• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.19.1-19.10
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• 2023

Endemic human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have been evidenced to be cross-reactive to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although a correlation exists between the immunological memory to HCoVs and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity, there is little experimental evidence for the effects of HCoV memory on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Here, we investigated the Ag-specific immune response to COVID-19 vaccines in the presence or absence of immunological memory against HCoV spike Ags in a mouse model. Pre-existing immunity against HCoV did not affect the COVID-19 vaccine-mediated humoral response with regard to Ag-specific total IgG and neutralizing Ab levels. The specific T cell response to the COVID-19 vaccine Ag was also unaltered, regardless of pre-exposure to HCoV spike Ags. Taken together, our data suggest that COVID-19 vaccines elicit comparable immunity regardless of immunological memory to spike of endemic HCoVs in a mouse model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.113-128
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• 2021

In this study, we aimed to understand the public opinion on COVID-19 vaccine. To achieve the goal, we analyzed COVID-19 vaccine-related Twitter posts. 45,413 tweets posted from March 16, 2020 to March 15, 2021 including COVID-19 vaccine names as keywords were collected. The 12 vaccine names used for data collection included 'Pfizer', 'AstraZeneca', 'Modena', 'Jansen', 'NovaVax', 'Sinopharm', 'SinoVac', 'Sputnik V', 'Bharat', 'KhanSino', 'Chumakov', and 'VECTOR' in the order of the number of collected posts. The collected posts were analyzed manually and automatedly through keyword analysis, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling to understand the opinions for the investigated vaccines. According to the results, there were generally more negative posts about vaccines than positive posts. Anxiety about the aftereffects of vaccination and distrust in the efficacy of vaccines were identified as major negative factors for vaccines. On the contrary, the anticipation for the suppression of the spread of coronavirus following vaccination was identified as a positive social factor for vaccines. Different from previous studies that investigated opinions about COVID-19 vaccines through mass media data such as news articles, this study explores opinions of social media users using keyword analysis, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling. In addition, the results of this study can be used by governmental institutions for making policies to promote vaccination reflecting the social atmosphere.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.643-662
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand an individuals' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance intention during the peak of the pandemic by utilizing the coping theory and technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT) as a framework. Specifically, we focused on understanding how inward and outward emotion-focused coping (EFC), such as psychological distancing and emotional support seeking, affect problem-focused behavior (PFC), which is vaccine acceptance. Furthermore, we investigate how the individuals' cognitive appraisal to- ward COVID-19, consisted of perceived threat and perceived avoidability act as an antecedent of EFC. Methods: A PLS-SEM analysis was conducted to find the causal relation between the variables. An online survey was conducted targeting vaccination recipients on April, 2021. Participants were asked about their perception toward the virus, their coping strategy, and vaccine acceptance intention. A total of 186 valid samples were collected and used for the analysis. Furthermore, to analyze the out-of-sample predictive power of the research model and ensure the generalizability of the results, a PLSpredict analysis was conducted. Results: The results of the PLS-SEM analysis show that perceived threat toward COVID-19 significantly affect an individuals' EFC strategy. Furthermore, both types of inward EFC (psychological distancing, wishful thinking) negatively affected vaccine acceptance intention. On the other hand, emotional support seeking, which is a type of outward EFC, positively affected vaccine acceptance. The result of the PLSpredict analysis confirms the generalizability of the PLS-SEM result. Conclusion: The results of our study could be utilized to decrease vaccine hesitancy and prevent global pandemics by accelerating and increasing vaccination. Our study provides several meaningful implications to researchers and practitioners regarding vaccine acceptance and threat coping behavior.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.239-261
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• 2022

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore and compare changes in tourist opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak has caused changes in all areas of our lives, the conditions related to confinement during a lockdown have led to changes in tourists' habits and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach To analyze opinion changes about tourist attractions, this study performed topic modeling by summarizing topics into five dimensions: management, scenery, price, suggestion, and safety; then, based on the topic modeling results, sentiment analysis and emotion analysis were conducted to explore the change of tourists' opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings According to the results, this study confirmed the pandemic's positive effect on tourists' opinions about attractions after the COVID 19 outbreak. Presumably due to the absence of lines and crowed. Moreover, the dimension 'Safety' started to appear in US tourists' attractions reviews only in the period after the outbreak and during the mass vaccination. These results mean that tourists started to care more about safety due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2024

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant physical and psychological impacts on registered nurses (RNs). This study aimed to identify long COVID symptoms and their associated factors specifically among RNs. Methods: This descriptive correlational study's sample comprised 189 nurses (31.57±5.98 years, 93.7% female) in Korea. Self-reported long COVID symptoms were assessed using the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale. Data were collected from December 31, 2022, to January 13, 2023, using the online survey method and were analyzed using independent t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and a multiple linear regression analysis with the IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 program. Results: A total of 179 participants (94.7%) experienced one or more long COVID symptoms. The most prevalent symptoms were weakness (77.8%), fatigue (68.3%), breathlessness (67.7%), cough/throat sensitivity/voice change (50.3%), and sleep problems (50.3%). The factors related to long COVID symptoms were marital status, type of institution, working time, acute COVID-19 symptoms, and vaccination status. The quarantine period (β=.26, p<.001) and the nursing workforce after COVID-19 (β=-.17, p=.018) were significantly associated with long COVID symptoms (Adjusted R² =.33). Conclusion: Providing comprehensive recognition is necessary for the understanding of long COVID symptoms and their associated factors among nurses and could promote a long COVID symptom management education program targeted at nurses. Moreover, it could facilitate effective nursing care and education plans for long COVID patients.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2024

Purpose: The effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination schemes and the combination of vaccines of various platforms for administering booster doses is still being studied since it will depend on the population's response to vaccines. We aimed to evaluate the safety, protection, and immunogenicity of the Salvadorean population's third dose booster COVID-19 vaccine and the potential benefit of homologous vs. heterologous regimens. Materials and Methods: This is an analytical observational cohort study in a population aged 18 to 65 years that was primarily vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Sinovac, or Pfizer/BioNTech. Volunteers were recruited (n=223) and followed up for 3 months after receiving the 3rd vaccine (BNT162b2) as a booster. Adverse reactions were monitored, serum anti-spike immunoglobulin G (IgG) was assessed by chemiluminescence, and a polymerase chain reaction was carried out when subjects developed clinical signs. Results: The cohorts finally included 199 participants, and we observed only mild adverse effects in all cohorts. A significant increase in specific IgG levels was found after the booster dose in all cohorts. The heterologous scheme with Sinovac showed the greatest increase in antibody titer, and a decrease was observed in all participants after 3 months. During the follow-up period, 30 participants showed symptomatology compatible with COVID-19, but only four were laboratory-confirmed and they showed mild clinical signs. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the booster doses used were safe and promoted an immediate increase in immunogenicity, which decreased over time. The heterologous regimen showed stronger immunogenicity compared to the messenger RNA-based homologous scheme.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.613-621
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• 2021

This study conducted a network analysis to determine how COVID-19 vaccine-related issue spread on Twitter during the introduction stage of the COVID-19. Issue diffusion tendency is analyzed according to the time period: phase 1 (initiation of vaccine introduction: March 7 - April 3, 2021), phase 2 (stagnant period of vaccination: April 4 - April 22, 2021), and phase 3 (increase of vaccination: April 23 - May 5, 2021). NodeXL was used for data collection and analysis. Daily Twitter network data were collected by entering search terms highly related to the COVID-19 vaccine. This study found that side effects-related opinions were repeatedly formed throughout the analysis period. As the vaccination rate increased and death cases were reported on media, death-related issues also emerged on Twitter. On the other hand, vaccine safety did not receive much attention on Twitter. The results of this study highlight the role of social media as a channel of issue diffusion when a national disaster strikes. We emphasize the need for the government to monitor public opinions on social media and reflect them in crisis communication strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.188-198
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• 2024

This study was conducted to understand the level of compliance and influencing factors to respiratory infection prevention among the college students who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted on 200 college students from December 15, 2023 to January 5, 2024, and the data of 199 people who responded faithfully were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression through SPSS 18.0. According to the result, the compliance level of respiratory infection prevention was 32.95±6.05 points on average out of 48 points. The general characteristics, which showed differences in the compliance level of respiratory infection prevention, and the characteristics related to respiratory infections were identified to be major (t=-2.59, p=.010), education on respiratory infection prevention (t=1.99, p=.048), influenza vaccination of the year (t=-2.10, p=.037), COVID-19 vaccination of the year (t=3.56, p<.001), and mask wearing in crowded places (t=4.96, p<.001). As for the factors influencing the compliance to respiratory infection prevention, major (β=0.31, p<.001), influenza vaccination of the year (β=-0.15, p=.046), and mask wearing in a crowded places (β=-0.31, p<.001) were identified as a significant variable in the multiple regression analysis. In conclusion, since respiratory infections continue to occur even after the termination of COVID-19 epidemic, it is necessary to make efforts to promote compliance to respiratory infection prevention practice, and it is expected that the factors identified in this study can be used as the basic data when developing a respiratory infection prevention program targeting college students.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.211-222
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• 2022

After more than two years of efforts to end the corona pandemic, a gradual recovery is starting in countries with high vaccination rates. Easing public health policies for a full-fledged post-corona era, such as lifting the mandatory use of outdoor mask and quarantine measures in entry have been considered in Korea. However, the continuous emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and limitations in vaccine efficacy still remain challenging. Fortunately, T cells and memory T cells, which are key components of adaptive immunity appear to contribute substantially in COVID-19 control. SARS-CoV-2 specific CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T cells are induced by natural infection or vaccination, and rapid induction and activation of T cells is mainly associated with viral clearance and attenuated clinical severity. In addition, T cell responses induced by recognition of a wide range of epitopes were minimally affected and conserved against the highly infectious subsets of omicron variants. Polyfunctional SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell memory including stem cell-like memory T cells were also developed in COVID-19 convalescent patients, suggesting long lasting protective T cell immunity. Thus, a robust T-cell immune response appears to serve as a reliable and long-term component of host protection in the context of reduced efficacy of humoral immunity and persistent mutations and/or immune escape.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2023

Objectives: This study is to report a case of prurigo nodularis with skin rash that occurred after COVID-19 vaccination improved by Korean medicine treatment. Methods: The patient visited our hospital complaining of prurigo nodularis and skin rashes which occurred in various parts of the body (Total score 17). The patient complained of sleep disturbance (NRS 9) due to nighttime pruritus (NRS 7). Based on the patient's symptoms, herbal medicine Soshiho-tang and acupuncture on the left Triple Energizer Hangyeok was prescribed. Results: Most of the skin symptoms improved significantly leaving only scars, minor scratches and pigmentation (Total score 17 → 6). The patient's sleep condition improved (NRS 7 → 1) as the pruritus decreased from NRS 9 to 2. Conclusions: This study is significant in that the patient with prurigo nodularis accompanied by skin rash effectively improved by the Korean Medicine treatment.