• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.140-146
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• 2024

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), causing multi-organ damage affecting the heart, lungs, kidneys, digestive tract, and nervous system. As the cases of MIS-C have been increasing following the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of appropriate management for MIS-C is becoming increasingly apparent. Immunomodulating agents such as anakinra, infliximab, and steroids are regarded as supplementary therapy to the first-line treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin. However, these immunomodulating therapies can potentially precipitate opportunistic infections, including those caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus, and tuberculosis, or increase the risk of co-infections. Herein, we report a case of a 3-year-old boy who was treated with immunoglobulin, infliximab, and high-dose methylprednisolone for MIS-C, and subsequently developed a persistent fever lasting 32 days caused by a CMV infection.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.135-155
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• 2024

Urban public health monitoring in smart cities focuses on the control of conditions and health challenges in urban environments. Considering the rapid spread of diseases and pandemics, it is important for health authorities to trace people carrying the virus. In smart cities, this tracing must be interoperable and intelligent, especially in indoor surfaces characterized by small distances between people. Therefore, to fight pandemics, it is necessary to start with the already-existing digital equipment of the Internet of Things, such as connected objects and smartphones. In this study, the developed system is employed to provide a social IoT network and suggest a strategy which allows reliable traceability without threatening the privacy of users. This IoT-based system allows respecting the social distance between persons sharing public services in smart cities without applying smartphone applications or severe confinement. It also permits a return to normal life in case of viral pandemic and ensures the much-desired balance between economy and health. The present study analyses previous proposed social distance systems then, unlike these studies, suggests an intelligent and distributed IoT based strategy for positioning students. Two scenarios of static and dynamic optimization-based placement of Bluetooth Low Energy devices are proposed and an experimental study shows the contribution and complementarity of the introduced contact tracing strategy with the applications on smartphones.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.771-780
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• 2024

In this study, we implemented a real-time pest detection and prediction system for a strawberry farm using a computer vision model based on the YOLOv5 architecture and an Isolation Forest Classifier. The model performance evaluation showed that the YOLOv5 model achieved a mean average precision (mAP 0.5) of 78.7%, an accuracy of 92.8%, a recall of 90.0%, and an F1-score of 76%, indicating high predictive performance. This system was designed to be applicable not only to strawberry farms but also to other crops and various environments. Based on data collected from a tomato farm, a new AI model was trained, resulting in a prediction accuracy of over 85% for major diseases such as late blight and yellow leaf curl virus. Compared to the previous model, this represented an improvement of more than 10% in prediction accuracy.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2007

Purpose : We investigated clinical characteristics of real-time PCR proven EBV viremia patients who were not serologically diagnosed but clinically suspected, and compared it to serologically proven EBV infected patients. Methods : The study population consisted of 45 patients, who were suspected acute EBV infection at Wonju Christian Hospital Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2006. real-time PCR of cell free serum was performed to prove EBV viremia. Then we chose $102.5copies/{\mu}g$ DNA as a suitable cutoff level for EBV associated diseases. Results : There are 4 patients diagnosed as EBV infection by serologically and 15 patients diagnosed as EBV viremia by real-time PCR quantitative measurement. The most common presenting symptoms and signs of EBV viremia was fever in 11 cases (73%). Atypical lymphocytosis was found in 4 cases (27%). Increased AST, ALT levels were observed in 13 cases (87%), 12 cases (80%), respectively. We could diagnose 5 cases of EBV viremia younger than one year of age. They revealed clinical symptoms which could be found in EBV infection. The serologically diagnosed patients had hepatomegaly and splenomegaly in 3 cases (75%). All serologically confirmed patients have leukocytosis above $20,000/mm^3$, among them 2 cases (50%) had higher percentage (>15%) of atypical lymphocytes. The AST/ALT level above 50 IU/L were demonstrated in all cases. Conclusion : Serologically unproven real-time PCR EBV viremia patients revealed similar clinical findings with that of serologically proven EBV infected patients. So, it is meaningful to perform EBV real-time PCR for the diagnosis of EBV infection especially for the cases younger than 1 year of age.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.639-648
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• 1997

Background : Arterial hypoxemia has been noted in patients with liver cirrhosis because of bronchial vessel dilatation. Cabenes et al. reported that bronchial hyperresponsiveness to the metacholine inhalation was observed in patients of left side heart failure, he suggested that one of the mechanism was bronchial vessel dilatation. We hypothesized that patients of liver cirrhosis might have bronchial hyperresponsiveness to metacholine inhalation due to portal hypertension. We evaluate the relationship between bronchial responsiveness and severity of liver cirrhosis, severity of portal hypertension. Methods : In the 22 patients of the liver cirrhosis with clinical portal hypertension, metacholine provocation test was done and determined $PC_{20}FEV1$. We classified liver cirrhosis according to Pugh-Child classification. Esophagogastroscopies were performed for the evaluation of the relationship between bronchial hyperresponsiveness and severity of esophageal varix. Results : In the 22 cases of the liver cirrhosis with clinical portal hypertension. The causes of liver cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis was 9 cases, hepatitis B virus was 12 cases, hepatitis C virus was 1 case, and 151 cases (68.18%) of total 22 cases were positive in metacholine provocation test. In positive cases. There was no significant relationship between $PC_{20}FEV1$ and severity of liver cirrhosis which were classified by Pugh-Child classification or severity of esophageal varix(p<0.05). Conclusion : we observed that bronchial responsiveness to metacholine increased in the patients of liver cirrhosis and there was no significant relationship between the severity of liver cirrhosis and the severity of esophageal varix.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.328-331
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• 2008

Hwangeumnodeul is a new japonica rice cultivar developed from a cross between Milyang165 and HR15151-B-21-3 at Honam Agricultural Research Institute (HARI), NICS, RDA, in 2007. This cultivar has short grains and about 139 days of growth duration from direct seeding to harvesting in the southern plain areas. Culm length of this cultivar is 78 cm and the number of spikelet per panicle is similar to that of the check cultivar, Nampyeongbyeo, while filled grain rate is lower than the check variety. This cultivar is moderately resistant to leaf blast, bacterial blight pathogens of $K_1$, $K_2$ and $K_3$ and stripe virus but susceptible to major virus diseases and insect pests. Milled kernel of Hwanggeumnodeul is translucent with non-glutinous endosperm. This cultivar has about 5.7% and 18.6% of protein and amylose contents, respectively. Palatability of cooked rice of Hwanggeumnodeul is similar to Nampyeongbyeo. Its milling recovery and head rice were 75.6% and 90.0%, respectively. Hwanggeumnodeul yielded 5.69 and 5.61 MT/ha in milled rice at the under wet-direct and dry-direct seeding conditions, respectively which are 17% and 12% higher than the check variety, Juanbyeo. It yielded 5.86 MT/ha, 8% higher than Nampyeongbyeo at the standard fertilizer level of the ordinary transplanting cultivation. "Hwanggeumnodeul" would be adaptable for ordinary transplanting as well as direct seeding in the southern plain including Chungcheong province.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.503-506
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• 2008

'Saenuri' is a new japonica rice variety developed and registered by the rice breeding team of Department of Rice and Winter Cereal Crop, NICS, RDA in 2007. This variety was derived from a cross between Gyehwa17 with lodging tolerance and high yield potential, and HR14026-B-68-6-1-5 with resistance to diseases and good eating quality. This variety has about 124 days growth duration from transplanting to harvesting in west-southern coast, Honam and Youngnam plain of Korea. It is about 78 cm in culm length and tolerance to lodging. In reaction to biotic and abiotic stresses, it shows moderately resistance to blast, and resistance to bacterial blight pathogen races from K1 to $K_3$ and stripe virus, but susceptible to other major diseases and insect pests. The milled rice of "Saenuri" exhibits translucent, relatively clear non-glutinous endosperm and midium short grain. It has similar amylose content of 19.0% and lower protein content of 6.1%, and good palatability of cooked rice compared with Nampyeongbyeo. The milled rice yield performance of this variety is about 5.71MT/ha in local adaptability test for three years. "Saenuri" would be adaptable to west-southern coast, Honam and Youngnam plain of Korea.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.129-138
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• 2023

Purpose: Cancer incidence is known to be higher in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI) compared to the general population in addition to traditionally well-known infection susceptibility. We aimed to investigate cancer occurrence in patients with IEI in a single center. Methods: Medical records of IEI patients treated at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea were retrospectively reviewed from November 1994 to September 2023. Patients with IEI and cancer were identified. Results: Among 194 patients with IEI, seven patients (3.6%) were diagnosed with cancer. Five cases were lymphomas, 4 of which were Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphomas. The remaining cases included gastric cancer and multiple myeloma. The median age at cancer diagnosis was 18 years (range, 1-75 years). Among patients with cancer, underlying IEIs included X-linked lymphoproliferative disease-1 (XLP-1, n=3), activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta syndrome (APDS, n=2), and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) haploinsufficiency (n=2). Seventy-five percent (3/4) of XLP-1 patients, 40.0% (2/5) of APDS patients, and 50.0% (2/4) of CTLA-4 haplo-insufficiency patients developed cancer. Patients with XLP-1 developed cancer at earlier age (median age 5 years) compared to those with APDS and CTLA-4 (P<0.001). One patient with APDS died during hematopoietic cell transplantation. Conclusions: Cancer occurred in 3.6% of IEI patients at a single center in Korea. In addition to infectious complications and inflammation, physicians caring for IEI patients should be aware of the potential risk of cancer, especially in association with EBV infection.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.186-194
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• 2005

Purpose : Hepatitis A viral infections have been continued after re-emerging since mid 1990s in Korea. The incidence of this disease has been increased in young adults younger than 30 years of age since 2000. This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence of antibody to hepatitis A in Korea(two regions; Incheon and Changwon) in 2005, and was compared with the results of similar studies in mid 1990s. Methods : The study was conducted from January 2005 to June 2005, and consisted of 1,301 enrolled subjects, neonates to 50 years old, living in Incheon and Changwon in Korea. All sera were frozen and stored at $-70^{\circ}C$ until assayed. Anti-HAV IgG antibodies were measured by microparticle enzyme immunoassay(HAVAB, Abbott Lab., IL, USA). Results : The prevalence of anti-HAV IgG was 61.1% in infants younger than 1 year old, 30.5% in 1~5 years, 14.6% in 6~10 years, 1.7% in 11~15 years, 6.5% in 16~20 years, 36.6%in 21~30 years, 77.5% in 31~40 years, and 99.8% in 41~50 years. Statistical differences were not found between male and female, but there was statistical difference in 6~10 years old age group between the two areas. Conclusion : Our study indicate that the prevalence of antihepatitis A virus antibody has shifted from children to old adolescents and young adults. This result suggests that the risk of sudden outbreaks or increasing incidence of hepatitis A viral infections in young adults may be expected in our society. The preventive strategies of hepatitis A including vaccination should be prepared.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 1997

Purpose : Aseptic meningitis mainly caused by enterovirus is common in pediatric population especially during summer & fall. Most of pediatric patients restore their health without any complications with proper management. Between May to August of 1996, Masan and surrounding areas of the Kyoungsangnamdo were epidemic areas for the aseptic meningitis. The purpose of this study was to determine causative virus and describe correlation between disease and clinical symptoms in aseptic meningitis patients and those with fever and characteristic rashes without apparent meningitis symptoms. Methods : Between May to August, 1996, 57 patients with high fever and characteristic feature of rashes were reviewed. From 22 cerebrospinal fluid & 57 stool obtained specimens, viral culture and detection of enterovirus RNA were conducted. Collected specimens were kept in $-30^{\circ}C$ environment until sending of specimens to labortory. The virus identified through indirect immunofluorescence. RT-PCR method was used to identify enterovirus RNA in cerebralspinal fluid. Results : 1) One hundred fifty five pediatric patients with viral infection required hospitalization. Disease occurred higher rate in male than female with ratio of 1.94:1. Examined patients' age ranged from 15days old to 15years old. But most of patients(74.8%) were under age of 5years old. The time of occurrence was between May to August of 1996. 2) All patients had high fever and physical symptoms in those patients include headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rashes. The rashes observed mainly in patients under age of 4 years and were predominantly commom patients under age of 18 months olds)<0.001). 3) Between sampled patients and non-sampled patients, clinical course was similar. Echovirus type 9 was cultivated in 41 out of 57 cases of collected stool specimens. RT-PCR that used on CSF showed positive results in 10 out of 22 cases. Three cases of positive cultivated of positive results in RT-PCR were echovirus type 9. Conclusions : Echovirus type 9 was thought to be the causative agent of aseptic meningitis that was prevalent throughout mid areas of Kyoungsangnamdo from May to August, 1996. Additionally causative agent that responsible for high fever with rashes without meningitis symptoms also thought to be the same echovirus type 9.