• Korean Security Journal
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• no.22
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• pp.113-144
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• 2010

Bioterrorism is becoming more attractive to terrorist groups owing to the dramatic increase in the utility and lethality of biological weapons in line with today's cutting-edge biological science and technology. The Republic of Korea is facing both internal and external terrorist threats, as well as the possible biological warfare by North Korea. Therefore, it is essential to establish an effective bioterrorism response system in the ROK. In order to come up with the adequate response system for the ROK, an in-depth study has been conducted on the current bioterrorism response system of the U.S. whose preparedness is considered relatively adamant. As a result, the following facts have been found: (1)the legislation with regard to bioterrorism has been established or amended according to the current situation in the U.S., (2)the counter terrorism activities have been integrated with the Department of the Homeland Security as the central agency in order to maximize the national CT capacity, (3)Specific procedures and instructions to cope with bioterrorism have been made into manuals so as to enhance the working-level response capabilities. Next, the analysis on the ROK's bioterrorism response system has been performed in various categories, including the legislation system, task role distribution, cooperative relations, and resource application. It turned out that the ROK's legislation basis is relatively weak and it lacks the apparatus to integrate the bioterrorism response activities on the national level. The shortage of the adequate response facilities and resources, as well as the poor management of manpower have also emerged as problems that hinder the effective CT implementations. Through an analytical and comparative study of the U.S. and the ROK systems, this paper presents several ways to ameliorate improve the current system in the ROK as follows: (1)establish the anti-terrorism law, which would be the basic legal basis for the bioterrorism-related matters; and make revisions to the disaster-related legislation, relevant to bioterrorism response activities, (2)establish an integrated body that has a powerful authority to coordinate the relevant CT agencies; and converge the decentralized functions to maximize the overall response capacity, (3)install the laboratories with a high biosafety level and secure enough of the strategic medical stock-pile, (4)enhance the ability of the inexperienced response personnel by providing with a manual that has detailed instructions.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.355-365
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• 2014

It has been unclear whether the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella can overwinter in Korean field conditions. This study determined overwintering conditions of P. xylostella by conducting field exposure tests based on its cold tolerance and monitoring overwintering populations by direct examination of overwintering larval habitats and capturing adults with sex pheromone traps. In addition, the overwintering populations were analyzed using polymorphic genetic markers to trace their sources. When all immature stages of P. xylostella were exposed to $-5^{\circ}C$, which was the temperature much above their supercooling points, they significantly suffered with direct cold injuries, where larval stage was most tolerant to the cold injury. However, the exposure to $5^{\circ}C$ for a long period (4 weeks) did not give any significant cold injury to nonfeeding stages, while this treatment gave lethality to larval stage without diet. When all developmental stages of P. xylostella were exposed to open field conditions during winter, they exhibited significant decreases of survival rates. However, some protected and indoor conditions reduced the cold injuries and the diet provision significantly increased larval survival rates. Adult monitoring with sex pheromone during winter period indicated that the first captures were observed at similar periods at different locations (${\approx}260$ Km apart). The overwintering adults were captured until early April. Genetic variation of these overwintering populations was analyzed with polymorphic molecular markers, indicating significant genetic divergences among the overwintering populations. This study indicates that P. xylostella can overwinter in southern Korean fields or some protected greenhouses with host plants.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and the psychosocial factors associated to the referral to psychiatric care in the suicide attempters visiting emergency center. Methods: We conducted a systematic chart review of 377 suicidal attempters visiting emergency center of the Korea University Ansan Hospital between January 2008 and December 2011. We gathered a data contain 20 items including psychosocial characteristics and factors related to suicide and factors related to psychiatric treatment. Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to data to estimate the unique effects of sex, drunken status, companion, suicidal methods, place of suicide and current use of psychiatric medication on the referral to psychiatric care. Results: The female gender(OR=1.63, 95% CI=0.99-2.69), suicidal attempts at home(OR=3.40, 95% I= 1.21-9.56) and drunken state at visit(OR=2.34, 95% CI=1.10-5.01) are the factors that predict the risk of the non-referral of the patients to psychiatric intervention. Place of suicidal attempt was the most important factor do play a role in determining whether referral to psychiatric care will take place or not. Current use of psychiatric medication showed a trend toward significance(p=0.08, OR=1.67, 95% CI=0.95-2.95). Conclusions: These results suggest that when deciding whether to adapt or to refuse the referral to psychiatric care, the factors such as suicidal intent, lethality of suicide methods, familiar factors and alcohol may contribute onto the referral to psychiatric care. Additional research is required to investigate an association of these factors with referral to psychiatric care.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.789-795
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• 2008

To study the possible use of probiotics in fish farming, we evaluated antagonism of antibacterial strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H41 against the fish pathogenic bacterium Vibrio anguillarum NCMB1. The purification of growth inhibition factor produced by B. amyloliquefaciens H41 was achieved by obtaining supernatant of this bacterium. The growth inhibition factor was purified to homogeneity by 70% ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-sephadex A-50 ion exchange chromatography, sephadex G-200 gel filtration column chromatography, and sephadex G-50 gel filtration column chromatography with 40.8 fold of purification and 2.9% yield. The molecular weight of the purified growth inhibition factor was 48 kDa as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The optimum pH and temperature for the growth inhibition factor were pH 7.5 and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activity of growth inhibition factor was enhanced slightly by some metal ions, such as $Mg^{+2}$, $Mn^{+2}$, but was inhibited by the addition of $Co^{+2}$, $Hg^{+2}$, $Zn^{+2}$ and $Ag^{+2}$. NaCl stability of the growth inhibition factor was observed with 50% residual activity at 3% NaCl concentration. Toxicity test showed that the purified B. amyloliquefaciens H41 growth inhibition factor did not affect the live of Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) and the effectiveness was 78% of residual lethality compared to commercial antibacterial agents.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.451-458
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine pervasive trends in oral cancer in different countries in an effort to discuss what to do to prevent cancer and drop a death rate. The materials of the study were selected from among articles of oral cancer by searching risk factor and epidemiology at a website (www.oraloncology.com). As a result of analyzing the selected literature, it's found that in our country, the percentage of oral cancer in total cancer dropped but the number of oral cancer patients was on the rise every year. In foreign countries, the number of oral cancer patients was on the increase as well, whereas the lethality dropped. In terms of demographic characteristics, the incidence rate of oral cancer was higher among men than women overall. The incidence rate of oral cancer was larger among older people. The major causes of oral cancer were smoking and drinking. To reduce the incidence rate of oral cancer, every possible institutional, administrative and legal measure should be taken to ensure of anti-smoking policies, and publicity of moderation in and abstinence from drinking should be reinforced. The additional causes of oral cancer were demographic characteristics by country and region. The incidence of oral cancer was under the influence of that was affected when the level of personal economy and education was low. Therefore it's important to redress social imbalance within a country and among countries to remove socioeconomic divide. As the oral cancer patients has increased every year, the incidence rate of it should accurately be grasped, and sustained research efforts should be made in consideration of demographic characteristics. Early diagnosis, public oral health education and preventive policies are all required to decrease the incidence rate of oral cancer.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.29-39
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• 2023

In this study, an analysis of medical waste generation characteristics was conducted, differentiating between ordinary situation and the outbreaks of massive infectious diseases. During ordinary situation, prediction models for medical waste quantities by type, general medical waste(G-MW), hazardous medical waste(H-MW), infectious medical waste(I-MW), were established through regression analysis, with all significance values (p) being <0.0001, indicating statistical significance. The determination coefficient(R2) values for prediction models of each category were analyzed as follows : I-MW(R2=0.9943) > G-MW(R2=0.9817) > H-MW(R2=0.9310). Additionally, factors such as GDP(G-MW), the number of medical institutions (H-MW), and the elderly population ratio(I-MW), utilized as influencing factors and consistent with previous literature, showed high correlations. The total MW generation, evaluated by combining each model, had an MAE of 2,615 and RMSE of 3,353. This indicated accuracy levels similar to the medical waste models of H-MW(2,491, 2,890) and I-MW(2,291, 3,267). Due to limitations in accurately estimating the quantity of medical waste during the rapid and outbreaks of massive infectious diseases, the generation unit of I-MW was derived to analyze its characteristics. During the early unstable stage of infectious disease outbreaks, the generation unit was 8.74 kg/capita·day, 2.69 kg/capita·day during the stable stage, and an average of 0.08 kg/capita·day during the reduction stage. Correlation analysis between generation unit of I-MW and lethality rates showed +0.99 in the unstable stage, +0.52 in the stable stage, and +0.96 in the reduction period, demonstrating a very high positive correlation of +0.95 or higher throughout the entire outbreaks of massive infectious diseases. The results derived from this study are expected to play a useful role in establishing an effective medical waste management system in the field of health care.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.137-154
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• 2018

Animal infectious diseases, such as avian influenza and foot and mouth disease, occur almost every year and cause huge economic and social damage to the country. In order to prevent this, the anti-quarantine authorities have tried various human and material endeavors, but the infectious diseases have continued to occur. Avian influenza is known to be developed in 1878 and it rose as a national issue due to its high lethality. Food and mouth disease is considered as most critical animal infectious disease internationally. In a nation where this disease has not been spread, food and mouth disease is recognized as economic disease or political disease because it restricts international trade by making it complex to import processed and non-processed live stock, and also quarantine is costly. In a society where whole nation is connected by zone of life, there is no way to prevent the spread of infectious disease fully. Hence, there is a need to be aware of occurrence of the disease and to take action before it is distributed. Epidemiological investigation on definite diagnosis target is implemented and measures are taken to prevent the spread of disease according to the investigation results, simultaneously with the confirmation of both human infectious disease and animal infectious disease. The foundation of epidemiological investigation is figuring out to where one has been, and whom he or she has met. In a data perspective, this can be defined as an action taken to predict the cause of disease outbreak, outbreak location, and future infection, by collecting and analyzing geographic data and relation data. Recently, an attempt has been made to develop a prediction model of infectious disease by using Big Data and deep learning technology, but there is no active research on model building studies and case reports. KT and the Ministry of Science and ICT have been carrying out big data projects since 2014 as part of national R &D projects to analyze and predict the route of livestock related vehicles. To prevent animal infectious diseases, the researchers first developed a prediction model based on a regression analysis using vehicle movement data. After that, more accurate prediction model was constructed using machine learning algorithms such as Logistic Regression, Lasso, Support Vector Machine and Random Forest. In particular, the prediction model for 2017 added the risk of diffusion to the facilities, and the performance of the model was improved by considering the hyper-parameters of the modeling in various ways. Confusion Matrix and ROC Curve show that the model constructed in 2017 is superior to the machine learning model. The difference between the2016 model and the 2017 model is that visiting information on facilities such as feed factory and slaughter house, and information on bird livestock, which was limited to chicken and duck but now expanded to goose and quail, has been used for analysis in the later model. In addition, an explanation of the results was added to help the authorities in making decisions and to establish a basis for persuading stakeholders in 2017. This study reports an animal infectious disease prevention system which is constructed on the basis of hazardous vehicle movement, farm and environment Big Data. The significance of this study is that it describes the evolution process of the prediction model using Big Data which is used in the field and the model is expected to be more complete if the form of viruses is put into consideration. This will contribute to data utilization and analysis model development in related field. In addition, we expect that the system constructed in this study will provide more preventive and effective prevention.