• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.138-142
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• 2018

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the Republic of Korea remains high when compared to the incidence in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The prompt diagnosis and effective treatment of latent TB infection (LTBI) are very important in terms of controlling the burden of TB. The tuberculin skin test (TST) has long been the "gold standard" assay for the diagnosis of LTBI. However, it can show false positive results due to Bacille Calmette-$Gu{\acute{e}}rin$ (BCG) vaccination and infection with many environmental nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). The interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) using Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific antigens, was developed for the detection of LTBI. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube assay is one of the most commonly used forms of the IGRA. In order to compare the diagnostic efficacy of the TST and IGRA in relation to LTBI among BCG-vaccinated healthy donors, whole blood samples were collected from 51 participants, and the results of the TST and IGRA were compared. Of the 51 cases, 18 cases (35.3%) were positive and 33 cases (64.7%) were negative when using the TST, while four cases (7.8%) were positive and 47 cases (92.2%) negative when using the IGRA. There was no correlation between the size of the induration in the TST and the $IFN-{\gamma}$ protein level. In conclusion, the TST showed higher cross-reactivity among the BCG-vaccinated healthy participants, therefore, the IGRA might be the most suitable assay for the rapid screening of LTBI in BCG-vaccinated healthy population, or for TB contact investigation.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2006

Purpose: It can be said that the aged belong to the group vulnerable to safety accidents. The purpose of this study was to investigate safety accidents to old people and provide basic data to prevent them from being in a safety accident. Result : 1. The number of the aged of traffic accident fatalities per 100,000 persons was 57.8, which was significantly higher than other OECD countries. 2. trauma for the aged, falling accounted for 60.6%, which was relatively higher than other wounds, probably because of decreased capacity of movement and reduced faculty of sensation. 3. accidents to the aged at home, 43.9% occurred in a room, which shows great risk of safety accidents to the aged in a room. 4. the aged generally showed negative awareness of social safety. Suggestion : 1. it is necessary to provide regular education about accidents through the mass media and at social welfare facilities in order for aged people to consolidate safety consciousness repeatedly. 2. it is necessary to make a brief and clear guide to prevention of accidents. 3. the Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Ministry of Health and Welfare should give priority to designing a building for aged people and authorize construction according to the standards for establishing safety facilities for the aged. 4. it is necessary to change social consciousness. since transportation accidents can be caused not by aged people's insufficient safety consciousness but by that of all the people, it is necessary to provide society-wide education programs against dangerous driving in order to guarantee aged people's safety. 5. legal procedure to secure aged people's safety should be strengthened to reinforce legal protection for them.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.249-269
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• 2012

In an attempt to promote reading among middle school students which has been declining sharply, this study suggests new directions for reading education in school libraries. The study examined the following: correlation between students' attitudes toward reading and their reading achievements as revealed in PISA 2009, nationwide survey results on reading, and studies on attitudes and motives for reading. Korean students' reading achievement is very high among the OECD countries but their reading attitude is not positive enough. The strong positive relationship between pleasure reading and reading achievement indicates the importance of the provision of ample collections at school libraries as well as library programs fostering independent, free-will reading. Reading programs at school libraries should cater to students' individual characteristics and needs, such as their sex, abilities, affective and cognitive attitudes, experiences, as well as the quantity, the formats, and the time of their reading, etc.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.2423-2428
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• 2010

The number of motor vehicle registrations in Korea is increasing steadily each year, driven by industry development and economic growth. The number of traffic accidents is also rapidly increasing. Korea has a relatively high number of traffic accidents among OECD member countries, and it ranks among the highest in traffic accident death rates. This death rate is higher compared to death rates as a proportion of the number of traffic accidents in each country. It is very common for drivers to lose consciousness in traffic collisions, which leads to a failure to carry out early emergency measures. In order to prevent such situations as well as hit-and-runs and people left uncared for after traffic accidents, there is a need for motor vehicle black boxes and accident report systems. This study addressed the need for an emergency evacuation system for people injured in traffic accidents and a secondary traffic accident prevention system by developing a motor vehicle emergency situation detection and report system combined with a black box, and materializing it as an actual system.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.164-174
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to explore ways to resolve the conflicting issues that are currently applied in medical Act and medical privacy Act through the comparative Analysis of the Privacy Act and the Medical Information Protection Act foreign. the results run to establish the Public Health Act coming for the protection of health information is a characteristic of many countries, France in Europe, the United States and Canada had been running an independent medical information laws are enacted. Prescribes penalties of up to a fairly systematic method from the case records of patients would not have occurred in the management and implementation of the law and the protection of the author of the book focuses on the subject of medical records and physician records between patient confidentiality and privacy it can be seen that the method defined in. This indicates the need for the establishment of an independent medical information laws to protect all records relating to the patient systematically Korea also.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.91-104
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• 2014

Self-sufficiency rate of food in South Korea is almost at the lowest level among OECD countries, and the decrease tend of farmland is expected to be continued. In this situation, Korea experienced a rapid change in the international price of grain due to changes in amount of grain production and food weaponization. It also started to reinforce the appropriateness of maintenance of farmland above certain standard. As one of policy means for this situation, this study selected "the use of idle farmland" as a subject, and started to consider the way to suggest the policy projects using idle farmland. The result of this study is summarized as follows. Firstly, this study defined the meaning of idle farmland, and set up the scope of idle farmland needed to this study. Secondly, this study analyzed the domestic major policy projects with prevention function of idle farmland as well as the policy projects related to idle farmland. It also investigated "recycling measures of idle farmland" that is recently promoted in Japan, and deducted the direction for developing a new model. Lastly, It suggested 9 policy project models that are finally able to use idle farmland. Suggested models are designed to access from various directions. This study suggested contents, entity, target and characteristics of projects in order to set up proper directions in promoting policy projects using idle farmland.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.127-137
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• 2014

Self-sufficiency rate of food in South Korea is almost at the lowest level among OECD countries, and the decrease tend of farmland is expected to be continued. In this situation, the government has been revised the target self-sufficiency rate of food, and carried forward various policies in order to achieve it. One of those policies is the restoration business of idle farmland which is planned to carry forward after 2015. This study set up indicators evaluating effective use of idle farmland, and tried to apply in the field before carrying forward restoration business. The result of this study may be summarized as follows. First of all, it reset an evaluation indicator that was based on the evaluation indicator developed in order to set application directions of idle farmland. Next, it selected 30 idle farmlands with reset evaluation indicator among 11,635 which were inspected nationwide in 2012. Before applying indicator, it measured the condition of recycling such as accessibility of farmland, condition of irrigation and drainage system, land state, and surroundings by field investigation. Then, it calculated composite score in each target area through applying indicators, and verified the indicator by comparing calculated result with the one which was decided from field investigation. Finally, it carried out field investigation, correct and upgrade some problems of the standard of score calculation that was found during applying previously set evaluation indicator to target area, and established the final standard of calculation for evaluation indicator.

• IE interfaces
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.338-348
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• 2004

OECD countries including Korea positively adopt performance-based budget systems which convert an input-centered system to an output-centered system to solve two baffling problems: public expense retrenchment and efficiency recovery of government management. Output management of IT project propelled in public sector becomes a prominent figure influenced by these keynote of policy. However, it is placed in difficult circumstances to develop a performance index and the methodology to cover characteristics of IT project, measuring the goal achievement of business and the customer contentment according to the phases of business progress. Existing studies of IT project accomplishment measurement have been fulfilled on the subject of business targeting on IT technology application, administrative information network business and national base of information network construction. Most of the studies have been executed using BSC or AHP to reflect synthetically business specifics of IT project from a methodological point of view. In this study, we propose a structural equation model (SEM) to develop a performance index which measures the outcome of IT project according to the phases of business progress, avoiding a simple presentation of project outcome or conceptual frame. The proposed SEM is applied to the survey results of "IT support project for Small and medium business". Based on the fitted model, we apply ACSI concept to develop an Information Technologization Success Index (ITSI). This index allows us comparison of several IT vendors as well as feedback information for further improvement.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2015

The objective of this study is to characterize a toxicity of Epimedii Herba (EH) in F344 rats and to find a dose levels for the 13 weeks toxicity study. EH is well known as medicinal herb in many Asian countries for traditional medicines of antibacterial and antiviral effects, estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects, and for treatment of osteoporosis, hypotensives, fatigue, kidney disorders, and related complications. However, the indispensable and basic information of toxicological evaluation of EH extract is insufficient to support its safe use. Therefore, we conducted toxicological evaluation of this drug in compliance with OECD and MFDS guideline in this study. The extract of EH was administered orally to F344 rats at dose levels of 0, 500, 1000, 2000, 3500, and 5000 mg/kg/day for 2 weeks. Each group was composed of 5 male and female rats. In this study, there were no treatment of EH-related adverse changes in clinical observations, mortality, body weights, food consumption, urinalysis, gross finding at necropsy, and organ weight examination. Total red blood cell count, hematocrit, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, total cholesterol, and phospholipid were decreased in males and females at 5000 mg/kg/day compared to the control animals. Mean corpuscular volume and reticulocyte counts were increased in males and females at 5000 mg/kg/day compared to control animals. Therefore, we recommend that dose level of 5000 mg/kg/day is a highest treatment group in 13-week EH extract exposure study for further toxicity assessment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1246-1254
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• 2012

The South Korea has the highest overall smoking rates of male among the thirty member-countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This study was performed to determine the association between amount of smoking and self-reported voice problem in Korean adult population using national survey data. Data were drawn from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2008. Subjects were 3,600 persons (1,501 male, 2,099 female) aged 19 years and older living in the community. Adjusting for covariates (age, sex, education, income, longest occupation, alcohol drinking, pain and discomfort during the last 2 weeks), Severe smoke (>40.5-55.5 pack year), more than 20 cigarettes per day were independent risk factors for self-reported voice problem. It was found that the number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) the proportional increased in risk of voice disorders. These findings suggest that the investigation of CPD are required for effective screening of voice disorder.