• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.1273-1285
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• 2022

Purpose MR neurography (MRN) is an imaging technique optimized to visualize the peripheral nerves. This review aimed to discover an optimized protocol for MRN of the lumbosacral plexus (LSP) and identify evidence for the clinical benefit of lumbosacral plexopathies. Materials and Methods We performed a systematic search of the two medical databases until September 2021. 'Magnetic resonance imaging', 'lumbosacral plexus', 'neurologic disease', or equivalent terms were used to search the literature. We extracted information on indications, MRN protocols for LSP, and clinical efficacy from 55 studies among those searched. Results MRN of the LSP is useful for displaying the distribution of peripheral nerve disease, guiding perineural injections, and assessing extraspinal causes of sciatica. Three-dimensional short-tau inversion recovery turbo spin-echo combined with vascular suppression is the mainstay of MRN. Conclusion Future work on the MRN of LSP should be directed to technical maturation and clinical validation of efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.34-50
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• 2024

Objectives: Transformation through a sustainable food system to provide healthy diets is essential for enhancing both human and planetary health. This study aimed to explain about sustainable diets and illustrate appropriate measurement of adherence to sustainable diets using a pre-existing index. Methods: For literature review, we used PubMed and Google Scholar databases by combining the search terms "development," "validation," "sustainable diet," "sustainable diet index," "planetary healthy diet," "EAT-Lancet diet," and "EAT-Lancet reference diet." For data presentation, we used data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2017-2018, among adults aged 20 years and older (n = 3,920). Sustainable Diet Index-US (SDI-US), comprising four sub-indices corresponding to four dimensions of sustainable diets (nutritional quality, environmental impacts, affordability, and sociocultural practices), was calculated using data from 24-hour dietary recall interview, food expenditures, and food choices. A higher SDI-US score indicated greater adherence to sustainable diets (range: 4-20). This study also presented SDI-US scores according to the sociodemographic status. All analyses accounted for a complex survey design. Results: Of 148 papers, 16 were reviewed. Adherence to sustainable diets fell into 3 categories: EAT-Lancet reference diet-based (n = 8), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) definition-based (n = 4), and no specific guidelines but including the sustainability concept (n = 4). Importantly, FAO definition emphasizes on equal importance of four dimensions of diet (nutrition and health, economic, social and cultural, and environmental). The mean SDI-US score was 13 out of 20 points, and was higher in older, female, and highly educated adults than in their counterparts. Conclusions: This study highlighted that sustainable diets should be assessed using a multidimensional approach because of their complex nature. Currently, SDI can be a good option for operationalizing multidimensional sustainable diets. It is necessary to develop a Korean version of SDI through additional data collection, including environmental impact of food, food price, food budget, and use of ready-made products.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2024

Purpose: This review explored the status of publications on intimate partner violence (IPV) against pregnant women in contemporary China. Methods: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycInfo databases were searched using the terms "IPV," "pregnant woman," "Chinese," and synonyms in English, along with related keywords for Chinese publications. All literature pertaining to IPV during pregnancy, conducted in China, and published between 1987 and September 2023 was included. Results: A total of 37 articles from 30 studies were selected. The prevalence of IPV during pregnancy ranged from 2.5% to 31.3%, with psychological violence being the most common form. Frequently identified risk factors included unintended pregnancy, poor family economic conditions, male partners engaging in health risk behaviors, poor employment status of women or their partners, low education levels among women, physical or mental health issues, strained couple relationships, and in-law conflicts. IPV during pregnancy primarily led to mental health problems for the victims and could result in adverse obstetric outcomes, as well as negative effects on the temperament and development of the offspring. Victims in China demonstrated a low willingness to seek help from professionals. Furthermore, relevant research in mainland China is scarce, with a limited number of studies and non-standardized research methodologies. Conclusion: Future research should investigate IPV in pregnancy from various perspectives, identify factors unique to IPV during pregnancy, and focus on high-risk groups. Considering the conditions in China, there is a pressing need to increase public awareness of IPV and to investigate interventions aimed at addressing this issue.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.23-38
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• 2024

Objectives This study examined recent domestic and international clinical research trends in Gua sha therapy to suggest future direction for research. Methods We used six domestic and international databases (Research Information Sharing Service, Korean studies Information Service System, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library) to select clinical studies with an original text in English or Korean published after 2018. Results Finally, 55 studies were selected. Randomized controlled trials accounted for the largest amount with 42 studies. Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization was the most frequent term referring to Gua sha. Muscle shortening, limited range of motion, and plantar fasciitis were the most common symptoms, with six cases each. Additionally, there were two studies targeting symptoms other than the musculoskeletal system. Conclusions Additional research is needed on the effects of Gua sha therapy on the back of the lower extremities and hip joints, and research is needed on the possibility of their clinical use for diseases or symptoms other than those of the musculoskeletal system. And standards for the terminology of Gua sha and the types and methods of applied interventions are needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.307-318
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• 2024

Objectives: Effective data collection and surveillance of epidemiological trends are essential in confronting the growing challenges associated with substance use (SU), especially in light of emerging trends and underreporting of cases. However, research and data are scarce regarding SU and substance use disorder (SUD) in Korea. Methods: We conducted a scoping review to identify data sources and surveillance methods used in SU research in Korea up to December 2023. This review was complemented by semi-structured consultations with experts in this area in Korea, whose feedback led to revisions of previously identified data sources and assessments. Results: Our review identified 32 publications conducting secondary analyses on existing data to examine the epidemiology of SU and SUD in Korea. Of these, 14 studies utilized clinical databases to explore the prescription patterns of addictive substances, particularly opioids. Eleven data sources showed promise for advancing SU research; however, they face substantial limitations, including a lack of available data, missing data, the absence of key variables, the exclusion of marginalized populations not captured within the clinical system, and complexities in matching individual-level data across time points and datasets. Conclusions: Current surveillance methods for SU in Korea face considerable challenges in accessibility, usability, and standardization. Moreover, existing data repositories may fail to capture information on populations not served by clinical or judicial systems. To systematically improve surveillance approaches, it is necessary to develop a robust and nationally representative survey, refine the use of existing clinical data, and ensure the availability of data on treatment facilities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.399-405
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• 2011

Recently, the navigation risk is increasing significantly with growth of marine traffic volume and construction of marine facilities, water bridges, port development and marine wind farm etc. To reduce this kinds of risk, Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs enacted a new law called MSA(Maritime Safety Audit) as a comprehensive maritime traffic safety management scheme in order to ensure safety improvements from the early planning stage to post managing of the development which affect the maritime traffic environment. MSA as a tool for improving maritime traffic safety is a formal safety assessment in the existing or future ship's fairway by an independent audit team. It examines the potential hazards of maritime traffic safety, if necessary, and is to ensure the implementation of appropriate safety measures. The object of this paper is to comprehensively evaluate the achievements and implementation problems of MSA about the 2 years, to define the fundamental problems of MSA by conceptualizing and analyzing MSA limits. MSA requires further examination about the introduction of screening and scoping in order to increase the efficiency and objectivity. It will be required the measures concerning policies directions as a tool for planning process for project owner. It will lead to right understanding concerning audit scheme and used in various ways such as amendments to related law.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to develop a fire HRA (Human Reliability Analysis) procedure for full power operation of domestic NPPs (Nuclear Power Plants). For the development of fire HRA procedure, the recent research results of NUREG-1921 in an effort to meet the requirements of the ASME/ANS PRA Standard were reviewed. The K-HRA method, a standard method for HRA of a domestic level 1 PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) and fire related procedures in domestic NPPs were reviewed. Based on the review, a procedure for the fire HRA required for a domestic fire PSA based on the K-HRA method was developed. To this end, HRA issues such as new operator actions required in the event of a fire and complexity of fire situations were considered. Based on the four kinds of HFE (Human Failure Event) developed for a fire HRA in this research, a qualitative analysis such as feasibility evaluation was suggested. And also a quantitative analysis process which consists of screening analysis and detailed analysis was proposed. For the qualitative analysis, a screening analysis by NUREG-1921 was used. In this research, the screening criteria for the screening analysis was modified to reduce vague description and to reflect recent experimental results. For a detailed analysis, the K-HRA method and scoping analysis by NUREG-1921 were adopted. To apply K-HRA to fire HRA for quantification, efforts to modify PSFs (Performance Shaping Factors) of K-HRA to reflect fire situation and effects were made. For example, an absence of STA (Shift Technical Advisor) to command a fire brigade at a fire area is considered and the absence time should be reflected for a HEP (Human Error Probability) quantification. Based on the fire HRA procedure developed in this paper, a case study for HEP quantification such as a screening analysis and detailed analysis with the modified K-HRA was performed. It is expected that the HRA procedure suggested in this paper will be utilized for fire PSA for domestic NPPs as it is the first attempt to establish an HRA process considering fire effects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2015

To improve and modify the problems in Maritime Traffic Safety Audit(MTSA) Scheme, "Maritime Safety Research Center(MSRC)" in Korea Ship Safety and Technology Authority(KST) was designated as specialized institute for MTSA through general revision of "Enforcement of MTSA"(March 2012). However, the roles of the MSRC such as preliminary review of safety audit report, comments on target project and etc. had not been defined clearly on the related maritime safety laws compared with other specialized institutes in other similar audit scheme. In this research, the improvement strategies were proposed for development of specialized institute through SWOT analysis, gathering the opinion from related professions and also comparison with the roles and current status of operation in other similar specialized institutes. In conclusion, the 'Screen & scoping system', 'Consultant system' were proposed for efficient operation of the MTSA Scheme, and the systematic and operational improvements such as a revision of maritime safety lan and etc. were also suggested for integrated management about costal development works, development of specialized institute.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.467-483
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• 2007

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a kind of planning technique to seek ways to minimize environmental impact, a scheme to encourage sustainable development. With the launch of the Ministry of Environment in 1980, the EIA was introduced in Korea. Its full operation was initially driven by regulations on documenting EIA reports in 1981, which was piloted as a decision-making scheme where final decision were made at the development department after considering opinions suggested by the Ministry of Environment. At that time, dominance of the economic logic overwhelmed environ-friendly opinions, but thanks to the fourth revision of the Environmental Conservation Law in 1986, private projects came to be included on the EIA list. This was a turning point for the EIA to become a regulatory system. Local governments are also conducting the EIA regardless of the national-level EIA. In order to prevent and resolve increasingly severe environmental problems in Seoul in advance due to various construction projects, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, for the first time as a local government in Korea, legislated city decrees to introduce the EIA which has been underway from September 1, 2002. In particular, the Seoul government, unlike the Ministry of Environment, has included construction works on the list of evaluation projects, adopting the scoping and screen procedure scheme. In addition, complementing operational setbacks, the city government has revised and implemented decrees and enforcement laws on the Impact Assessment on Environment, Transportation and Disasters by shortening the consultation period, eliminating the submission of reports on construction, and expanding the waiver requirements in consultation over the reports. Therefore, development measures for the EIA scheme of the Seoul Metropolitan Government will be the target of the research. To that end, the up-to-date data of the Ministry of Environment, the Seoul government and local governments was collected, and latest materials from the EU, previous research and the Internet were gathered for analyses. By doing so, the flow of the EIA was reviewed, and the EIA schemes of local governments under the national EIA were analyzed. Furthermore, based on the Seoul government's recent data on the EIA based on the decrees, the background and legislation of the Seoul government's EIA were analyzed along with the developments for the environmental organizations. Setbacks were derived from the implementation period, evaluation procedures, consultation period and details of the EIA, and corresponding development measures were proposed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.511-524
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• 2007

Korea has 30 years of experiences in environmental impact assessment (EIA). Although EIA includes sanitation-public health factor, considering health impacts, among 74 unit projects of 17 sections, health impacts haven't been properly considered or have been ignored in many cases. The increasing awareness on the importance of health impacts has triggered this study to seek an optimal introduction scheme of health impact assessment (HIA). The processes of EIA already include screening, scoping, analysis, impact assessment, consultation, document review, decision making and monitoring, in which they would be the essential parts of HIA. In this context, integrating HIA into the existing EIA process could be the most effective way to use the benefits in both legal and procedural processes existed and to avoid the confusion and overlapping since the close relationships between environment and health impacts might be. Furthermore, it is desirable that the existing sanitation-public health factor should be substituted by and extended to environment-health factor with sufficient determinants to properly consider health impacts. When considering the first step of HIA, the prospective and qualitative approach is suitable more than the retrospective and quantitative one due to the lack of database accumulated. Similarly, an approach based on epidemiology and toxicology could analyze the limited evidences and impacts related to human disease, whereas one based on socio-science and psychology could provide the effective means available for predicting how the people and community will act by the change of surroundings. Checklist approach with various and comprehensive health determinants focused on prospective and qualitative methods will be very useful for more convenient and progressive dissemination of HIA. Various checklist approaches of toolkits could be found from HIA documents elsewhere, for example Westminster Toolkit, and they would be helpful to figure out how to develop common procedures and health determinants for checklist, in which the unique characteristics on korean cultural and political context compared to abroad should be carefully considered since checklist would be the most basic and essential part of HIA. After the establishment of checklist and procedural processes, the pilot projects should be conducted. Main purpose of pilot projects is to apparently prove the effectiveness and profitability of HIA. Pilot projects should be implemented to decide the effectiveness and suitability of HIA for future projects, programs and policies, and should be provided as the positive cases that can be achieved through the proper implementation and progress.