• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제60권3호
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• pp.277-284
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• 2006

Background : Delayed treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis is an important problem because it results in greater mortality and the nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis. This study was conducted to analyze the factors that contribute to the delayed treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in a university hospital and we wanted to provide basic data for instituting an effective management program for tuberculosis. Methods : we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 155 patients with smear-positive or culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis and who were treated between May 1999 and October 1999. A case-control study was performed to analyze the factors. We then tried to follow up the patients in delayed treatment group via telephone for the purpose of assessing the therapeutic interventions. Results : Among 150 patients, 55 (37%) were included in the delayed treatment group. The factors associated with delayed treatment on the univariate analysis included age (61 vs 40 years old; p <0.001), a smear-negative sputum test for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) (85% vs 55%; p <0.001) and no visits to a private clinic before the patient presented to the university hospital (56% vs 36%; p = 0.014). Multivariate analysis revealed that old age (p = 0.001), a smear-negative sputum for AFB (p = 0.001), and lower lobe infiltrate on chest X-ray (p = 0.041) were the independent predictors of delayed treatment. Of the 22 patients who did not receive any treatment, 20 of them 91%) consented to our suggestion of revisiting the hospital. Conclusion : Delayed treatment of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis is not uncommon in a university hospital. Old age, smear-negative for AFB, and lower lobe infiltrate on chest X-ray are the risk factors for delayed treatment. A more systematic management system is required for achieving better control of tuberculosis.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.69-87
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• 2005

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to identify pediatric nurses's knowledge related to children's pain and pediatric nurses' career including educational experience and to examine whether there is a difference of their knowledge according to their career. Method : Subjects of this study was 115 pediatric nurses of one university hospital who understood purpose of this study and accepted to participate in this study. Subjects responded questionnaire by self report. The data were gathered for 7 days during the period from October 20 to October '2:7, 2003. The pediatric nurses' knowledge and attitude survey regarding pain developed by Manworren(2001) was used to identify the knowledge related to children's pain of pediatric nurses. Nurses' career consisted of level of education, presently working ward, duration of experience at clinic, pediatric clinic and presently working ward and educational experience related to children's pain during undergraduate courses, ward orientation and continuing education. Educational experience regarding children's pain was measured by whether they had education related to children's pain during undergraduate courses, ward orientation and continuing education or not and their perception on the contents of education was measured by 5 point Likert type scale. SPSS Windows was used to analyze the data. Scores of the knowledge regarding children's pain and career including educational experience of pediatric nurses were presented as mean and standard deviation. Mean percentage of correct answers responded by the subjects was presented under the category of introduction, assessment, pharmacological and nonpharmacological intervention for children's pain. The difference of scores of the knowledge regarding children's pain according to nurses' career was analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and Tukey as a post hoc. Statistical significance was accepted at the level of p<.05. Result : Pediatric nurses had deficient knowledge related to children's pain on the whole and did not trust pain complaint and underestimated the pain. They were short of concrete practical knowledge about pain assessment and pharmacological and nonpharmacological intervention for children's pain. They were excessively concerned with side effect and addiction of analgesic drugs and had a negative view point on nonpharmacological pain intervention. About 50% of the subjects received education regarding children's pain while their undergraduate courses. The number of nurses who received education regarding children's pain while their undergraduate courses was found to be greater among the recently graduated nurses. In ward orientation and continuing education, only less than 10% of the nurses received education regarding children's pain. Nurses perceived their experienced educational content deficient; experienced educational content consisted of pain introduction, assessment and pharmacological and nonpharmacological intervention for children's pain while their undergraduate course, ward orientation and continuing education. There were no significant differences of the knowledge regarding children's pain of pediatric nurses according to level of education, duration of experience at clinic, pediatric clinic and presently working ward. Scores of the knowledge regarding children's pain of nurses at neonatal ward were significantly greater than those of nurses at pediatric intensive care unit. Scores of the knowledge regarding children's pain of pediatric nurses who received education during their undergraduate course were significantly greater than those who did not receive it during their undergraduate courses. Also scores of the knowledge regarding children's pain of pediatric nurses who received one kind of educational experience were significantly greater than those who had no educational experience. Conclusion : Pediatric nurses had deficient knowledge of children's pain and underestimated the pain of children. Also they were short of concrete practical knowledge on pain assessment and intervention for children's pain.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2008

According to technology acceptance model(TAN) which is one of the most important research models for explaining IT users' behavior, on intention of using IT is determined by usefulness and ease of use of it. However, TAM wouldn't explain the performance of using IT while it has been considered as a very good model for prediction of the intention. Many people would not be confirmed in the performance of using IT until they can control it at their will, although they think it useful and easy to use. In other words, in addition to usefulness and ease of use as in TAM, controllability is also should be a factor to determine acceptance of IT. Especially, there is a very close relationship between controllability and ease of use, both of which explain the other sides of control over the performance of using IT, so called perceived behavioral control(PBC) in social psychology. The objective of this study is to identify the relationship between ease of use and controllability, and analyse the effects of both two beliefs over performance and intention in using IT. For this purpose, we review the issues related with PBC in information systems studies as well as social psychology, Based on a review of PBC, we suggest a research model which includes the relationship between control and performance in using IT, and prove its validity empirically. Since it was introduced as qa variable for explaining volitional control for actions in theory of planned behavior(TPB), there have been confusion about concept of PBC in spite of its important role in predicting so many kinds of actions. Some studies define PBC as self-efficacy that means actor's perception of difficulty or ease of actions, while others as controllability. However, this confusion dose not imply conceptual contradiction but a double-faced feature of PBC since the performance of actions is related with both self-efficacy and controllability. In other words, these two concepts are discriminated and correlated with each other. Therefore, PBC should be considered as a composite concept consisting of self-efficacy and controllability, Use of IT has been also one of important areas for predictions by PBC. Most of them have been studied by analysis of comparison in prediction power between TAM and TPB or modification of TAM by inclusion of PBC as another belief as like usefulness and ease of use. Interestingly, unlike the other applications in social psychology, it is hard to find such confusion in the concept of PBC in the studies for use of IT. In most of studies, controllability is adapted as PBC since the concept of self-efficacy is included in ease of use explicitly. Based on these discussions, we can suggest perceived use control(PUC) which is defined as perception of control over the performance of using IT and composed of controllability and ease of use as sub-concepts. We suggest a research model explaining acceptance of IT which includes the relationships of PUC with attitude and performance of using IT. For empirical test of our research model, two user groups are selected for surveying questionnaires. In the first group, there are freshmen who take a basic course for Microsoft Excel, and the second group consists of senior students who take a course for analysis of management information by Excel. Most of measurements are adapted ones that have been validated in the other studies, while performance is real score of mid-term in each class. In result, four hypotheses related with PUC are supported statistically with very low significance level. Main contribution of this study is suggestion of PUC through theoretical review of PBC. Specifically, a hierarchical model of PUC are derived from very rigorous studies in the relationship between self-efficacy and controllability with a view of PBC in social psychology. The relationship between PUC and performance is another main contribution.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.225-231
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• 2016

Glasshouse heating package technologies to improve energy usage efficiency in winter were developed. Heating package was composed of the ground water source heat pump with heating capacity of 105kW, the aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain with six layers of different materials and the root zone local heater with XL pipes of ${\phi}20mm$. Venlo type glasshouse($461m^2$) with the heating package was compared with the same type and area control glasshouse with the light oil boiler, the usual non-woven fabric thermal curtain with respect to the glasshouse inside temperature, relative humidity, crop growth, and heating energy consumption. The results of test in paprika cultivation glasshouses showed that the air temperature inside glasshouse with aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain was maintained $2.2^{\circ}C$ higher than that of control glasshouse in un-heating night time and the temperature in bed with root zone local heating was $4.7^{\circ}C$ higher than that in bed without local heating. Average heating coefficient of performance(COP) of the ground water source heat pump used in paprika cultivation was 3.7 and the glasshouse inside temperature was maintained at $21^{\circ}C$ of heating set up temperature. The heating energy consumptions per 10a were measured at 14,071L of light oil and 364kWh of electric power for the control glasshouse and 35,082kWh for the glasshouse applied heating package. As results, the heating cost of the glasshouse applied heating package was 87 percent lower than that of control glasshouse. The growths of paprika in glasshouses of control and applied heating package did not show any significant difference.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.512-519
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• 2009

Among patients who visited each clinical department for oriental medical treatments, anthropometric measurement, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and blood lipid profile level were measured at their first initial visit. 55 subject patients who were diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome and 150 mg/dL or more of triglyceride were selected as subjects whose fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were measured after fasting. According to each patient's disease, the subject received treatments such as herb medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping therapy, physical therapy and rehabilitation therapy from each clinical department, and after an average of 4.10${\pm}$0.31 weeks, another test was performed yielding the following results. Serum triglyceride was 243.72${\pm}$13.05 mg/dL before the oriental medical treatment and 188.11${\pm}$12.17 mg/dL after the treatment where although it continued to show an abnormal value even after the treatment, there was statistically significant decrease compared to pre treatment(P<0.05). Serum total cholesterol was 207.50${\pm}$5.89 mg/dL before the oriental medical treatment and 192.37${\pm}$5.53 mg/dL after the treatment which was statistically insignificant compared to pre treatment(P>0.05). Serum HDL cholesterol was 51.19${\pm}$3.95 mg/dL before the oriental medical treatment and increased to 52.53${\pm}$1.49 mg/dL after the treatment although it was statistically insignificant compared to pre treatment(P>0.05). Serum LDL cholesterol was 110.66${\pm}$5.86 mg/dL before the oriental medical treatment and decreased to 106.12${\pm}$4.82 mg/dL after the treatment although it was statistically insignificant compared to pre treatment(P>0.05). In regards to the change of triglyceride for each sex, it was 221.84${\pm}$14.01 mg/dL before the treatment and 187.00${\pm}$15.47 mg/dL after the treatment for men, and it was 271.50${\pm}$22.78 mg/dL and 189.53${\pm}$19.76 mg/dL respectively for women where even though men and women showed the decrease of 34.84${\pm}$12.79 mg/dL and 81.96${\pm}$20.01 mg/dL respectively, both men and women continue to show abnormal values after the treatments. However, there was statistically significant decrease compared to pre treatment(P<0.05). In regards to the change of total cholesterol for each sex, with 198.24${\pm}$7.60 mg/dL for men before the treatment and 188.93${\pm}$7.45 mg/dL after the treatment, values for both before and after the treatment were within the normal range where the change value was 9.30${\pm}$5.86 mg/dL and statistically insignificant(P>0.05). For women, it was 219.26${\pm}$8.87 mg/dL and 196.73${\pm}$8.43 mg/dL respectively for women where with 22.53${\pm}$7.60 mg/dL, it decreased to the normal level after the treatment, and there was a statistically significant decrease compared to pre treatment(P<0.05). With such results, serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels of patients who have been diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome were observed to decrease after the oriental medical treatment. Especially, for both men and women, abnormally high triglyceride level decreased while the effect of lipid profile improvement for women was more significant compared to men.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• 제11권6호
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• pp.493-500
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• 2017

In this study, data analysis has been conducted by INFINITT program to analyze the effect of signal to noise ratio(SNR) and contrast to noise ratio(CNR) of flow related enhancement(FRE) and computed tomography Angiography(CTA) on cerebrovascular diseases for qualitative evaluations. Based on the cerebrovascular image results achieved from 63 patients (January to April, 2017, at C University Hospital), we have selected 19 patients that performed both FRE-MRA and CTA. From the 19 patients, 2 were excluded due to artifacts from movements in the cerebrovascular image results. For the analysis conditions, we have set the 5 part (anterior cerebral artery, right and left Middle cerebral artery, right and left Posterior cerebral artery) as the interest area to evaluate the SNR and CNR, and the results were validated through Independence t Test. As a result, by averaging the SNR, and CNR values, the corresponding FRE-MRA achieved were: anterior cerebral artery ($1500.73{\pm}12.23/970.43{\pm}14.55$), right middle cerebral artery ($1470.16{\pm}11.46/919.44{\pm}13.29$), left middle cerebral artery ($1457.48{\pm}17.11/903.96{\pm}14.53$), right posterior cerebral artery ($1385.83{\pm}16.52/852.11{\pm}14.58$), left posterior cerebral artery ($1318.52{\pm}13.49/756.21{\pm}10.88$). by averaging the SNR, and CNR values, the corresponding CTA achieved were: anterior cerebral artery ($159.95{\pm}12.23/123.36{\pm}11.78$), right middle cerebral artery ($236.66{\pm}17.52/202.37{\pm}15.20$), left middle cerebral artery ($224.85{\pm}13.45/193.14{\pm}11.88$), right posterior cerebral artery ($183.65{\pm}13.47/151.44{\pm}11.48$), left posterior cerebral artery ($177.7{\pm}16.72/144.71{\pm}11.43$) (p < 0.05). In conclusion, MRA had high SNR and CNR value regardless of the cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage observed in the 5 part of the brain. Although FRE-MRA consumed longer time, it proved to have less side effect of contrast media when compared to the CTA.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.279-287
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• 2020

Recently, interest in radiation protection is increasing because of the occurrence of accidents related to exposure dose. So, the nuclear safety act provides to install the shields to avoid exceeding the dose limit. In particular, when the worker conducts the non-destructive testing (NDT) without the fixed shielding structure, we should monitor the access to the workplace based on a constant dose rate. However, when we apply for permits for NDT work in these work environments, the consideration factors to the estimation of the distance and exposure dose are not legally specified. Therefore, we developed the excel model that automatically calculates the distance, exposure dose, and cost if we input the factors. We applied the assumption data to this model. As a result of the application, the distance change rate was low when the thickness of the lead blanket and collimator is above 25 mm, 21.5 mm, respectively. However, we didn't consider the scattering and build-up factor. And, we assumed the shape of the lead blanket and collimator. Therefore, if we make up for these limitations and use the actual data, we expect that we can build a database on the distance and exposure dose.

• Journal of Life Science
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• 제27권6호
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• pp.646-651
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• 2017

This study was carried out to examine the antimicrobial activity of 70% ethanol and hot water extracts from different parts and essential oil in Pinus densiflora on skin pathogens such as Staphylococcus epiermidis, S. aureus, Propionibacterium acnes, Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, and Trichophyton rubrum. The antimicrobial activities of extracts and essential oil were tested by paper disc assay and minimum inhibitory concentration test. The ethanol extract of pine pollen showed antimicrobial activity against C. tropicalis and T. rubrum. Ethanol extract of pine needle and pine gnarl showed antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, C. tropicalis, and P. acnes. Essential oil from pine needle exhibited antimicrobial activity against C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and P. acnes. The minimum inhibitory concentration of ethanol extracts of pine needle and pine gnarl against P. acnes and C. tropicalis ranged from 0.002% to 0.0063%. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (0.025%) against C. albicans and C. tropicalis was obtained from essential oil. These results indicate that ethanol extracts of pine pollen, pine needle, pine gnarl, and essential oil of pine needle could be applicable to control the skin infection pathogens. Especially, ethanol extract of pine gnarl had a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity and pine extracts and essential oil exhibited higher antimicrobial activity with Candida sp. and P acnes.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.233-240
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• 2004

Purpose: We developed a computer-aided classifier using artificial neural network (ANN) to discriminate the cerebral metabolic pattern of medial and lateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Materials and Methods: We studied brain F-18-FDG PET images of 113 epilepsy patients sugically and pathologically proven as medial TLE (left 41, right 42) or lateral TLE (left 14, right 16). PET images were spatially transformed onto a standard template and normalized to the mean counts of cortical regions. Asymmetry indices for predefined 17 mirrored regions to hemispheric midline and those for medial and lateral temporal lobes were used as input features for ANN. ANN classifier was composed of 3 independent multi-layered perceptrons (1 for left/right lateralization and 2 for medial/lateral discrimination) and trained to interpret metabolic patterns and produce one of 4 diagnoses (L/R medial TLE or L/R lateral TLE). Randomly selected 8 images from each group were used to train the ANN classifier and remaining 51 images were used as test sets. The accuracy of the diagnosis with ANN was estimated by averaging the agreement rates of independent 50 trials and compared to that of nuclear medicine experts. Results: The accuracy in lateralization was 89% by the human experts and 90% by the ANN classifier Overall accuracy in localization of epileptogenic zones by the ANN classifier was 69%, which was comparable to that by the human experts (72%). Conclusion: We conclude that ANN classifier performed as well as human experts and could be potentially useful supporting tool for the differential diagnosis of TLE.