• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2017

Objective: Seoul City has implemented the Safe Pharmacy in 2013. This study aimed to ascertain the success factors of the smoking cessation service of the Safe Pharmacy. Methods: The data for the smoking cessation registration cards were obtained from the pharmacies which participated in 2014 Safe Pharmacy. The sample included 289 smokers in 6 districts who participated at least one sessions of smoking cessation service. the service included both behavioral intervention and nicotine replacement therapy. In order to identify the effectiveness of the smoking cessation service, logistic regression analysis was used. The dependent variable was the success of quitting smoking at the 4th week. The independent variables included age, sex, employment, chronic disease, district, smoking amount, registration path, supporters for quitting smoking and number of service sessions. Results: Fifty eight point eight percent of the sample successfully quit smoking at the 4th week. Unemployment, higher smoking amount, and less service sessions were negatively related to the success of quitting smoking. There were differences in the success rate across districts. Age, sex, chronic disease, registration path, and anti-smoking supporters were not related to the success rate. Conclusion: Pharmacy can be an effective community resource for smoking cessation. Factors that could increase the effectiveness of smoking cessation service of the Safe Pharmacy and possible ways to enhance the participation of pharmacies in smoking cessation services were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2019

PURPOSE: While electrical stimulation (ES) is known to be a safe and flexible tool in rehabilitation therapy, it has had limited adoption in muscle regeneration. This study was performed to investigate whether ES can induce myogenic differentiation and to clarify the mechanism underlying the effects of ES on myogenic differentiation. METHODS: This study used rat L6 cell lines as myoblasts for myogenic differentiation. Electric stimulation was applied to the cells using a C-Pace EP culture pacer (IonOptix, Westwood, Ma, USA). The gene expressions of myogenic markers were examined using qPCR and immunochemistry. RESULTS: Our study showed that ES increased the thickness and length of myotubes during myogenic differentiation. It was found that ES increased the expression of myogenic markers, such as MyoD and Myogenin, and also activated the fusion of the myoblast cells. In addition, ES suppressed the expression of small GTPases, which can explain why ES promotes myogenic differentiation. CONCLUSION: We found that ES induced myogenic differentiation by suppressing small GTPases, inhibiting cell division. We suggest that ES-based therapies can contribute to the development of safe and efficient muscle regeneration.

• CELLMED
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1.1-1.4
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• 2019

Pruritic urticarial papules and plaque of pregnancy presents with difficulty in its management owing to the limited intervention options available during pregnancy and their sub optimal responses. In pregnancy, also often the mother remains reluctant in getting exposed to biological medicines for her concern to the growing fetus. In such conditions, Ayurveda, the traditional health care system from India is often looked as a safe alternative to offer symptom resolution and safe continuation of pregnancy without the discomforts of urticaria. This case report is an illustration in this regard.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.336-342
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• 2022

Background: This study aims to identify the safety and health risk perceptions toward the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic based on gender in Korean university students who work and study during the pandemic. Methods: A nationwide convenient sampling method was implemented to eliminate any regional characteristics in 757 university students, including those who studied while working. The participants answered the online questionnaire for one week. The collected data were analyzed using the R version 3.4.1 program. Results: The results comparing the safety and health risk perceptions toward COVID-19 based on the gender of the subjects who work while studying, "I often use the Internet to obtain information on COVID-19 infection control" are females appeared to use the internet more often (t = -2.18, p = 0.031) than males. "Compared to pre-COVID-19, I am currently feeling safe after the outbreak" is females felt less safe (t = 3.43, p < 0.001). Although COVID-19 infection control awareness is high among Korean university students and officials, males reported higher scores over females in all the questions, which was statistically significant. Conclusion: There should be prioritized psychological measures for prevention against COVID-19 for vulnerable groups with high mental health risks. A network must be established to protect the mental health of such groups, and candidates who require intervention must be actively identified and supported. Therefore, there must be efforts to deliver accurate information based on scientific evidence of the infectious disease, and the actions should be supported through such active communication.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.161-164
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• 2013

The prevalence rate of osteoporosis in older men and women has recently increased, and thus bone health is a major concern in Korea. This concern, along with increasing concern regarding youth height, has led to growth of the functional food industry for children, reaching approximately 200 billion won. It is necessary to develop safe and effective functional materials for bone growth and health. Foods are excellent sources of functional material as they are safe to use. It is well known that the phosphopeptide casein, which is derived from milk, is effective against osteoporosis by aiding in the absorption of calcium. In our study, collagen peptides derived from porcine skin were evaluated as a functional material for bone growth, as several peptides have been shown to aid in osteoblast formation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.24-32
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• 2016

Objective: The visually impaired have limited access to health care services and related information, and thus, they can have serious hurdles against properly taking medications. Despite that it is important to improve self-care ability of the visually impaired for correct medication use, there have been few studies investigating their needs for health care services in Korea, particularly focusing on proper medication usage. This study is to explore safety-related issues regarding mediation usage among the visually impaired based on in-depth interview. We particularly focus on any obstacles for safe use of medicines including experience on medication-related adverse effects in order to provide preliminary evidence for policy measures to improve proper medication use among the visually impaired. Methods: Study sample was visually impaired individuals who resided in Seoul area and were registered in the National Association of Visually Impaired. The association helped the process of recruiting the study participants. In-depth interview for each study participants was conducted. Each interview was recorded and later converted into a written script to extract core contents for the analysis. Results: The study participants comprised of three women (42.9%) and four men (57.1%). One was in his 20's, and there were four participants in 30's and two in 40's. Fully impaired participants were majority (5 out of 7). Limitation to physical access to health care providers and health information were the key factors to hamper safe medication utilization among the study participants. Difficulty reading medication information and may take the wrong medication or incorrect doses of medication, resulting in serious consequences, including overdose or inadequate treatment of health problems. Visually impaired patients report increased anxiety related to medication management and must rely on others to obtain necessary drug information. Pharmacists have a unique opportunity to pursue accurate medication adherence in this special population. This article reviews literature illustrating how severe medication mismanagement can occur in the visually impaired elderly and presents resources and solutions for pharmacists to take a larger role in adherence management in this population. Conclusion: The visually impaired had difficulties reading medication information and identifying medicines, and took incorrect doses of medications. Public support for safe medication use and medication management among the visually impaired is necessary.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2018

Since Korean housewives are responsible for the dietary practices of family at home, it is important to know what information will make them to buy safe food. This study was designed to determine the role of perceived threats, behavioral assessments, and self-efficacy factors known to promote healthy behavior in health belief models (HBM) based on food safety awareness and behavior of housewives. This study involved 191 housewives, based on key variables such as perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and purchase behavior. The results showed that higher levels of education and urbanization increased the threat perception and the likelihood of buying safe food. The correlation analysis showed that increased awareness and knowledge of safe foods and interest in health contributed to higher relative benefit or self-efficiency of food, and thus, ensured food safety. The conceptual model of food safety behavior based on the HBM was verified via structural equation analysis. The findings suggest that a suitable model showcasing knowledge levels and relative benefits resulted in a greater impact on purchasing behavior than perceived threats. This study suggests that it is more effective for housewives to provide more preventive information than risk information to purchase safe food.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2024.07a
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• pp.1238-1245
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• 2024

The construction industry faces the challenge of providing effective, engaging, and rule-specific safety learning. Traditional methodologies exhibit limited adaptability to technological advancement and struggle to deliver optimal learning experiences. Recently, there has been widespread adoption of information retrieval and ontology-based chatbots, as well as content delivery methods, for safety learning and education. However, existing information and content retrieval methods often struggle with accessing and presenting relevant safety learning materials efficiently. Additionally, the rigid and complex structures of ontology-based approaches pose obstacles in accommodating dynamic content and scaling for large datasets. They require more computational resources for ontology management. To address these limitations, this paper introduces iSafe Chatbot, a novel framework for construction safety learning. Leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Model (LLM), iSafe Chatbot aids safety learning by dynamically retrieving and interpreting relevant Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules from the comprehensive safety regulation database. When a user submits a query, iSafe Chatbot identifies relevant regulations and employs LLM techniques to provide clear explanations with practical examples. Furthermore, based on the user's query and context, iSafe Chatbot recommends training video content from video database, enhancing comprehension and engagement. Through advanced NLP, LLM, and video content delivery, iSafe Chatbot promises to revolutionize safety learning in construction, providing an effective, engaging, and rule-specific experience. Preliminary tests have demonstrated the potential of the iSafe Chatbot. This framework addresses challenges in accessing safety materials and aims to enhance knowledge and adherence to safety protocols within the industry.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1197-1205
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• 2014

Typical clinical dose development studies consist of the comparison of several doses of a drug with a placebo. The primary interest is to find therapeutic window that satisfying both efficacy and safety. In this paper, we propose nonparametric method for identifying effective and safe doses in linear placement using score function. The Monte Carlo simulation is adapted to estimate the power and the family-wise error rate(FWE) of proposed procedure are compared with previous methods.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.354-364
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• 2020

For this paper we analyzed heavy metals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury, and conducted risk assessment on 171 types of herbal medicines used as foods and drugs distributed in Seoul's Yangnyeongsi and Kyungdong (Gyeongdong) herbal medicine markets. The concentrations of the heavy metals were measured by the ICP-MS and a mercury analyzer. The detection ranges of the lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury were found to be ND-4.719 mg/kg, ND-1.019 mg/kg, 0.002-8.696 mg/kg and ND-0.058 mg/kg, respectively. Artemisiae Capillaris Herba exceeded the standards of the MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) for cadmium items, and Actinidiae Ramulus et Fulium et Fructus Vermicultus exceeded the standards for arsenic items. The non-carcinogenic risk assessment showed that there were no items exceeding 1 and that they were safe. The risk of carcinogenicity to lead was below 10^-6 in all items and was evaluated as safe. The risk of carcinogenicity of arsenic was almost all in the range of 10^-4 to 10^-6. All %PTWI are considered to be safe below 100.