• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2016

Purpose: An outbreak of influenza virus is uncommon in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The clinical presentation of influenza virus infection in neonates is diverse. This study was aimed to report an outbreak of influenza A in a NICU and to investigate the clinical characteristics of influenza virus infection in neonates especially preterm infants during the 2011-2012 influenza season in Korea. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 29 patients who were evaluated by respiratory virus multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at NICU of Kosin University Gospel Hospital during the 2011-2012 seasonal influenza outbreak in Korea. Results: Eleven patients (37.9%) were influenza A virus RT-PCR positive during the survey periods. They were all preterm infants and three of them had no symptoms. Eight patients had symptoms and it was fever (18%, 2/11), respiratory difficulty (72.7%, 8/11) without symptoms of upper respiratory infection, and gastrointestinal symptoms (27.3%, 3/11). The median duration of symptom was 5 days. There were differences of duration of admission at the test of respiratory RT-PCR, Clinical Risk Index for Babies (CRIB) score, use of mechanical ventilation, and use of dexamethasone before infection between influenza A virus RT-PCR positive and negative group. All 11 patients with influenza A were discharged without any complications. Conclusions: The symptoms of influenza A virus infection in the preterm infants is nonspecific. Influenza A virus should be considered as a possible cause of infection in NICU during the influenza season in the community.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.27 no.5 s.92
• /
• pp.322-327
• /
• 1999

Five white fruitbodies of Ganoderma lucidum found from two different mushroom farms, and the characteristics of atypical fruiting structure formation of these strains were described. The white fruitbodies were spontaneously generated on Quercus-log during the cultivation. They did not differentiate to the normal fruitbodies with pileus, hymenium, stipe and coloration, and fruitbodies remained non-laccateed even after 3 months. Dikaryotic mycelia isolated from the five white fruitbodies differed from wild-type strains in the mycelial growth rate, colony color, and the capacity of atypical fruiting structure (AFS) formation on agar media. These white mutants readily induced brown colored AFSs on the colonies under ventilation and illumination conditions. Both isolates Gl-010 and Gl-011 that were obtained from a normal and white fruitbody, respectively, did not form AFSs in the dark and/or under black light blue (BLB) light illumination, but induced under the visible light. They required dim light for the AFS formation, and the AFS formation was inhibited up to $0.5{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;S^{-1}$ in light intensity. However, the other four isolates induced AFSs even in the dark and BLB illumination, although their parent strain, isolate Gl-030, did not form AFSs under any light conditions. The monokaryotic mycelia derived from basidiospores of the AFSs of the white mutants were compatible with the original culture (dikaryon) on a dual culture.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.81-97
• /
• 1993

This study was carried out to analyze the factors of the perieved symptoms of fatigue of the industrial workers, to examine the inter-relatisnship of the above factors with their general charactenstics and the environments of working area for the examination of their health status and the effective health management of them. This study was undertaken from December 1 to December 20, 1990. The subjets were 495 workers who had worked at the Industrial complex located in Chonbuk Province. The result of this study were as follows: 1. The worker's percieved symptoms of fatigue were classified to the following seven factors; A) Musculo-Skeletal Symptoms, B) Neuro-Psychial Symptoms, C) Optical Symptoms, D) Heart Symptoms, E) Head Symptoms, F) Respiratory Symptoms, G) Genital Symptoms 2. Analysis of the inter-relationship of their percieved symptoms of fatigue with general characteristics; 1) The difference of distribution to their percieved symptoms of fatigue according to sexuality was significant; Female were higher than Male $(p{\leqq}0.001$, p<0.005) 2) The difference of distribution to their percieved symptoms of fatigue according to age was significant; Age group under 24 years of age were higher than the other's group (p<0.001). 3) The difference of distribution to their percieved symptoms of fatigue according to the level of education was significant; Workers who stand on a low intellectual were higher than workers on a high intellectual level. 4) The difference of distribution to their percieved symptoms of fatigue for a week was the highest when worked at sunday. 5) The difference of distribution to their percieved symptoms of fatigue for seasons was high at spring. 3. Analysis of the inter-relationship of their percieved symptoms of fatigue with the environments of working area. 1) The difference of distribution of their percieved symptoms of fatigue according to the working department was significant; Production workers were higher than office workers. 2) The difference of distribution of their percieved symptoms of fatigue related with working posture was significant; Sitting: Musculo-Skeletal symptoms (p<0.05), Optical symptoms (p<0.005) 3) The more dissatisfied with their's own duty they were, the higher became the distribution of their percieved symptoms of fatigue (p<0.001. p<0.005, p<0.05) 4) The more dissatisfied with their working condition they were, the higher became the degree of their percieved symptoms of fatigue (p<0.001. P<0.05) 5) The difference of distribution of their percieved symptoms of fatigue according to kinds of job was significant: Workers who has handled heavy materials were higher than who had not handled $(p{\leqq}0.001$, p<0.05). Workers who has handled chemical materials: Optical, symptoms $(p{\leqq}0.001)$. Workers who has handled dusty materials: Respiratory symptoms (p<0.01) 6) The environment of working area was significantly affected to the distribution of their percieved symptoms of fatigue: Workers complains of a illumination problem; Optical symptoms (p<0.005), Heart symptoms (p<0.005) Workers complains of a ventilation problem: Heart symptoms (p<0.05), Optical symptoms, Heart symptoms (p<0.01) Musculo-skeletal symptoms ($p{\leqq}0.001$)

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.60 no.2
• /
• pp.75-84
• /
• 2018

Thermal stress of livestock has been issued due to recent climate change trends and this causes reproductive disorders, decreased feed consumption, immunosuppression, and increased mortality of animals. Concept of THI has been widely used to quantitatively evaluate the degree of thermal stress for animals, however use of this concept is restricted for animals living in the enclosed facilities such as mechanically ventilated broiler houses. In this study, time-based internal energy flow and variation trends of temperature and humidity were analyzed based on BES technique. Local weather data, insulation characteristics of building materials, heat and moisture generation rate from broilers according to age, algorithm of ventilation operation were adopted for boundary condition of the model to accurately compute THI values inside the mechanically ventilated broiler house. From the BES computation, excess frequency of THI threshold in Jeju city was highest on the assumption that air conditioning equipments were not installed. When general raising density ($39kg\;m^{-2}$) was adopted, total 2,191 hours were exceeded. Excess hours of THI threshold were strongly related to the cumulative air temperature ($R^2=0.87$).

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.217-224
• /
• 2003

To find out heating load and to determine the power of heat pump compressor for the Ondol room heating the COP of heat pump, the variation of Ondol room air temperature, the variation of ambient temperature and power consumption of heat pump are analyzed. The results from this study were summarized as follows: 1. The COP of the heat pump in close loop decreased as the ambient air temperature. The COP was 2.26 when the temperature difference of condenser was $20\pm3^{\circ}C$. 2. The Ondol surface temperature was $25\pm3^{\circ}C$ when the hot water of $40^{\circ}C$ was supplied from hot water storage tank to the Ondol and the temperature difference between the Ondol surface and the room air temperature was $7~8^{\circ}C$. 3. The ratio of thermal conduction heating load to total heating load in Ondol heating space was found to be 83% and ratio of ventilation heating load was 17%. Therefore, the thermal conduction heating load was confirmod to be a major heating load in Ondol heating space. 4. In case of the ambient temperature of $3.2^{\circ}C$, the efficiency of heat exchange of Ondol heating system was 85%. 5. The heating load per Ondol heating surface area and volume of Ondol room space were theoretically analyzed. In case of the room temperature of $20^{\circ}C$ and the ambient temperature of $-3.2~3.8^{\circ}C$, the heating load per Ondol surface area was 115.8~167.6kJ/h ㆍ㎥ and per Ondol mom space volume was 50.2~72.7kJ/h ㆍ㎥. 6. The compressor power of heat pump fur the Ondol room heating could be determined with the heating load analyzed in this study In case of the Ondol room air temperature of 17~2$0^{\circ}C$ and the ambient temperature of -5~3.8$^{\circ}C$, the compressor power of heat pump per Ondol surface area was analyzed to be $2.3\times10^{-2}psm^2$, and per volume of Ondol room space $1.0\times10^{-2}1.4\times10^{-2}ps/m^2$ps.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.252-257
• /
• 2015

Fruit cracking and vine leaf spot of grapes tend to occur when the plants were directly exposed to rain under outdoor culture. Rain shelter facility can be an alternative method to prevent the cracking and disease of grape, but it also has some limitations in practical usages. We designed rain shelter facility which can completely shut out the rain and ventilate naturally, and it was upgraded to meet the standards of disaster prevention against snow and wind load. The newly developed rain shelter has two-story roof structure, and the $2^{nd}$ floor roof was equipped over $1^{st}$ floor roof at a distance of 40cm. For natural ventilation and water proof, the upper roof protruded about 50cm from the ridge of a $1^{st}$ floor roof. The various tests were carried to examine such as grape quality, brown spot and fruit cracking of Campbell Early under the conventional and the newly developed rain shelter facility which was built about $100{\ss}{\check{S}}$. In comparison of temperature between the conventional and the newly developed rain shelter facility when outside temperature was more than $34^{\circ}C$, the inside temperature was recorded as $40.7^{\circ}C$ and $37.4^{\circ}C$, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two facilities when outside was below $32^{\circ}C$ The quality such as soluble solids and marketable fruit was increased, and fruit cracking of grapes and vine leaf spot also drastically diminished in the newly developed rain shelter.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.80 no.3
• /
• pp.296-303
• /
• 2017

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is related to high mortality and morbidity. There are no proven therapeutic measures however, to improve the clinical course of ARDS, except using low tidal volume ventilation. Metformin is known to have pleiotropic effects including anti-inflammatory activity. We hypothesized that pre-admission metformin might alter the progress of ARDS among intensive care unit (ICU) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study from January 1, 2005, to April 30, 2005 of patients who were admitted to the medical ICU at Seoul National University Hospital because of ARDS, and reviewed ARDS patients with DM. Metformin use was defined as prescribed within 3-month pre-admission. Results: Of 558 patients diagnosed with ARDS, 128 (23.3%) patients had diabetes and 33 patients were treated with metformin monotherapy or in combination with other antidiabetic medications. Demographic characteristics, cause of ARDS, and comorbid conditions (except chronic kidney disease) were not different between metformin users and nonusers. Several severity indexes of ARDS were similar in both groups. The 30-day mortality was 42.42% in metformin users and 55.32% in metformin nonusers. On multivariable regression analysis, use of metformin was not significantly related to a reduced 30-day mortality (adjusted ${\beta}-coefficient$, -0.19; 95% confidence interval, -1.76 to 1.39; p=0.816). Propensity score-matched analyses showed similar results. Conclusion: Pre-admission metformin use was not associated with reduced 30-day mortality among ARDS patients with DM in our medical ICU.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.24-29
• /
• 2010

Purpose: Neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used as they have been proven by experimental studies to have low toxicity to mammals, including humans. As the use of neonicotioids increases, the number of patients with neonicotinoid poisoning has also increased. We conducted a study to investigate the clinical manifestations of neonicotinid poisoning. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the patients who ingested neonicotinids and who visited the emergency department located in Korea from March 2002 to February 2010. We reviewed the patients' age, gender, the amount of exposure, the elapsed time to presentation, the treatment and the outcome. According to the poisoning severity score, we divided the patients with a Poisoning severity score (PSS) of 0 or 1 into the mild/moderate toxicity group and the patients with a PSS of 2 or 3 into the severe/fatal toxicity group. Results: A total of 24 patients were analyzed. The most common clinical manifestations of neonicotinoid insecticide toxicity were gastrointestinal symptoms (66.7%) such as nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain and the others are respiratory symptoms (16.7%), cardiovascular symptoms (12.5%), metabolic imbalance (12.5%), renal dysfunction (8.3%), CNS symptoms (8.3%), and asymptomatic (29.2%). Twenty patients (83.3%) showed mild/moderate toxicity and 4 patients (16.7%) showed fatal conditions such as shock and mutiorgan failure. The mortality rate was 4.2%. In these fatal cases, the patients developed respiratory failure, hypotension, altered mentality and renal failure at the acute stage and they deteriorated to a more serious condition. This severe toxicity was caused by decreased renal excretion of neonicotinid metabolite, and this was improved after hemodialysis. Conclusion: Most patients with neonicotinoid poisoning and who showed mild toxicity usually improved after symptomatic treatment. However, some patients showed significant toxicity with respiratory failure and renal function deterioration, and intensive care needed, including mechanical ventilation and hemodialysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.81-99
• /
• 2000

The shelterbelts are very important to conserve and protect the sandy land, vegetation coverage, farmland, livestock and human life in the desertified land. The shelterbelts are constructed by the several row-plantings of high-adaptable species in the desertified land. The shelterbelts have various kind of type, and there are shelterbelts for conservation of farmland in dry the region, the protective shelterbelts (windbreaks for blowing-sand, artificial sanddune fixation by revegetation, and construction of farmland shelterbelts to protect farmland and pasture from wind erosion, etc.) in the semi-dry steppe, shelterbelts around the villages and oasis for sanddune fixation, shelterbelts for protection of railroads, and so on. The shelterbelts consist of main she1terbelts and minor shelterbelts. The main shelterbelts were constructed by being perpendicular to main wind direction, and the minor shelterbelts were constructed by being perpendicular to the main shelterbelts. Generally, the width of shelterbelts is 8~20m, and the number of row-planting is 4~10. The grid sizes of shelterbelts networks are $400{\times}400m$, $300{\times}500m$, $100{\times}200m$, and so on, and there are ventilation type and closing type in the type of shelterbelt. The width, number of row-planting, grid size and type of shelterbelt are selected by the local characteristics. The effects of shelterbelts are mainly the climate improvement and mitigation, such as prevention of occurrence of strong wind, cold wind and blowing-sand. And, the other effects of shelterbelts are effect of reforestation, increase of agricultural productions, establishment of greenbelts and green forests, construction of landscape-eco shelterbelts, improvement of life environment of local villages, supply of fuel wood and agricultural wood, land amelioration, effect of revegetation and restoration of desertified land, and so on. The kinds of the tree species mainly used for the construction of shelterbelts have differences between regions, but main species are Populus euphratica, Populus simonii, Populus bolleana, Populus tomentosa, Salix flavida, Salix mongolica, Tamarix chinensis, Hedysarum scoparium, and so on.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.1101-1121
• /
• 2016

Base isolation, one of the popular seismic protection approaches proven to be effective in practical applications, has been widely applied worldwide during the past few decades. As the techniques mature, it has been recognised that, the biggest issue faced in base isolation technique is the challenge of great base displacement demand, which leads to the potential of overturning of the structure, instability and permanent damage of the isolators. Meanwhile, drain, ventilation and regular maintenance at the base isolation level are quite difficult and rather time- and fund- consuming, especially in the highly populated areas. To address these challenges, a number of efforts have been dedicated to propose new isolation systems, including segmental building, additional storey isolation (ASI) and mid-storey isolation system, etc. However, such techniques have their own flaws, among which whipping effect is the most obvious one. Moreover, due to their inherent passive nature, all these techniques, including traditional base isolation system, show incapability to cope with the unpredictable and diverse nature of earthquakes. The solution for the aforementioned challenge is to develop an innovative vibration isolation system to realise variable structural stiffness to maximise the adaptability and controllability of the system. Recently, advances on the development of an adaptive magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) vibration isolator has enlightened the development of adaptive base isolation systems due to its ability to alter stiffness by changing applied electrical current. In this study, an innovative semi-active storey isolation system inserting such novel MRE isolators between each floor is proposed. The stiffness of each level in the proposed isolation system can thus be changed according to characteristics of the MRE isolators. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm type II (NSGA-II) with dynamic crowding distance (DCD) is utilised for the optimisation of the parameters at isolation level in the system. Extensive comparative simulation studies have been conducted using 5-storey benchmark model to evaluate the performance of the proposed isolation system under different earthquake excitations. Simulation results compare the seismic responses of bare building, building with passive controlled MRE base isolation system, building with passive-controlled MRE storey isolation system and building with optimised storey isolation system.