• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.313-319
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• 2022

Environmental exposure to air pollution is known to have adverse effects on various organs. Air pollution has greater effects on the pulmonary system as the lungs are directly exposed to contaminants in the air. Here, we review the associations of air pollution with the development, morbidity, and mortality of pulmonary diseases. Short-and long-term exposure to air pollution have been shown to increase mortality risk even at concentrations below the current national guidelines. Ambient air pollution has been shown to be associated with lung cancer. Particularly long-term exposure to particulate matter with a diameter <2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5) has been reported to be associated with lung cancer even at low concentrations. In addition, exposure to air pollution has been shown to increase the incidence risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been correlated with exacerbation and mortality of COPD. Air pollution has also been linked to exacerbation, mortality, and development of asthma. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) has been demonstrated to be related to increased mortality in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Additionally, air pollution increases the incidence of infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. Furthermore, emerging evidence supports a link between air pollution and coronavirus disease 2019 transmission, susceptibility, severity and mortality. In conclusion, the stringency of air quality guidelines should be increased and further therapeutic trials are required in patients at high risk of adverse health effects of air pollution.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a comorbidity of COVID-19; therefore, routine early diagnosis is crucial. A large number of examination attributes in the context of diagnosing CHD is a distinct obstacle during the pandemic when the number of health service users is significant. The development of a precise machine learning model for diagnosis with a minimum number of examination attributes can allow examinations and healthcare actions to be undertaken quickly. This study proposes a CHD diagnosis model based on feature selection, data balancing, and ensemble-based classification methods. In the feature selection stage, a hybrid SVM-GA combined with fast correlation-based filter (FCBF) is used. The proposed system achieved an accuracy of 94.60% and area under the curve (AUC) of 97.5% when tested on the z-Alizadeh Sani dataset and used only 8 of 54 inspection attributes. In terms of performance, the proposed model can be placed in the very good category.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2023

The onset of many lifelong mental illnesses is during childhood and adolescence. There has been an increase in these conditions among children and adolescents especially, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to promote mental health literacy (MHL) as a preventive and universal intervention for children and adolescents. Positive mental health status in adolescence is related to an increased level of MHL, and various MHL programs at schools have been reported to be effective for adolescent students worldwide. Recently, MHL programs have been developed in South Korea to be used by schoolteachers. There is a need for active dissemination and development of future programs. For continuous and effective education, it is desirable to include MHL education in regular school curricula.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2023.11a
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• pp.874-875
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• 2023

본 논문은 COVID-19와 같은 전염병 확산 방지를 위해 비대면 약제배송로봇을 제안한다. 제안한 로봇은 OpenCV와 Q-Learning기반의 모델을 사용하여 실시간 영상처리로 사람의 얼굴을 식별한다. 환자의 얼굴, 나이, 전달 약제 등을 환자 데이터베이스에 등록한다. 카메라로 인식된 환자의 얼굴과 데이터베이스 내 환자의 얼굴이 일치할 경우 잠금장치를 해제시켜 환자의 약제 수령을 허용한다. 또한 어플리케이션을 통해 약제가 올바르게 전달되었는지 2차적으로 확인한다. 따라서 본 논문에서 제안한 로봇은 비대면으로 환자에게 약을 전달함으로써 입원병동에서 발생할 수 있는 전염병 확상의 방지에 효과적으로 기여할 수 있을 것이다.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.427-434
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• 2022

The drug repurposing strategy has been applied to the development of emergency COVID-19 therapeutic medicines. Current drug repurposing approaches have been directed against RNA polymerases and viral proteases. Recently, we found that the inhibition of the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 structural nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins decreased viral replication. In this study, drug repurposing candidates were screened by in silico molecular docking simulation with the SARS-CoV-2 structural N protein. In the ChEMBL database, 1994 FDA-approved drugs were selected for the in silico virtual screening against the N terminal domain (NTD) of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein. The tyrosine 109 residue in the NTD of the N protein was used as the center of the ligand binding grid for the docking simulation. In plaque forming assays performed with SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells, atovaquone, abiraterone acetate, and digoxin exhibited a tendency to reduce the size of the viral plagues without affecting the plaque numbers. Abiraterone acetate significantly decreased the accumulation of viral particles in the cell culture supernatants in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, abiraterone acetate significantly decreased the production of N protein and S protein in the SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells. In conclusion, abiraterone acetate has therapeutic potential to inhibit the viral replication of SARS-CoV-2.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.78-88
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• 2023

Medication safety and medicine delivery challenge the well-being of the elderly and the management of the elderly center. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the elderly in the care center were challenged by the inconvenience of the medication restocking. The purpose of this paper accentuates the importance of the design and development of an UAV-based Smart Medicine Case (UAV-SMC) to improve the performance of medication management and medicine delivery in the elderly center. The researchers came up with the design of UAV-SMC in the light of the UAV and IoT technology to improve the performance of both Medication Practice Management (MPM) and Low Inventory Detection and Delivery (LIDD). Based on the result, with UAV-SMC, the performance of both MPM and LIDD was significantly improved. The UAV-SMC improves the efficacy of medication management in the elderly center by 26.97 to 149.83 seconds for each medication practice and 9.03 mins for each time of medicine delivery in Subang Jaya Malaysia. This paper only investigates the adoption of UAV-SMC in the content of elderly center rather than other industries. The authors consider integrating the UAV-SMC with the e-pharmacy system in the future. In conclusion, the UAV-SMC has significantly improved the medication management and guard the safety of elderly and caretaker in the elderly in the post-pandemic times.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.194-210
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• 2022

Human milk contains a number of nutritional and bioactive molecules including microorganisms that constitute the so-called "Human Milk Microbiota (HMM)". Recent studies have shown that not only bacterial but also viral, fungal, and archaeal components are present in the HMM. Previous research has established, a "core" microbiome, consisting of Firmicutes (i.e., Streptococcus, Staphylococcus), Proteobacteria (i.e., Serratia, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, Sphingomonas, Bradyrhizobium), and Actinobacteria (i.e., Propionibacterium, Corynebacterium). This review aims to summarize the main characteristics of HMM and the role it plays in shaping a child's health. We reviewed the most recent literature on the topic (2019-2021), using the PubMed database. The main sources of HMM origin were identified as the retrograde flow and the entero-mammary pathway. Several factors can influence its composition, such as maternal body mass index and diet, use of antibiotics, time and type of delivery, and mode of breastfeeding. The COVID-19 pandemic, by altering the mother-infant dyad and modifying many of our previous habits, has emerged as a new risk factor for the modification of HMM. HMM is an important contributor to gastrointestinal colonization in children and therefore, it is fundamental to avoid any form of perturbation in the HMM that can alter the microbial equilibrium, especially in the first 100 days of life. Microbial dysbiosis can be a trigger point for the development of necrotizing enterocolitis, especially in preterm infants, and for onset of chronic diseases, such as asthma and obesity, later in life.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.282-289
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• 2021

A novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), caused a worldwide pandemic. Our aim in this study is to produce new fusion inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2, which can be the basis for developing new antiviral drugs. The fusion core comprising the heptad repeat domains (HR1 and HR2) of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) were used to design the peptides. A total of twelve peptides were generated, comprising a short or truncated 24-mer (peptide #1), a long 36-mer peptide (peptide #2), and ten peptide #2 analogs. In contrast to SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 S-mediated cell-cell fusion cannot be inhibited with a minimal length, 24-mer peptide. Peptide #2 demonstrated potent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 S-mediated cell-cell fusion at 1 µM concentration. Three peptide #2 analogs showed IC50 values in the low micromolar range (4.7-9.8 µM). Peptide #2 inhibited the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus assay at IC50=1.49 µM. Given their potent inhibition of viral activity and safety and lack of cytotoxicity, these peptides provide an attractive avenue for the development of new prophylactic and therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.129-144
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• 2021

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are increasingly becoming interested in health and environmental issues. Therefore, the sale of vegan or vegetarian products has been increasing over the last few years, as well as interest in non-dairy plant-based milk that can replace cow's milk. Furthermore, the global food industry has developed an interest in such products, considering the recent changes in consumer trends. In Korea, various products are being launched annually due to the increasing interest in non-dairy plant-based milk. However, research with regard to the quality and type of products produced in Korea is still at the preliminary stage when compared to those in the United States and Europe. Therefore, the present review has summarized non-dairy plant-based milk analogues based on the following key aspects. First, the types of non-dairy plant-based milk analogues and their production technologies (in the order of almond milk > cocoa milk > coconut milk > hemp milk > kidney bean milk > oat milk > peanut milk > rice milk, and soy milk). Second, the current status and future prospects for non-dairy plant-based milk analogues. Third, recent trends and future challenges associated with the production and quality improvement of non-dairy plant-based milk analogues. Fourth, the current status and outlook of the non-dairy plant-based milk analogue market in Korea. In conclusion, the present review could provide the food industry with valuable information regarding non-dairy plant-based milk analogues to facilitate the development of related products. Data were obtained from previously published studies.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.230-238
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• 2022

Myocarditis was previously attributed to an epidemic viral infection. Additional harmful reagents, in addition to viruses, play a role in its etiology. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine-induced myocarditis has recently been described, drawing attention to vaccine-induced myocarditis in children and adolescents. Its pathology is based on a series of complex immune responses, including initial innate immune responses in response to viral entry, adaptive immune responses leading to the development of antigen-specific antibodies, and autoimmune responses to cellular injury caused by cardiomyocyte rupture that releases antigens. Chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the myocardium eventually result in cardiac failure. Recent advancements in molecular biology have remarkably increased our understanding of myocarditis. In particular, microRNAs (miRNAs) are a hot topic in terms of the role of new biomarkers and the pathophysiology of myocarditis. Myocarditis has been linked with microRNA-221/222 (miR-221/222), miR-155, miR-10a^*, and miR-590. Despite the lack of clinical trials of miRNA intervention in myocarditis yet, multiple clinical trials of miRNAs in other cardiac diseases have been aggressively conducted to help pave the way for future research, which is bolstered by the success of recently U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved small-RNA medications. This review presents basic information and recent research that focuses on myocarditis and related miRNAs as a potential novel biomarker and the therapeutics.