• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.569-573
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• 2017

The present study was performed to reveal the current status and risk factors of Strongyloides stercoralis infections in the villages of Kenethao district, Xayaburi Province, Lao PDR. Fecal specimens were collected and examined for S. stercoralis using Koga-agar plate culture technique. Among 516 individuals, the prevalence of S. stercoralis and hookworm infection was 44.2% and 17.1%, respectively. Co-infection was detected in 13.2% of the cases. The prevalence did not significantly differ between males and females (P=0.193). However, the prevalence of S. stercoralis infection increased significantly with age (P=0.041). Of the risk factors examined, both performing farming activities (P=0.001) and walking barefoot when going outside of the house (P=0.003) showed significant correlations with S. stercoralis infections. Our results suggest that S. stercoralis is highly endemic in this area. The National Helminth Control Program of Lao PDR should take actions to control S. stercoralis infection. In addition, provision of health education about the benefits of wearing shoes would be important for reducing infection in the study area. Moreover, the application of high-sensitivity diagnostic approaches is needed to obtain the true impact of S. stercoralis infections in all rural communities in order to provide surveillance activities in Lao PDR.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 2001

Background : The Clostridium difficile is the most important identifiable cause of nosocomial infectious diarrhea and colitis, which lengthens hospital stay. Recently incidence of C. difficile has been increasing in an university hospital, and an intervention for prevention and control of C. difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD) was in prompt need. Methods : Subjects were the patients in the neurosurgical intensive care unit(NCU) where C. difficile was most frequently isolated. To increase participation of various departments, we used the CQI method, because management of CDAD requires a wholistic approach including control of antibiotics, barrier precaution and environmental cleaning and disinfection. Duration of the CQI activities was 9 months from April to December 1999. Results : The identified problems were misuse and overuse of antibiotics, lack of consciousness of medical personnels and the possibility of transmission from the contaminated environment and tube feeding. Education for proper use of antibiotics and management of C. difficile infection, use of precaution stickers, supplement of handwashing equipments, emphasis on environmental disinfection, and the change of the process of tube feeding were done. The CDAD rate in NCU was significantly decreased after the CQI program (8.6 case per 1,000 patient days from January to April 1999 vs 4.8 from May to December 1999). The distribution of neurosurgical wards including NCU among the total number of isolated C. difficile from the clinical specimens dropped from 49.4% in January to April to 33,7% in May to December. The average hospital stay of the neurosurgical department changed from 19.6 days to 15.2 days. Also, the effect of the CQI activities for C. difficile may have affected the incidence of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE). Duration and dosage of certain antibiotics used in the NS department were decreased. The distribution of neurosurgical department in the number of VRE isolated patients declined from 18.4% to 11.1%. Conclusion : Infection control of resistant organisms such as C. difficile is likely to be successful when management of environmental contamination an collaborative efforts of decreasing the patients' risk factors such as antibiotics management and decreasing the length of hospital stay come simultaneously. For this work, related departments need to actively participate in the entire process under a common target through discussions for identifying problems and bringing up solutions. In this respect, making use of a CQI team is an efficient method of infection control for gathering participation and cooperation of related departments.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.166-173
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• 2007

In a trial to select suitable fungicides for developing a spray program that can control apple white rot effectively, after-infection activities in some protective fungicides were detected. Six fungicides, mancozeb, propineb, benomyl, folpet, azoxystrobin and iminoctadine-triacetate, which had been extensively used in apple orchards, were sprayed on 12-year-old apple trees (cv. Fuji) at 15-day intervals from late May to late July. Disease incidences and infection frequencies of the fruit bagged just before and soon after each spray were examined. When the infection frequency or disease incidence of the fruit bagged after each spraying of fungicide was significantly lower than those of the fruit bagged before spraying, the fungicides appeared to confer after-infection activity. The six fungicides showed diverse activities on white rot: folpet showed after-infection activity on disease development, iminoctadine-triacetate showed after-infection activity on infection, azoxystrobin showed after-infection activity on disease development and infection, and mancozeb, propineb and benomyl showed no distinct activity. The activity of a fungicide became much higher when it was sprayed alternately with other fungicide rather than successive spraying of the same fungicide. Analysis of the properties of these protective fungicides could lead to the development of a highly effective spray program against white rot.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1224-1229
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• 2012

Puerarin (P), an isoflavone derived from kudzu roots, has strong biological activities, but its bioavailability is often limited by its low water solubility. To increase its solubility, P was glucosylated by three dextransucrases from Leuconostoc or Streptococcus species. Leuconostoc lactis EG001 dextransucrase exhibited the highest productivity of puerarin glucosides (P-Gs) among the three tested enzymes, and it primarily produced two P-Gs with a 53% yield. Their structures were identified as ${\alpha}$-$_D$-glucosyl-($1{\rightarrow}6$)-P (P-G) by using LC-MS or $^1H$- or $^{13}C$-NMR spectroscopies and ${\alpha}$-$_D$-isomaltosyl-($1{\rightarrow}6$)-P (P-IG2) by using specific enzymatic hydrolysis, and their solubilities were 15- and 202-fold higher than that of P, respectively. P-G and P-IG2 are easily applicable in the food and pharmaceutical industries as alternative functional materials.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.121-129
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing on practice of infection control among clinical nurses. Data were collected from 142 nurses in hospitals in D city from December 10 to December 15, 2016. It was confirmed that the perceived barrier of health beliefs and the infection control awareness influenced the infection control performance of the subjects(F=43.61, p<.001). The explaining power of these two factors on infection control performance was 38.0%. In order to improve the nurse's infection control performance, it is necessary to continue education to recognize that infection control activities are important. However, it is necessary to consider institutional complement to prevent nurse's infection control practice from being recognized as work burden or suffering.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Purpose: To study the internal psychological conflicts among nursing students during an infection control protocol carried out in the hospital by measuring their observation skills and performance during clinical training. Methods: Investigation of both pre- and post- infection control was conducted using questionnaires for clinical infection practices. We identified and evaluated the students' observation skills, clinical performance, clinical perception, and internal conflict regarding clinical infection control. We also interviewed the students as part of our study. Results: Among parameters such as clinical performance, observation skills, clinical perception, and internal conflict, the average observation skills (t=5.49, p<.001) were significantly lower, while internal conflict among students (t=-7.23, p<.001) was significantly higher than expected prior to clinical training. Generally, there was a negative correlation between observation skills and internal conflict in every aspect of infection control practice (r=-.281, p=.031). Internal conflict was significantly higher than expected in the context of hand hygiene (t=-2.135, p=.037), personal hygiene (t=-3.48, p=.002), and ventilator management (t=-3.69, p<.001). Clinical performance of students in the context of hand hygiene (t=4.69, p<.001), personal hygiene (t=2.06, p=.044), and ventilator management (t=2.68, p<.001) was significantly lower than expected prior to clinical training. Conclusion: Our findings showed that internal psychological conflict is higher when infection control practices are observed or performed to a lesser degree. Therefore, reinforcing education regarding infection control among students, such as developing a systematic program, or consecutive training and monitoring, is suggested.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.466-475
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of infection control in long term care hospitals. Data were gathered from 156 long term care hospitals that received certification evaluation from May 1, 2016 to July 31, 2016. We used a questionnaire consisting of 85 items regarding the status and perceived importance of infection control. The data were analyzed using the SPSS / WIN 21.0 program. All of the hospitals have infection control regulations, 80.4% of them have an infection control committee and 86.0% of them employ an ICP(infection control practitioner) who holds this position in addition to another. Hand hygiene showed the highest score at 4.47 in the perceived importance of infection control. Employee education and compliance with the validity period of sterilized products showed the highest frequency and perceived importance among the infection control activities. The above results show that almost all of the long term care hospitals have infection control regulations, but that these regulations are not properly implemented, because of the lack of applicable regulations on the policy level. Therefore, it is necessary to develop infection monitoring standards and infection control guidelines for long term care hospitals and provide the infection control practitioners with training in how to apply them.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.408-415
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was performed to investigate the mumps transmission control status and inapparent infection rate among middle and high school students in Daegu City during a mumps outbreak. Methods : Nine schools (two middle schools and seven high schools), which reported a number of mumps cases between 2007 and 2008 were selected for investigation. During March-May 2008, a standard questionnaire was distributed to gather information about case identification, instructed isolation measure, isolation status of mumps cases and related factors, and outdoor activities of nonisolated mumps case. Inapparent infection rate was estimated by serum mumps IgM and IgG antibodies status and self-reported mumps symptoms in three of the nine schools. Results : Among 2,560 respondents, more than half of students answered that they did not receive instructions in mumps transmission control measures during the outbreak. Among the 327 mumps cases identified by the questionnaire, 131 cases (40.1%) were considered as isolated and the isolation rates were significantly different among schools, grades, and gender. Of the non-isolated cases, 88.3% continued attending school. Inapparent mumps infection rates were between 56.3% and 70.2%. Conclusions : Mumps transmission control was inadequate to control the mumps outbreak. Although high inapparent infection rate would mitigate the transmission control effect of case isolation, this measure is fundamental for infection control. The reasons of this inadequate status need to be explored to develop an effective intervention strategy.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.137-145
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• 2005

Purpose: This study has been attempted as one of the Quality Improvement activities in order to provide with intravenous injection control and to confirm the evaluation from the patients and their guardians, and also from nurses themselves. Method: The subject of this intravenous injection control was a control group of 239 patients and 176 nurses, a comparison group of 128 patients and 146 nurses. The tool consisted of hospitality (towards patients), explanation, and infection prevention activities. The collected data were analysed using SPSS Windows 11.0 program for percentage, $X^2$-test and t-test. Result: 1) The nurses who were instructed in standardised intravenous injection control received more satisfactory evaluation from the patients(t=-2.89, p=.004) than the nurses who were not. However, in the subdivisions, the explanation field was the only one to receive a more satisfactory evaluation(t=-1.14, p=.255). 2) The nurses who were instructed in standardised intravenous injection control showed higher performances in intravenous injection control (t=-4.21, p=.000) than the nurses who were not. In the subdivisions, hospitality, explanation, and infection prevention activities all showed effectiveness ($t=-2.35{\sim}3.90$, $p=.020{\sim}.000$). Conclusion: From the results stated above, it can be concluded that standardised intravenous injection control instruction for nurses brought out better evaluation, i.e. satisfaction, from the patients and their guardians, and the nurses who received the instruction showed better performances in intravenous injection control.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.739-747
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• 2019

As the research for analyzing the awareness and the performance level for infection control of radiological technologists working at the clinic located in Gyoungsangnam province, this study was conducted to provide the basic education data of infection control for radiological technologist who works in the clinic. During July 14, 2014 to March 31, 2015, after we sent out a total of 150 questionnaires for the survey to radiological technologists working at the clinic located in Gyoungsangnam province, 131 questionnaires suitable for research were analysis by using SPSS 18.0 statistical analysis software. As the infection control factors, a total of 60 items about the awareness and the performance level for infection control (12 items for infection control characteristics included) were analyzed. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and regression analysis were performed based on the general characteristics of the study subjects. Regarding the awareness factor for infection control, the total awareness level was high as $4.15{\pm}.05$ and the total performance level was also high as $4.05{\pm}.05$. Through these results, although the performance level was slightly lower than awareness level, the level of infection control of the radiological technologists working at the clinics located in Gyeongnam was analyzed to be relatively high. The infection control of the clinic's radiological technologist should be carried out through the continuous infection education and prevention activities of the hospital staff, and radiological technologist working in clinics should also be positioned as specialists in infection control.