• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.67-83
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• 2024

Background : Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted all aspects of life, from disease prevalence to the utilization of medical services. In Republic of Korea, there exists both a duty and a right for Korean Medicine to treat epidemic diseases. However, no studies have been conducted to examine changes in the utilization of Korean Medicine during the pandemic. This study aims to identify the differences in the utilization of Korean Medicine before and after COVID-19. Method : This study analyzed data from the Health Insurance Statistics of the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service from 2016 to 2022. To compare the utilization of Korean Medicine with Western medicine, the analysis was limited to the clinic level. Results : The top 10 most frequently treated conditions in Korean Medicine from 2016 to 2022 remained consistent, primarily involving musculoskeletal diseases, with the exception of functional dyspepsia. Visits to Korean Medicine clinics have declined, while visits to Western Medicine clinics recovered. Despite the overall decline in visits, certain Korean Medicine services increased in frequency, especially in precipitator-simulated acupuncture, indirect moxibustion (moxa burner), pricking cupping (two areas), warming meridian sinew, and complex Chuna therapy (80% as out-of-pocket expenses). Although the relative value units in Korean Medicine services varied, the fees for all services, except for precipitator-simulated acupuncture, increased. Conclusion : These findings indicate that COVID-19 has affected the utilization of Korean Medicine. Further studies are needed to explore the broader impact of epidemics on medical services and to develop policies to address these changes.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.307-342
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• 2018

This article is to discuss about a debate on controlling and handling rights of diagnostic instruments for the outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease(FMD) in South Korea between 2010 and 2011. The epidemic of FMD caused catastrophic shockwave to the whole Korean society and there was fierce debate what was the best diagnostic tool for the disease and who owned the controlling power. The central government insisted to have the power of controlling the diagnostic tool to maintain the nation-centered disease control while local governments and civil organisations attempted to take over the controlling power of the diagnostic tools. In this article the concept of boundary objects which was suggested by an American STS academic, Susan Leigh Star and her colleagues. The boundary object could be the useful concept for capturing the whole process of constructing and imposing meanings and social orders in the diagnostic tool, called the portable antibody/antigen diagnostic kit. The constructing process of this boundary object must be understood with relation to boundary making activities between different social groups.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2889-2894
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• 2016

This study aimed to modify behavior regarding liver fluke and cholangiocarcinoma prevention in Chumphuang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand through integrated learning. A total of 180 participants were included through purposive selection of high-risk scores on verbal screening. Participants attended the health education program which applied the health belief model included family based, knowledge station based, academic merit based and community based learning. Data were collected using a questionnaire composed of 4 parts: 1) personal information, 2) knowledge, 3) perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers, 4) practice regarding liver fluke and cholangiocarcinoma prevention. The result revealed that the majority were female (79.9%), age ${\geq}60$ years old (33.2%), primary school educational level (76.1%), and agricultural occupation (70.1%). The mean scores of knowledge, perception, and practice to liver fluke and cholangiocarcinoma prevention, before participated the integrative learning were low, moderate, and low, respectively. Meanwhile, the mean score of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers, and practice regarding liver fluke and cholangiocarcinoma prevention, were higher with statistical significance after participation in the integrated learning. This finding indicates that health education programs may successfully modify health behavior in the rural communities. Therefore they may useful for further work behavior modification in other epidemic areas.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.173-186
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• 2000

This experiment was carried out to investigate the tendency of incident diseases in pre- and post- weaning piglets which ages were 1 to 7 weeks old by laboratory diagnosis and in order to minimize death in preweaning piglets and of stunted growth in postweaning piglets. The result of this experiment used as the basic data for the preventive programs in pre- and post- weaning piglets and were as follows: 23 different diseases diagnosed in 331 cases were studied in relation to age, season, and etiology. The most prevelent diseases of pre- and post- weaning piglet were Colibacillosis(79 case, 23.9%) and the major diseases were Salmonellosis(44 cases, 13.3%), Anemia(37 cases, 11.2%). Unknown viral disease(20 case, 6.1%), Rota viral infection(19 case, 5.8%), Porcine reproductive & respiratory syndrome(PRRS; 15 case 4.5%), Transmissible gastroenteritis(TGE; 12 case, 3.6%). The gastrointestinal disease, such as Colibacillosis, Salmonellosis, Swine dysentery, Clostridial infection, Rotaviral infection, TGE, Porcine epidemic diarrhea(PED) and Ballantidiosis occured pro- dominently in the period of pre- and post- weaning, which were 178 cases(53.8%) and not related to occurrence according to age and season. The respiratory diseases were Atrophic rhinitis(AR), Swine enzootic pneumonia, Pneumonic pasteurellosis, Pleuropneumonia, Branchopneumonia, PRRS and which were 48 cases(14.5%) and higher prevalent in spring and summer. The viral diseases was 73 cases(22.1%) that occurred in the period of 5 weeks piglet and prevalent mainly in spring. The bacterial diseases were 188 cases(56.8%) that were not related to occurrence according to age and season. Salmonellosis was prevalent in 3 to 5 weeks piglet and mainly occurred in summer. Viral septicemia and rotaviral infection occurred after 5 weeks piglets intensively and 3 to 5 weeks, respectively. And the both occurred without relation with season. PRRS occurred after 4 weeks piglet and prevalent in summer. TGE occurred 1 to 7 days old piglets and prevalent in spring and winter. Hematologic values of anemia was decrease in number of Red Blood Cell, concentration of Hemoglobin and Hematocrit. Amikacin, cephalothin, colistin, norfloxacin were effective to E coli, and amikacin, cephalothin, nortloxacin, neomycin were effective to Salmonellra spp. but clindamycin, erythromycin, penicillin, sulfonamides were resistant to E coli and Salmonella spp.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 2016

A disaster can be defined in many ways based on perspectives, in addition, its types are able to classify differently by various standards. Considering the different perspectives, the disaster can be occurred by natural phenomenon that is like typhoon, earthquake, flood, and drought, and by the accident that is like collapse of facilities, traffic accidents, and environmental pollution, etc. Into the modern society, moreover, the disaster includes the damages by diffusion of epidemic and infectious disease in domestic animals. The disaster was defined by natural and man-made hazards in the past. As societies grew with changes of paradigm, social factors have been included in the concept of the disaster according to new types unexpected by new disease and scientific technology. Change the concept of social disasters, Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS) has provided the regional safety index, which measures the safety level of a local government. However, this regional safety index has some limitation to use because this index provides the information for city unit which is a unit of administrative districts of urban. Since these administrative districts units are on a different level with urban and rural areas, the regional safety index provided by MPSS is not be able to direct apply to the rural areas. The purpose of this study is to determine the regional safety index targeting rural areas. To estimate the safety index, we was used for 3 indicators of the MPSS, a fire, a crime, and an infectious disease which are evaluable the regional safety index using an accessibility analysis. For determining the regional safety index using accessibility from community centers to public facilities, the safety index of fire, crime, and infectious disease used access time to fire station, police office, and medical facility, respectively. An integrated Cheongju, targeting areas in this study, is mixed region with urban and rural areas. The results of regional safety index about urban and rural areas, the safety index in rural area is relatively higher than in the urban. Neverthless the investment would be needed to improve the safety in the rural areas.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.149-161
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• 2013

Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV), the causative agent of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS), is an epidemic virus of cultured olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus in Korea. In the present study, the entire glycoprotein (G) gene including several hypervariable regions from 36 isolates of diverse geographic and host origin and 8 Korean VHSV isolates from cultured olive flounder were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that most of Asian VHSV belong to the genotype IVa group, suggesting that they originated from a common ancestral virus. Comparative sequence analysis of the complete G protein from Korean VHSV isolates revealed 3 Korean strain-specific nucleotide residues (nucleotide number of G-region: A755, T834 and T1221). These results suggest that Korean VHSV originated from a common ancestor, but these regional specific nucleotide sequences suggest that genetic differences of VHSV are more related to geographic areas than to host fish species.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2010

Objectives: The pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus has required decision-makers to act in the face of the substantial uncertainties. In this study, we evaluated the potential impact of the pandemic response strategies in the Republic of Korea using a mathematical model. Methods: We developed a deterministic model of a pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in a structured population using the demographic data from the Korean population and the epidemiological feature of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009. To estimate the parameter values for the deterministic model, we used the available data from the previous studies on pandemic influenza. The pandemic response strategies of the Republic of Korea for novel influenza A (H1N1) virus such as school closure, mass vaccination (70% of population in 30 days), and a policy for anti-viral drug (treatment or prophylaxis) were applied to the deterministic model. Results: The effect of two-week school closure on the attack rate was low regardless of the timing of the intervention. The earlier vaccination showed the effect of greater delays in reaching the peak of outbreaks. When it was no vaccination, vaccination at initiation of outbreak, vaccination 90 days after the initiation of outbreak and vaccination at the epidemic peak point, the total number of clinical cases for 400 days were 20.8 million, 4.4 million, 4.7 million and 12.6 million, respectively. The pandemic response strategies of the Republic of Korea delayed the peak of outbreaks (about 40 days) and decreased the number of cumulative clinical cases (8 million). Conclusions: Rapid vaccination was the most important factor to control the spread of pandemic influenza, and the response strategies of the Republic of Korea were shown to delay the spread of pandemic influenza in this deterministic model.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2009

Porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and rotaviruses are considered as the most important causative agents of diarrhea in piglets. The study established 3 method vaccination programs to prevent PEDV. A (LL)group inoculated twice vaccinations on 2-weeks-interval during the late term of pregnant sows with PEDV live vaccine. The B (LKK) group was applied that one time single PEDV live vaccine at the pre-mate followed by the TGEV PEDV combined inactivated vaccine (twice vaccination on 2-weeks interval at the third-trimester). C (KK) group was applied to sow which inoculated twice vaccination on 2-weeks-interval during the late term of pregnant sows with by the TGEV, PEDV combined inactivated vaccine. As the result of SN test on sows in the pig farm before vaccination, antibody titers was showed 9/45 (20.0%). By comparison with the serum neutralizing antibody titers against PEDV of the vaccination programs after PEDV of the vaccination, A group and B group vaccination method was higher than those of C group in sows. In the piglets up to 2 weeks of age, A group was showed antibody titers of 17/22 (81.8%) that showed 2-128, and B group was showed antibody titers of 30/37 (81.1%) that showed 2-512, and C group was showed antibody titers of 14/28 (50.0%) that showed 2-32. On the other hand, PEDV antibody titers were tested for the survey. As the results of SN test, Aujeszky's disease survey in 54 pig farms from november 2005 to august 2006, antibody titers of 47/286 (16.4%) showed above 2. Five breeding farms were antibody titers of 38/77 (49.4%), Wanggung zone farms antibody titers of 59/85 (69.4%). In pigs farms vaccinated the first of twice PEDV live vaccine, and after 6 month, the second of twice TGEV PEDV combined inactivated vaccine (LLKK, 256-1024 titer) method was higher than those of vaccinated twice the early term of pregnant, and twice the late term of pregnant sows of PEDV live vaccine (LLLL, 32 titer).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.294-297
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• 2015

Recently, big data analysis which is based on machine learning has been gained a lot of attentions in various fields. Especially, agriculture is considered as one promising field that machine learning algorithm can be efficiently utilized and accordingly, lots of works have been done so far. However, most of the researches are focusing on the forecast of weather or analysis of genome, and machine learning algorithm for livestock management, especially which uses individual data of livestocks, e.g., temperature and movement, are not properly investigated yet. In this work, we propose fast abnormal livestock detection algorithm based on machine learning, more specifically expectation maximization, such that livestock which has problem can be efficiently and promptly found. In our proposed scheme, livestocks are divided into two clusters using expectation maximization based on their bionic data and the abnormal livestock can be detected by comparing the size of two clusters. Especially, we divide the case in which single livestock has problem and the case in which livestocks have epidemic such that fast response is enabled when epidemic case. Moreover, our algorithm does not need statistical information.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.86-92
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• 2001

This experiment was carried out to analyze the recent epidemic of rice blast in southern provinces of Korea in 1999 and 2000. Incidences of leaf blast and panicle blast in these years were 1.5 and 2.9 times greater than those in 1998, respectively. Cultivation areas of rice cultivars, Daesan, Ilmi and Dongan bred from Milyang 95 as a recurrent parent increased over the country from 11% in 1998 to 38.4% in 2000, which were grown in more than 85% of total paddy fields in Jeonnam province. Predominant race populations of Pyricularia grisea in the farmers' fields had been changed from KJ-301 to KI-1117 in 1999 and KI-1113 and KJ-105 in 2000. Distribution ratio of the KI-1117 race in 1998 in the southern provinces was 1.7%, but increased to 30% in 1999. Although the cultivars Daesan, Ilmi and Dongan have shown wide spectrum of resistance to many races including KJ-301, they were susceptible to such races as KI-1117, KI-1113 and, KJ-105. These three races could be further classified into two sub-races, KI-1117 and KI-1117a, KI-1113 and Kl-1113a, and KJ-105 and KJ-105a based on virulence to Daesan. The newly classfied races, Kl-1113a, Kl-1117a, and KJ-l05a were also pathogenic to Ilmi and Dongan. This indicates that rice blast epidemic in southern provinces in 1999 and 2000 resulted from the breakdown of the resistance of Daesan, Ilmi and Dongan by the rapid increase of virulent races KI-1117, KI-1113, KJ-105 and their new sub-races.