• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.105-111
• /
• 2015

In late December 2013, the Ebola virus emerged from West Africa. The outbreak started in Guinea and rapidly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Initially, the virus is spread to the human population after contact with infected wildlife and then spread person-to-person through direct contact with body fluids such as blood, sweat, urine, semen, and breast milk. The Ebola virus infects endothelial cells, mononuclear phagocytes and hepatocytes. It causes massive damage to internal tissues and organs, such as blood vessels and the liver, and ultimately death. Most tests for the virus RNA rely on a technology called reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). While this method is highly sensitive, it is also expensive, requiring skilled scientists, and delicate power supplies. The strip analytical technique (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or ELISA) detects antigens or antibodies to the Ebola virus. This test is cheap and does not require electricity or refrigeration. Despite ongoing efforts directed at experimental treatments and vaccine development, current medical work on the Ebola viral disease is largely limited to supportive therapy. Thus, rapid and reliable diagnoses of the Ebola virus are critically important for patient management, infections, prevention, and control measures.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.1
• /
• pp.94-106
• /
• 1980

The issue presented in this paper are as follows: 1. Legislative actions of welfare-related law for the exceptional children. The legislative base for the evolution has been yet weak and ambigous at best for a formalization of what should be considered accepted practice and effective action in providing handicapped child and their parents educational rights and equal protection of the law. And they are under remote control of partial factor subject to social welfare law for children, and public law for education, promotion law for the exceptional child education, protection law for public aids. 2. Organization of government for the welfare services for the exceptional children. There is no sing of a push toward consolidation of effort for the welfare service of the exceptional children in this country that seeks to recapture a sense of unity, of coherence, of completeness from a reality made up of discontinuous fragments of humanitarian effora This presently that. as for the education of the exceptional child, by the section of the exceptional education in MOE (Ministry of Education), and/or as for welfare services and promotion actions, by the section of child welfare in MHSA (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs). One door type operation rooted in the specialization, and limited resources to evolve multi-purpose agencies that undertake to provide a broad range of tangible and concrete services, as well as supportive counselling and assessment, under a single management which plans and directs the allocations of resources, should be followed. 3. Facilities and recruitment of teachers for the exceptional children. In this country there are 54 facilities for special services, 56 schools for the exceptional education, and 3 colleges and equavalents that provide teacher training services leading to certification with IIO annual graduates. However, curriculum for exceptional children should be rearranged and reconstructed. Conclusion; Only as for social welfare institutions in community, this country produced a succession of specific purpose activities, over period of time, that accumulated to form the present network of hundreds of social welfare organizations and facilities Periodically major efforts were launched to revitalize or to improve the help-giving system. But they lack specialization to be effective, and the nature of multi-purpose center tends to be vague for the classified handicapped. Therefore, there, should be linkage between policy maker and community services to maintain some coherenty in preventive care, treatment, and after cares. At last, the effects of the current concept "the exceptional child" involved with their families, and their neighborhood should be considered in view of the people who consist about 25% of the total population.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.345-352
• /
• 2019

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting the length of stay in elderly pediatric inpatients in traffic accidents. We used Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury data on the discharged from 2012 to 2016. Statistically significant factors affecting the length of stay are admission route, Charlson Comorbidity Index(CCI), injury parts, operation, results, hospital area, and beds for hospitals. The length of stay was shorter in the case of the admission route of the outpatient department than the emergency room, the results were not improved or death rather than improved, and the bed size was 500-999 beds or over 1000 beds rather than 100-299 beds. However, the length of stay was longer in the case of CCI score was 1-2 or over 3 rather than 0, injury parts were other parts rather than head/neck, when the operation was yes, and when the hospital area was a province, metropolitan rather than Seoul. This study intends to understand the medical characteristics of inpatient to prevent pedestrian traffic accidents in accordance with the population aging. Based on this finding, we wish to be used as the basic data for the establishment of policies to effectively manage traffic safety and medical resources in consideration of the characteristics of the elderly people.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.18 no.7
• /
• pp.9-19
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difference in suicide rates between regions and to determine the effect of social workers on the regional suicide rate. The main analysis results are as follows. First, the suicide rates in metropolitan cities were lower than was lower than in other regions, and cities and districts were lower than those in the county area. Second, suicide rates were high in areas with many cultural and social welfare facilities per population. Suicide rates were high in low mental health facilities and low social welfare budgets. The suicide rate in rural areas was high. Third, suicide rates were high in areas with low economic requirements, areas with a high proportion of the elderly, divorce rates, and areas with a small number of social security recipients and living alone. In other words, the suicide rate in rural areas was high. Finally, social workers did not affect the difference in local suicide rates. Local social services and budgets have no real impact on suicide rates. In the future, it is necessary to improve the quality and quantity of community welfare practices that can lower community suicide rates.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.102-106
• /
• 2016

More than 20 years after the first report of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) in Korea, the disease is still having major impact on domestic pig health and relevant industries. Although ELISA tests are commonly used by veterinarians to guide herd management, data on diagnostic performance of the test in field settings are very limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate two commercially available PRRSV ELISA (IDEXX PRRS X3 ELISA and Bionote PRRSV ELISA 4.0) to detect antibodies against PRRSV on serum samples. To this end, a total of 1,108 sera were recruited from 35 swine farms located in Gyeonggi province and tested at the Gyeonggi Province Veterinary Service Center. All tests were performed according to the manufacturer's instructions, by laboratory technicians who routinely perform PRRS testing on blood samples. Samples were collected from two sources of swine populations with different PRRS prevalence; 60 samples (5.4%) were originated from breeding farms and the remaining 1,048 samples (94.6%) were from farrow-to-finish farms. We applied Bayesian latent class model (LCM) for two-tests in the two-population when the accuracy of the gold standard is not available. The model estimated that Bionote ELISA was a bit more specific but slightly less sensitive. The estimated sensitivity and specificity of the IDEXX ELISA were 99.8% (95% CI 98.1-100%) and 86.4% (95% CI 81.4-96.5%), respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for Bionote kit were 98.7% (95% CI 92.8-100%), 89.8% (95% CI 86.2-93.1%), 93.8% (95% CI 91.5-96.0%), and 97.8% (95% CI 87.1-100%), respectively. Based on the Bayesian 95% credible intervals, the sensitivity and specificity of the two ELISAs were not significantly different each other when assuming that two kits were imperfect, indicating that two kits performed equally well in terms of sensitivity and specificity in our filed setting.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.963-979
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to identify frailty profiles based on physical, psychological, and social domains of functioning and to examine the associated factors showing the differences among frailty profiles. Respondents were 70 years and older(n=403) and latent class analysis was applied to determine the optimal subgroups based on Tilberg Frailty Indicators which comprised of three domains(the physical, psychological, and social domain). Also, we performed multinominal logistic regression analysis to find out factors making differences among frailty profiles. Latent class analysis(LCA) identified three distinct types: multi-frail type(27.0%), psychologically frail type(26.8%), inadequate support type(46.2%). All three types had common difficulties in dealing with daily life problems and did not receive enough help with theses difficulties. Based on the results of the LCA three-class models, people in multi-frail type accumulated problems in physical and psychological domains and had partially social domain. On the other hands, psychologically frail type showed a relatively high anxiety disorder and depression. Lastly, people in inadequate support type reported the lack of helps, but they were relatively healthy. Comparing these groups with inadequate support type, people with multi-frail had lower educational level, poor nutritional management status and were less likely to participate in labor market. People in psychologically frail type were more likely to be male, to live in big cities rather than middle and small cities, and less likely to smoke. Based on these results, our results showed the multifaceted concept of frailty among Korean elderly people and we suggested several implications for preventing frail process.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.8
• /
• pp.331-343
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to observe the trends of heart age of Koreans by using the predictor of heart age of the Framingham Heart Study. The subjects were 20,012 adults aged 30~74 years who were enrolled in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005~2013. They filled in the determinants data and they had no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The heart age was calculated using a non-laboratory based model of prediction. The difference of heart age and chronological age, and the rate of excessive heart age over 10 years were calculated. The annual trend, the difference according to gender, the age bracket and geographic region, the heart age were all evaluated. Data analysis performed using the SAS program (version 9.3). Complex designed analysis was done. The heart age showed differences according to gender, age bracket and geographic region. The heart age is a useful comprehensive indicator for predicting the CVD events in the near future. So, it could be used for the purposes of exercising caution and guidance on CVD for administering medical care. It is strongly recommended to use heart age as an indicator for customized medical management to focus efforts on relatively vulnerable subjects and their factors for CVD. Further study on Koreans' customized heart age is needed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.140-149
• /
• 2018

Along with the recent increase in national income, social phenomena such as aging due to a decrease in population and an increase in single households are observed. There are also an increasing number of households raising pets in proportion to aging households and the increase in the number of single households, most of which use animal companions to overcome loneliness and boost domestic vitality. As more and more people consider pets as family members, the size of the domestic pet market is also growing. The growing number of pets in older households and single households is not properly managed by care such as food meals and exercise management for pets. It is necessary to research and develop robots that can monitor animal companions remotely, feed a certain amount of food at regular intervals, and manage their health through exercise. Among pet companions, dog selection is the highest. Therefore, this study identified robot research on driving methods, examples of existing pet care systems, and researched pet care robots using obstacle avoidance algorithms. In order to use the snack pay behavior and obstacle avoidance algorithm of the pet animals by applying IoT and we .oPI technology, it is able to use ultrasonic sensors on the front and has four infrared sensors on the back. However, this study does not reflect the characteristics of other pet animals as a study on pet care robots, and it requires continuous observation and testing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.112 no.1
• /
• pp.93-104
• /
• 2023

Life expectancy is increasing due to the aging of the population, which is in turn exacerbating problems such as the prevalence of various geriatric diseases. This study was established to provide basic data for the expansion of forest healing activities for the elderly by systematically analyzing the literature on how such activities affect this age group. For the collection of studies, the Korean databases RISS, KISS, Korea Med, and Science On were used, while PubMed, Cochrane Central, MDPI, and Google Scholar were used to identify reports published elsewhere. To assess the quality of the methodology used in the collected studies, the risk of bias was analyzed using Cochrane's RoB2 and RoBANS. Among 1,856 reports initially identified, 21 were finally selected for analysis in this study, which were limited to research papers on forest healing activities for the elderly published between 2000 and January 2022. In this review, the subjects were those aged 60 or older, with a total of 750 participants, ranging from at least 7 to a maximum of 88 per study. The analysis showed that the most frequently performed tests in each category were on depression as a psychological indicator in 7 studies, MMSE(Mini Mental State Examination) as a cognitive indicator in 2 studies, on blood pressure as a physiological indicator in 4 studies, on melatonin as a biochemical indicator in 2 studies, and on body fat and muscle strength as physical indicators in 3 studies. Of the 21 studies, 19 used two or more test items, with psychological indicators being most commonly measured. For the future application of forest healing activities for the elderly, various forest healing programs to prevent cognitive function decline should be developed and distributed, and follow-up studies should be continuously presented to provide the basis for forest healing activities.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.167-185
• /
• 2019

As most G-20 countries expect medical spending to grow rapidly over the next few decades, the burden of healthcare costs continues to grow globally due to an increase in the elderly population and chronic illnesses, and the ongoing quality improvement of health care services. However, under the rapidly changing technological environment of healthcare and IT convergence, the problem may become even bigger if not properly recognized and not properly prepared. In the context of the paradigm shift and the increasing problem of the medical field, complex responses in technical, institutional and business aspects are urgently needed. The key is to derive a business model that is appropriate for businesses that integrate IT in the medical field. With the arrival of the era of the 4th industrial revolution, new technologies such as Internet of Things have been applied to eHealthcare, and the need for new business models has emerged.In the e-healthcare of the Internet era, it became a traditional firm-based business model. However, due to the characteristics of dynamics and complexity of things Internet in the Internet of things, A business ecosystem-based approach is needed. In this paper, we present and analyze the major success factors of the ecosystem based on the 3 - layer structure of the e - healthcare business ecosystem as a result of research on e - healthcare business ecosystem based on emerging technology such as Internet of things. The three-layer business ecosystem was defined as (1) Infrastructure Layer, (2) Character Layer, and (3) Stakeholder Layer. As the key success factors for the eHealthCare business ecosystem, the following four factors are suggested: (1) introduction of the iHealthcare concept, (2) expansion of the business ecosystem, (3) business ecosystem change process innovation, and (4) business ecosystem leadership innovation.