• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.42-51
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• 2019

We compared the antibacterial activities of spermidine and astaxanthin against two gram-positive bacteria such as Streptococcus parauberis and S. iniae to find new antibacterial candidates. We also evaluated the preventive effects of spermidine against oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity in C2C12 myoblasts. Our results indicated that spermidine has more significant antibacterial activities than astaxanthin against both two fish pathogenic bacteria as well as gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli used as a control group. Minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of spermidine were 0.25 mM and 1 mM against S. parauberis, 1 mM and 3 mM against S. iniae, and 0.5 mM and 1.5 mM against E. coli, respectively. In addition, the postantibiotic effect lasted from 7 h, 5 h and 6 h for S. parauberis, S. iniae and E. coli, respectively. The results also showed that the decreased C2C12 cell viability by H₂O₂ could be attributed to the induction of DNA damage and apoptosis accompanied by the increased production of reactive oxygen species, which was remarkably protected by spermidine. Additionally, the antioxidant effect of spermidine was associated with the activation of Nrf2 signaling pathway. According to the data, spermidine may be a potential lead compound which can be further optimized to discover novel antibacterial and antioxidant agents.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.9-20
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• 2016

Background and objectives : Student support programs in Korean Medicine (KM) college have been not much activated as compared to other colleges. So, this research is aim to offer a baseline data to plan and run any kind of student support programs by understanding Korean Medicine students' preference and satisfaction. Methods : The survey was taken for 4 weeks from 2nd may 2016 to 27th may 2016, asking 162 out of a total of 255 students from $1^{st}$ grade to $6^{th}$ grade (pre-med to med). 3 Korean medicine doctors and 8 general students in Korean medicine college made the questionnaire by reviewing and modifying used questionnaire for student support programs. It consists of 13 questions (3 questions of demographic characteristics, 10 questions of overall awareness about student support programs). Results : 'Advanced clinical training course' was the most preferred with 23.4% among 13 different student support programs when multiple voting was allowed. 'Chinese Medicine college tour' got 21.6%, and 'Major training in Chinese Medicine college (for 17 days)' followed next with 19.4%. Expected satisfaction score to student support programs was 7.30 on average out of 10. Conclusions : Expected satisfaction to student support program was likely to be high. This research can be utilized as a significant assessment and analysis when developing new student support program for Korean Medicine college students.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.67-82
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze how the different lifestyles between Koreans and Korean Americans have significant effects on their health. Despite being the same race, Koreans and Korean Americans have different health conditions and health attitudes due to the acquired environmental factors such as social-economic factors, lifestyle risk factors, healthcare systems, and medical utilization. It is crucial to examine how the different lifestyle habits between Koreans and Korean Americans lead to various health conditions for establishing an effective health promotion policy. Methods: In this study, a comparative analysis was conducted using the National Health and Nutrition Survey of Korea and CHIS data of the United States in 2005 and 2015 to provide valuable insights when establishing such a policy. Results: The specific research purpose is as follows: First, socioeconomic factors, such as (1)living habits risk factors, (2)health satisfaction levels, (3)disease outbreaks, and (4)medical uses, are analyzed to find the distinct characteristics among Koreans, Korean Americans, and Americans. Second, the three groups --Koreans, Korean Americans, and Americans-- were compared based on their exposure to disease-related lifestyle risk factors related to their body mass index and their general health condition. The research results are as follows: First, all three groups improved health conditions in 2015 better than in 2005. Koreans maintained relatively higher general health conditions compared to other groups: their prevalence rate of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and asthma was lower than that of U.S. residents. Second, in regards to health behavior factors, the lifetime smoking experience for Koreans and Americans both decreased in 2015 compared to 2005, while the lifetime smoking experience for Korean Americans increased slightly. The number of smokers for Koreans has greatly decreased over a decade while that of Americans has moderately increased. Third, according to the results of the multiple regression, the general health conditions, which is a dependent variable, suggests that the number of men who answered they are healthy is greater than that of women in Korea, compared to the United States. Conclusions: In conclusion, the acquired environmental factors had more significant impacts on health than the racial factors did. Compared to 2005, the health behaviors and health levels of Korean Americans in 2015 gradually became more similar to those of Americans.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.490-497
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to examine the quality of life (QOL) and its related factors in veterans with physical dysfunction. The survey data was collected from 412 patients with physical dysfunction managed at five veterans' hospitals in Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon city. The baseline for the quality of life was measured using the SF-36 (Short-Form 36), activities of daily living was measured using a Modified Barthel Index (MBI), pain level was determined using Quadruple Visual Analogue Scale (QVAS), and the depression level was assessed using Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale: Short-Form (SGDS-K). The SF-36 scores showed a significant correlation with age (r=-0.132), self-rated current health status (r=-0.545), active daily living (r=0.514), pain level (r=-0.243), and depression level (r=-0.565) (p<0.05). The most influential variables on the QOL were the depression level (B=-.969, p<0.001), QVAS (B=-0.163, p<0.001), and MBI (B=0.140, p<0.001). The results of this study showed that that depression, pain and activities of daily living are significant predictors of the QOL in veterans with a physical dysfunction. Therefore, healthcare providers need to consider these parameters for interventions to improve the QOL in veterans with a physical dysfunction.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.341-352
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• 2012

It is well established that excessive sodium intake is related to a higher incidence of chronic diseases such as hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and gastric cancer. Although the upper limit of the current sodium intake guideline by WHO is set at 2,000 mg/day for adults, sodium intake of Koreans is well over 4,700 mg/capita/day implying an urgent need to develop and implement sodium intake reduction policy at the national level. This study investigated the cost-effectiveness of the sodium intake reduction policy, for the first time, in Korea. Analyses were performed using most recent and representative data on national health insurance statistics, healthcare utilization, employment information, disease morbidity/mortality, etc. The socioeconomic benefits of the policy, resulting from reduced morbidity of those relevant diseases, included lower medical expenditures, transportation costs, caregiver cost for inpatients and income losses. The socioeconomic benefits from diminished mortality included reductions in earning losses and welfare losses caused by early deaths. It is estimated that the amount of total benefits of reducing sodium intake from 4.7 g to 3.0 g is 12.6 trillion Korean Won; and the size of its cost is 149 billion Won. Assuming that the effect of sodium intake reduction would become gradually evident over a 5-year period, the implied rate of average return to the sodium reduction policy is 7,790% for the following 25 years, suggesting a very high cost-effectiveness. Accordingly, development and implementation of a mid-to-long term plan for a consistent sodium intake reduction policy is extremely beneficial and well warranted.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.19-29
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• 2017

Purpose : To describe and understand the experience of QI (quality improvement) nurses related to the hospital QI activities in public general hospitals. Methods : Purposive sampling was conducted 10 QI nurses and who have QI work experience for more than 1 year. Data were collected through focus group interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed with qualitative content analysis using Strauss and Corbin's methodology. Results : The core categories of experience with QI activities were 'the success and failure of the medical care and overall health service sector', 'the degree of activation of current QI activities', 'characteristics of public hospital QI activities', 'what is needed to activate future QI activities'. The key themes were derived as follows. 'Success of quality enhancement activities according to the characteristic of public hospitals', 'activation of public hospital QI activities through leadership and QI education', 'reorganizing the role of regional hospitals in public hospitals'. Conclusion : Physician participation is important in the success of QI activities in public hospital practice. To lead these physician participation, Sharing doctor's QI experience and providing the necessary knowledge in QI activities and helping their leadership in QI activities are needed. QI nurses at public hospitals should lead QI activities to improve national hospitals' care quality through cooperating with local hospitals.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.435-444
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• 2011

The development of ubiquitous healthcare technology and portable electronic devices requires new energy sources for providing continuous power supply. This study particularly focuses on an energy harvesting system capable of charging energy using clothing. One of the sources for energy harvesting is heat energy, which is the difference in temperature of the body and the surrounding environment. In this study, the skin temperature distribution of the human body was empirically measured to determine the basic materials needed to develop heat energy harvesting clothing. The distribution of skin temperature in different sections of the human body was analyzed. The analysis found that the skin temperature of the upper body was higher than that of the lower body. The area close to the heart with a lot of blood flow was especially high. The skin temperature of the back side of the body, such as the back of the neck, upper back, and waist, was higher than that of the front side of the body. As for the arms, the skin temperature of the upper arms was higher than that of the lower arms, and the skin temperature of the back side of the arms was lower than that of the front and the flank side of the arms. The difference in the average skin temperature and the environment temperature was highest at the back of the neck, and thereby is considered to be the most appropriate section to integrate the heat energy harvesting function and structure. The following sections had the next highest difference in values, listed in descending order: the back of the waist, the sides of shoulders, the front chest area, the front side of the upper arms, and the front abdomen. Based on the skin temperatures of the different sections of the human body, this study outlines the basic guidelines for developing heat energy harvesting clothing.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.130-142
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• 2008

Different from other ontology languages, TopicMap is capable of integrating numerous amount of heterogenous information resources using the locational information without any information transformation. Although many conventional editors have been developed for topic maps, they are standalone-type only for writing XTM documents. As a result, these tools request too much time for handling large-scale data and provoke practical problems to integrate with legacy systems which are mostly based on relational database. In this paper, we model a large-scale topic map structure based on XTM 1.0 into RDB structure to minimize the processing time and build up the ontology in legacy systems. We implement a topic map platform called X-TOP that can enhance the efficiency of ontology construction and provide interoperability between XTM documents and database. Moreover, we can use conventional SQL tools and other application development tools for topic map construction in X-TOP. The X-TOP is implemented to have 3-tier architecture to support flexible user interfaces and diverse DBMS. This paper shows the usability of X-TOP by means of the comparison with conventional tools and the application to healthcare cancer ontology management.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.569-577
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• 2018

This study was conducted to determine the effects of middle-aged women's social support and self-efficacy on their aging anxiety, with the ultimate goal of providing basic information for devising educational and interventive programs to help reduce aging anxiety. Participants of this study were 210 middle-aged women living in B Metropolitan City. Data were collected from May 10 to 28, 2018, and statistically processed using t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression analysis. Participants showed significant differences in aging anxiety depending on age, education, monthly income, marital life satisfaction, leisure time activities, and number of friends. In addition, aging anxiety had significant negative correlations with social support and self-efficacy, and the main factors affecting middle-aged women's aging anxiety were found to be self-efficacy, marital satisfaction and social support. Of these, self-efficacy had the greatest effect, explaining 42.7% of the participants' aging anxiety. To help middle-aged women reduce their aging anxiety, it is necessary to provide them with programs that improve social activity participation, raise self-efficacy and promote relationships with family and communities. It is also recommended that these women be provided with educational and interventive programs that help them adjust to aging and develop a positive awareness of it.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.561-574
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• 2018

In this study, regional variations and factors associated with prevalence of metabolic syndrome were grasped using GWR (geographically weighted regression) and methodologies for the efficient management of metabolic syndrome were then set up to resolve health inequalities. Based on the National Health Screening Statistical Yearbook published by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), community health survey (KCDC) and other governmental institutions, indicators of social structural and mediation factors related to the regional prevalence of metabolic syndrome were collected. First, the existence of indicators to measure variations in metabolic syndrome were confirmed with the collected data by calculating the EQ (extremal quotient) and CV (coefficient of variations). The GWR, which is able to take spatial variations into consideration, was then adopted to analyze the factors of regional variations in metabolic syndrome. The GWR analysis revealed that severity and management of the main causes need to be prioritized in accordance with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Consequently, the order of priority in management of regional prevalence of metabolic syndrome was established, and plans that can increase the effectiveness of management of metabolic syndrome were confirmed to be feasible.