• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.115-121
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• 2022

Purpose: This article aims to explore the distribution of technological innovation and environmental policy challenges to respond to COVID-19. The study also attempts to tackle a paradigm shift in science and technology policies against the pandemic and a desirable direction for environmental policies. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the one that rapidly changed global people's lifestyle. For the spread of a terrible infectious disease could not be avoided, regardless of a highly industrialized society. Research design, data and methodology: This study basically employs a qualitative approach as a methodology. This study is based on the fact that environmental pollution, various natural disasters continuously occur, and there are many unforeseeable parts, despite remarkable development of scientific technology, and that the circumstances are becoming more complex. Results: This study noted that scientific technology civilization formed due to industrial revolutions can deteriorate environment and increase environmental threat factors. As an alternative to this, this study investigates alternative discussions on how the 4th Industrial Revolution can help scientific technology and human environment to harmoniously coexist and develop. Conclusions: It implies that this study focuses on the possibility of overcoming this crisis through science and technology innovation, although mankind is in crisis of COVID-19 due to excessive human development.

• Journal of the FoodService Safety
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

As one of the post-COVID-19 response strategies, representative processed products derived from the natural plant material flaxseed and a dietary supplement fortified with female hormones (estrogens) were developed in Canada, an eco-friendly country was introduced. These products were: 1) flaxseed oil to help maintain cognitive and immune function, 2) Lignan50, a substance with effects similar to estrogen, a female hormone, 3) XanFlax, a thickener for confectionery/baking and egg substitute, 4) MediFlax, a constipation reliever, 5) SesaFlax, which has a fragrance similar to sesame, 6) Linusorb, which is effective for its pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory/anti-oxidation and anti-aging properties, and 7) LinuLyte, a water/electrolyte supplement containing high dietary fiber. It is expected that these dietary products will help maintain and promote health as part of a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.11-19
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims at exploring and understanding the effect of four independent variables related to dairy retail marketing and distribution (deep freezers, promotions, company support and distributor-retailer relationship) and one moderating variable Covid-19 lockdown on sales of dairy product during the Covid 19 pandemic situation. Research design and methodology: Personal interviews and door-to-door surveys and promotional tools were designed to publicise and collect data from the retailers. The sale data before, during and after promotion activity were all recorded and evaluated to draw an inferential conclusion. Factor analysis and multiple regression methods were adopted to analyses the data collected. Results: The research shows that four out of the five factors studied was found having significant impact on dairy retail sales. The highest impact on sales was contributed by promotions, secondly by the deep freezer impact followed by distributor-retailer relationship during the study period and lastly but not the least due to influence of Covid-19 lockdown. Conclusions: The study contributes to the body of knowledge in cold chain distribution process through utilization of right mix of tools and tactics for effective marketing and distribution of dairy products in developing countries especially during a pandemic situation.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.358-377
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• 2023

During the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions. For these policy interventions to be effective, authorities engaged in the political discourse of legitimising their activity to generate positive public attitudes. To understand effective COVID-19 policy, this study investigates public attitudes in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States and how they reflect different legitimisation of policy intervention. We adopt a big data approach to analyse public attitudes, drawing from public comments posted on Twitter during selected periods. We collect the number of tweets related to COVID-19 policy intervention and conduct a sentiment analysis using a deep learning method. Public attitudes and sentiments in the three countries show different patterns according to how policy interventions were implemented. Overall concern about policy intervention is higher in South Korea than in the other two countries. However, public sentiments in all three countries tend to improve following implementation of policy intervention. The findings suggest that governments can achieve policy effectiveness when consistent and transparent communication take place during the initial period of the pandemic. This study contributes to the existing literature by applying big data analysis to explain which policies engender positive public attitudes.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.230-242
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• 2024

Objectives: Depression and anxiety are emotional difficulties that are common among adolescents. Adolescents suffering from depression and anxiety can exhibit problems such as antisocial behavior, aggression, and academic slump. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing adolescents' depression and anxiety during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This study examined the data from an online student health survey conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2022. The survey participants were 131194 students ranging from the first grade of middle school to the third grade of high school. The influence of each variable on depression and anxiety was examined. Results: Factors that predicted depression and anxiety were sex (female), grade level (higher), financial difficulties (existing or unknown), physical activity (higher), sleep time (shorter), media usage time (higher), family/friends relationship (worse), and change in the health status of family, friends, and oneself due to COVID-19 (worse). Conclusion: These results may help identify patterns of depression and anxiety among adolescents caused by COVID-19 and maximize the intervention effect.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.256-269
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• 2020

Objectives: Everyone has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, while some workers face threats to their health due to their jobs as well as worries about spreading the virus to intimate family members. With these concerns in mind, this study aims to identify occupations more vulnerable to COVID-19 and suggests the necessity of providing proper control measures against the risks in a timely manner in Korea. Methods: Daily briefing reports by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were compiled (n=120) between January 20 and May 31, 2020. A total of 11,486 confirmed cases were included, which were sorted by occasion, area, and occupation. Among them, 2,411 cases were classified with specific occasions and/or areas of infection, while only 544 cases were determined with identifiable occupations. Guidelines for biological hazard management and COVID-19 guidelines for workplaces from domestic and international bodies were enlisted and compared. Results: It is unsurprising to find that healthcare professionals are experiencing the most immediate threat from COVID-19. In addition, service workers with face-to-face practices or indirect contact are also facing high risks. Religion facilities and eating places (dining, drinking bar, café, etc.,) follow. Guidelines and manuals for biological hazards are still lacking in Korea compared to the US and EU. Workplace manuals for managing COVID-19 are neither as comprehensive as the approaches of NIOSH's hierarchy of controls nor inclusive enough for minimizing secondary or tertiary suffering. Conclusions: The COVID-19 crisis is still ongoing and there is no doubt there will be more such events in the future. This analysis suggests that occupational health professionals, amid a pandemic including COVID-19, are urged to anticipate emerging risks related to all sorts of occupations, identify vulnerable workers and working environments, and plan and take actions to protect workers' health.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the western countries with advanced medical technology failed to contain coronavirus. This fact triggered our research question of what factors influence the clinical outcomes like infection rates and case mortality rates. This study aims to identify the determinants of COVID-19 related infection rates and case mortality rates. We considered three sets of independent variables: 1) socio-demographic characteristics; 2) cultural characteristics; 3) healthcare system characteristics. For the analysis, we created an international dataset from diverse sources like World Bank, Worldometers, Hofstede Insight, GHS index etc. The COVID-19 related statistics were retrieved from Aug. 1. Total cases are from 95 countries. We used hierarchical regression method to examine the linear relationship among variables. We found that obesity, uncertainty avoidance, hospital beds per 1,000 made a significant influence on the standardized COVID-19 infection rates. The countries with higher BMI score or higher uncertainty avoidance showed higher infection rates. The standardized COVID-19 infection rates were inversely related to hospital beds per 1,000. In the analysis on the standardized COVID-19 case mortality rates, we found that two cultural characteristics(e.g., individualism, uncertainty avoidance) showed statistically significant influence on the case mortality rates. The healthcare system characteristics did not show any statistically significant relationship with the case mortality rates. The cultural characteristics turn out to be significant factors influencing the clinical outcomes during COVID-19 pandemic. The results imply that the persuasive communication is important to trigger the public commitment to follow preventive measures. The strategy to keep the hospital surge capacity needs to be developed.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has been rampant since the end of 2019, has evidently affected pain management in clinical practice. Fortunately, a COVID-19 vaccination program is currently in progress worldwide. There is an ongoing discussion that pain management using steroid injections can decrease COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, although currently there is no direct evidence to support this statement. As such, the feeling of pain in patients is doubled in addition to the co-existing ill-effects of social isolation associated with the pandemic. Thus, in the COVID-19 era, it has become necessary that physicians be able to provide high quality pain management without negatively impacting COVID-19 vaccine efficacy. Steroids can alter the entire process involved in the generation of adaptive immunity after vaccination. The period of hypophysis-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression is known to be 1 to 4 weeks after steroid injection, and although the exact timing for peak efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines is slightly different for each vaccine, the average is approximately 2 weeks. It is suggested to avoid steroid injections for a total of 4 weeks (1 week before and after the two vaccine doses) for the double-shot vaccines, and for 2 weeks in total (1 week before and after vaccination) for a single-shot vaccine. This review focuses on the basic concepts of the various COVID-19 vaccines, the effect of steroid injections on vaccine efficacy, and suggestions regarding an appropriate interval between the administration of steroid injections and the COVID-19 vaccine.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.162-165
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• 2020

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the world to a standstill and has exposed the lack of preparedness of most nations' health care systems. Even in usual times, palliative care has not received its fair share of recognition as an important component of patient care; instead, the emphasis is often placed on aggressive patient management. Now, with the entire medical community and decision-making committees focussed on intensive patient care, end-of-life care has taken a backseat. Methods: This article is a brief communication. Results: COVID 19 infection has been shown to lead to greater mortality and morbidity in patients with pre-existing illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, renal failure, and cancer. Patients typically in need of end-of-life care, such as those with late-stage cancer or heart failure, are therefore at a higher risk of both contracting COVID-19 and suffering a more severe disease course. The strict nationwide lockdowns being imposed in most countries have deterred patients from seeking medical attention or hospice care. Every day new research is coming to light regarding COVID 19. This has helped significantly in creating awareness and limiting the spread of disease. However, misinformation is also rampant, leading to discrimination and mistreatment of infected patients. Conclusion: This pandemic has been a terrifying ordeal for all and has exposed our entire population physically, psychologically, emotionally, and financially to unimaginable stresses. In the present scenario, EOL care is as much a necessity as intensive care and should be given at least a fraction of its importance.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11.1-11.8
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• 2021

For the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), predictive modeling, in the literature, uses broadly susceptible exposed infected recoverd (SEIR)/SIR, agent-based, curve-fitting models. Governments and legislative bodies rely on insights from prediction models to suggest new policies and to assess the effectiveness of enforced policies. Therefore, access to accurate outbreak prediction models is essential to obtain insights into the likely spread and consequences of infectious diseases. The objective of this study is to predict the future COVID-19 situation of Korea. Here, we employed 5 models for this analysis; SEIR, local linear regression (LLR), negative binomial (NB) regression, segment Poisson, deep-learning based long short-term memory models (LSTM) and tree based gradient boosting machine (GBM). After prediction, model performance comparison was evelauated using relative mean squared errors (RMSE) for two sets of train (January 20, 2020-December 31, 2020 and January 20, 2020-January 31, 2021) and testing data (January 1, 2021-February 28, 2021 and February 1, 2021-February 28, 2021) . Except for segmented Poisson model, the other models predicted a decline in the daily confirmed cases in the country for the coming future. RMSE values' comparison showed that LLR, GBM, SEIR, NB, and LSTM respectively, performed well in the forecasting of the pandemic situation of the country. A good understanding of the epidemic dynamics would greatly enhance the control and prevention of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Therefore, with increasing daily confirmed cases since this year, these results could help in the pandemic response by informing decisions about planning, resource allocation, and decision concerning social distancing policies.