• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.245-253
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• 2016

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate payer-driven medication adherence intervention program from the patient's and counselor's perspectives. Methods: Target patients for intervention were selected by retrospective adherence measures based on national health insurance claims data for hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. As a serial intervention for higher risk groups of medication non-adherence, initial direct mailing, the first direct telephone call and the second direct call or a home visit were followed. Interview approach to qualitative inquiry was used to evaluate intervention results. Results: Participants including 4 patients received telephone calls, and 4 National Health Insurance Service staff and 4 pharmacists participated as counselors were interviewed regarding their impression of the intervention program. Three major themes arose: overall perception; necessities; and suggestions for success, of the intervention. Despite short period of intervention, educational intervention by telephone counseling involving pharmacists shows potential to improve self-management of chronic disease, and pharmacist-involvement. But more sophisticated selection of target patients requiring the intervention and complementation of electronic database system would be necessary. In addition, personal disposition of counselor was revealed to be an important factor for achieving successful outcome of intervention. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the individualized counseling intervention would be an efficient option for improved medication adherence. Further researches should include longer periods of interventions, a quantitative analysis using adherence measures based on claims data and consideration of clinical benefits associated with the intervention.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.347-356
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the spine stability by comparing muscle activation in various scaffold working conditions. The independent working conditions were designed by two levels of working height, existence and absence of safety handrail, and the two levels of expertise. The corresponding activities of the agonist and antagonist muscles of spine were simultaneously recorded by using EMG. As results, novice worker showed increased muscle activity while doing the task on the 2nd floor, absence of handrail. And expert showed the increase of co-contraction while working on the 2nd floor without handrail. Such co-contraction was found to increase the spine stability when the working condition become risky. On the other hand, the co-contraction was prolonged, the spine muscle fatique and disc pressure could be increased, which would increase the risk of musculo-skeletal disorder. The results of co-contraction in this study indicates that the motor control system responds to maintain the stability of the spine particularly when workers cognitively recognize the danger of falling or imbalance. This study also quantitatively accounted for the biomechanical cause of LBP among workers who has to prevent themselves from falling. Therefore, if can be said that safe environment preventing falling can also prevent workers from MSDs as well. Such knowledge can be applied to design ergonomic workplace environment as well as movable scaffold.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2008

We analyzed the current research trends of living modified organisms (LMO) by questionnaires in the interest of making biosaftey laws and policies in Korea. We executed a pre-survey at the Crop Functional Genomics 2004 conference and obtained LMO research information from 423 LMO research organizations, including 32 national research institutes, 314 universities, and 77 industries. We found that the total 59 kinds of hosts including 26 kinds of plants, 15 kinds of animals, and 18 kinds of microbes were used for LMO research and E. coli was the most common host. The risk of the most experimental hosts was below a biosafety level of 1 (73.8%) and 2 (25.9%). LMO development use purpose was implemented in various developmental uses: 51.3% in test and research use, 19% in health and medical use, and 12.9% in agriculture use. The experiment product, waste product, and products of host for LMO development were 327.2, 223.6, and 13.5 in number of plants; 280.6, 52.4, and 8.7 in number of animals; and $8.3\;{\times}\;10^{11}CFU$, $7.7\;{\times}\;10^{11}CFU$, and $6.5\;{\times}\;10^{11}CFU$ in microbes in 2004. The survey results about how to possess the LMO were very unreliable, because only 10.6% of the researchers returned the questionnaires. Consequently, we strongly suggest the scientific organizations as well as scientists should have more interests in biosafety of LMO research and an LMO biosafety management system should be developed for Korea's future biotechnology.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 1997

The angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) is a key component of the renin-angiotensin system thought to be important in the pathogenesis of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Deletion polymorphism in the ACE gene may be a risk factor for myocardial infarction. The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the ACE detected by PCR analysis appears to be associated with hypertension in Koreans and its nucleotide was subcloned into T-vector and its nucleotide sequences were determined. We also examined an association between hypertension and genetic variance of ACE. We identified the angiotensin I-converting enzyme genotype in 127 hypertensive and 189 normotensive Korean subjects. The distribution of ACE genotype II, ID, DD were 39.2%, 40.2%, 20.6% respectively and the frequency for ACE alleles I and D were 0.593 and 0.407, respectively in all subjects. The frequency of D allele in Korean males is higher than that of Korean females (male; 0.438 : female; 0.267), and the frequency of I allele in Korean females is higher than that of Korean males (female; 0.733 : male; 0.562). Genotype distributions of angiotensin I-converting enzyme genes in Korean normal adult population were different from that of Caucasians (P<0.001). There were no significant differences in genotype frequency between the hypertensive control group (n=127) and the normotensive group (n=189). We observed significant differences of ACE genotype distribution between the male group and the female group in total (P=0.001) and in hypertensive Korean subjects (P=0.013).

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.39-47
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• 2016

PURPOSE : This study attempts to find the effects of water perturbation exercise performed on stroke patients in their physiological cost index and gait ability tests. METHOD : The subjects were 30 stroke patients, water perturbation exercise group was performed 3 day per week, for 40 minutes a day, for a period of eight weeks. The physiological cost index and gait of all subjects were assessed by using the polar, 6 Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and 10 meter Walk Test(10mWT) at pre training and post training. Paired t-test was used to analyze change before and after intervention in group. Pearson's correlation was used to analyze correlation of all variables. RESULT : Water perturbation exercise group showed increased physiological cost index. Water perturbation exercise increased gait ability, showing a significant difference. Showing the correlation between the relatively high amount between physiological cost index and 6 minutes walking test. CONCLUSION : From the result of the study, we found that water perturbation exercise was effective in improving physiological cost index and gait ability. The patient is considered to be used by itself to involve the treatment and the risk of falling from the lowered state into the treatment method for the intensive treatment of stroke patients to be useful in improving the cardiovascular system and ability to walk. Through underwater training for stroke patients in the future on the basis of this study it is considered to require additional clinical studies on the impact on daily living and quality of life of stroke patients.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.299-307
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• 2005

The 180 km/h Korean Tilting Train(TTX) which is now developing as a part of the Korean National R&D project, was elaborately designed. As the tilting trains run curve track with the $30\%$ higher speed than normal trains, the higher centrifugal and dynamic force are expected. Furthermore the complex tilting system increase the probability of failure. Therefore it is very important for tilting train to ensure safety against derailment under the various kind of failed condition in the middle of running as well as normal operating condition. The TTX train have the relatively high roll stiffness to improve the lateral ride comfort and to limit the roll displacement on the curve. But the higher roll stiffness increase the risk of derailment on the twisted track. This paper describes the study to review the safety against derailment caused by the wheel unloading on the severely twisted track. The worst combination of maximum cant change with maximum twist defect was established by numerical simulation. And also it was assumed that the air bag deflated and still the train run its speed limit. Those kind of assumption might be the worst case from the view point of wheel unloading derailment on the twisted track. The dynamic simulation was done by means of VAMPIRE S/W and non-linear transient analysis. We found that derailment quotients Q/P was only slightly influenced by track twist but the wheel unloading was greatly influenced. And we ascertained that the higher roll stiffness the higher wheel unloading. In case of air bag deflated situation, the wheel unloading reached up to $100\%$ which means the wheel lift or jumped. Therefore it was concluded that the design need to be improved to ensure the safety against derailment on the maximum twisted track in case of air bag deflated and tilting train's speed limit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.204-211
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• 2015

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has had a significant role in quantitative decision-making by finding design and operational vulnerabilities and evaluating cost-benefit in improving such weak points. In particular, it has been widely used as the core methodology for risk-informed applications (RIAs). Even though the nature of PSA seeks realistic results, there are still "conservative" aspects. One of the sources for the conservatism is the assumptions of safety analysis and the estimation of failure frequency. Surveillance, diagnosis, and prognosis (SDP), utilizing massive databases and information technology, is worth highlighting in terms of its capability for alleviating the conservatism in conventional PSA. This article provides enabling techniques to solidify a method to provide time- and condition-dependent risks by integrating a conventional PSA model with condition monitoring and prognostics techniques. We will discuss how to integrate the results with frequency of initiating events (IEs) and probability of basic events (BEs). Two illustrative examples will be introduced: (1) how the failure probability of a passive system can be evaluated under different plant conditions and (2) how the IE frequency for a steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) can be updated in terms of operating time. We expect that the proposed model can take a role of annunciator to show the variation of core damage frequency (CDF) depending on operational conditions.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.243-257
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• 2004

Surveys were carried out from April to December of 2003 to collect the information on hypertension patients for the detailed analysis. Totally, 1,423 patients, who have been registered to the public health center or its branch located in a small city with both urban and countryside characteristics in Kyungsangbuk-Do area, were the subjects of this investigation. The purpose of this research was to examine the health situation of the hypertension patients and to understand the official state of their management program and their own efforts to control the blood pressure, so that we could develop the better program to protect the patients more efficiently and systematically. Eventual purpose was to provide the patients at high risk with the essential informations to prevent the onset of the disease and to promote their health conditions by early diagnosis. Most patients, registered to the public health center, were relatively obedient to the prescription, however, the incidence of being checked up regularly was low. It was turned out that the patients showed a low tendency to practice to maintain the healthy life style such as the proper eating habit or the effort to control the stress. So. it is necessary to develop the strategy and the management program to enhance the self-nursing activities to control the patients' blood pressure at the proper level. In addition, multidisciplinary approaches should to be done for efficient and effective care for hypertension patients. Finally, systematic management of hypertension patients is required to classify the duty and role for caring patients among those health care system.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1123-1134
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• 2009

This study was designed to evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively the pollutant compositions, which were emitted from three types of mosquito repellents(MRs)(mat-, liquid-vaporized, and coil-type) by utilizing a 50-L environmental chamber. A qualitative analysis revealed that 42 compounds were detected on the gas chromatography/mass spectrometer system, and that the detection frequency depended upon chemical types. Nine of the 42 compounds exhibited a detection frequency of 100%. Four aromatic compounds(benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and xylene) were detected in all test MRs. The concentration equilibriums in the environmental chamber were achieved within 180 min after sample introduction. The coil-type MR represented higher chamber concentrations as compared with the mat- or liquid-vaporized-type MR, with respect to the target compounds except for naphthalene. In particular, the chamber concentrations of ethyl benzene, associated with the use of coil-type MR, were between 0.9 and $65\;mg\;m^{-3}$ whereas those of mat- and liquid-vaporized-type MRs we~e between 0.5 and $2.0\;mg\;m^{-3}$and 0.3 and $1.4\;mg\;m^{-3}$, respectively. However, naphthalene concentrations in the chamber, where a liquid-vaporized-type MR was placed, were measured as between 17.8 and $56.3\;mg\;m^{-3}$, but not detected in the chamber, where a mat- or coil-type MR was placed. The empirical model fitted well with the time-series concentrations in the environmental chamber(in most cases, determination coefficient, $R^2$ ≿ 0.9), thereby suggesting that the model was suitable for testing emissions. In regards to the target compounds except for benzene, although they were emitted from the MRs, health risk from individual exposure to them were estimated not to be significant when comparing exposure levels with no observed adverse exposure levels or lowest observed adverse exposure levels of corresponding compounds. However, it was concluded that the use of MRs could be an important indoor source as regards benzene.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.891-898
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• 2012

The study for the passenger's comfortableness of vehicles and the arousal of car drivers has been done widely. On the other hand, there are few studies for the locomotive engineers. Human error means that the mistakes made by human, recently it receives attention in the field of safety engineering and human engineering. Comparing the operating condition of train with car, because of the simplification of the visual stimulus, the arousal level on the train goes down easily. The arousal level down makes judgement down, the accident risk from human error is getting bigger. In this study, we measured bio-signals(ECG, EDA, PPG, respiration and EEG) from 6 locomotive engineers to evaluate their arousal state while they operated the train. Also we recorded the 3 axes acceleration signal showing the vibration state of train. Also, the existence of tunnels were simultaneously measured. At the station section where the train speed goes down, the size of vector's sum decreases because of reduced vibration. Beta component in EEG tends to increase at the entering point of each station and tunnel. It is due to the arousal reaction and tension growth. The mean SCR(skin conductance response) was more increased in neutral section. As the button control movement (body movement) increases in the neutral section, it is appeared that SCR increase. RR interval tends to gradually increase during train operation for 1 hour 40 minutes. However, It tends to sharply decrease at the stop station because strong concentration needed to stop train on the exact point. The engineer's arousal reaction can be checked through analysing the bio-signal change during train operation. Therefore, if this analysing result is adopted to the sleepiness prevention caution system, it will be useful for the safety train operation.