations. This model should thus be very useful for the design and development of the next generation of metal hydride hydrogen isotope storage systems.

Current Status and Challenges of Research Methology for Health Promotion Research: Focusing on Research Funded by the Korea Health Promotion Foundation, 2005-2011 (건강증진 연구방법의 현황과 과제 : 한국건강증진재단 연구과제(2005-2011년)를 중심으로)

  • An, Ji-Young;Kim, Kwang Kee;JeKarl, Jung;Moon, Hyunjung;Cha, Sun Kyung;Jeong, Eunha
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
    • /
    • v.30 no.5
    • /
    • pp.47-59
    • /
    • 2013
  • Objectives: To investigate the current status and challenges of research methodology for health promotion research (HPR), this study analyzed HPR funded by the Korea Health Promotion Foundation (KHPF) from 2005 to 2011. Methods: All of the research reports funded by the KHPF for the period were included in this study. From the literature reviewed, a framework of this study was developed. Results: Quantitative research was 67.7%. The most common quantitative research design was cross-sectional survey (46.6%). Only 7.3% of quantitative research employed theoretical frameworks, and more than a half (53.4%) used primary data. For qualitative research (2.8%), most cases were conducted together with quantitative research. No qualitative research employed a philosophical underpinning. Only 7.0% of research received consent form, and 2.1% was approved by institutional review board. The results of this study indicate that there is a need to employ various research methods to study key concepts of HPR more in-depth. Efforts should be made to reduce statistical errors and also employ newly introduced statistical methods. Conclusions: Overall, a lack of scientific evidence from the HPR reports analyzed in this study was observed. Therefore, the KHPF and the academia should work together to solve the problems indicated from this study.