• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1.1-1.11
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• 2015

Background: Due to increased interest in animal welfare, there is now a need for a comprehensive assessment protocol to be used in intensive pig farming systems. There are two current welfare assessment protocols for pigs: Welfare Quality$^{(R)}$ Assessment Protocols (applicable in the Europe Union), that mostly focuses on animal-based measures, and the Swine Welfare Assurance Program (applicable in the United States), that mostly focuses on management- and environment-based measures. In certain cases, however, animal-based measures might not be adequate for properly assessing pig welfare status. Similarly, welfare assessment that relies only on environment- and management-based measures might not represent the actual welfare status of pigs. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to develop a new welfare protocol by integrating animal-, environment-, and management-based measures. The background for selection of certain welfare criteria and modification of the scoring systems from existing welfare assessment protocols are described. Methods: The developed pig welfare assessment protocol consists of 17 criteria that are related to four main principles of welfare (good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior). Good feeding, good housing, and good health were assessed using a 3-point scale: 0 (good welfare), 1 (moderate welfare), and 2 (poor welfare). In certain cases, only a 2-point scale was used: 0 (certain condition is present) or 2 (certain condition is absent). Appropriate behavior was assessed by scan sampling of positive and negative social behaviors based on qualitative behavior assessment and human-animal relationship tests. Results: Modification of the body condition score into a 3-point scale revealed pigs with a moderate body condition (score 1). Moreover, additional criteria such as feed quality confirmed that farms had moderate (score 1) or poor feed quality (score 2), especially those farms located in a high relative humidity region. Conclusions: The developed protocol can be utilized to assess welfare status in an intensive pig farming system. Although further improvements are still needed, this study is a first step in developing a pig welfare assessment protocol that combines animal-, environment-, and management-based measures.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.539-563
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• 2022

Nine pig farms were evaluated for the welfare quality in Korea using animal- and environment-based parameters (particularly air quality parameters) during the winter of 2013. The Welfare Quality^® (WQ^®) protocol consists of 12 criteria within four principles. The WQ^® protocol classifies farms into four categories ranging from 'excellent' to 'not classified'. Each of these criteria has specific measures for calculating scores. Calculations for the welfare scores were conducted online using the calculation model in the WQ^® protocol. Environment-based parameters like microclimate (i.e., temperature, relative humidity, air speed, and particulate matter), bacteria (total airborne bacteria, airborne total coliform, and airborne total Escherichia coli), concentration of gases (carbon dioxide, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide) were measured to investigate the relationship between animal- and environment-based parameters. Correlations between the results of animal- and environment-based parameters were estimated using spearman correlation coefficient. The overall assessments found that five out of nine farms were 'acceptable', and four farms were 'enhanced'; no farm was 'not classified'. The average score for the four principles across the nine farms, in decreasing order, were 'good feeding' (63.13 points) > 'good housing' (59.26 points) > 'good health' (33.47 points) > 'appropriate behaviors' (25.48 points). In the result of the environment aspect, the relative humidity of farms 2 (93.4%), 3 (100%), and 9 (98%) was much higher than the recommended maximum relative humidity of 80%, and four out of the nine farms had ammonia concentrations greater than 40 ppm. Ammonia had negative correlations with 'positive social behaviors' and positive emotional states: content, enjoying, sociable, playful, lively, happy and it had positive correlations with negative emotional states: aimless, distressed. The concentration of carbon dioxide had negative correlations with positive emotional states; calm, sociable, playful, happy and it had a positive correlation with negative emotional state; aimless. Our results indicate that the control of the environment for growing pigs can help improve their welfare, particularly via good air quality (carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide).

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.434-446
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• 2002

Purpose: This study was to identify the prevalence of postprandial hypotension and its related risk factors, and investigate the relationship between the related symptoms and the occurrence of postprandial hypotension. Method: The data were collected from the 22th of August, 2000 to 7th May, 2001. The participants were 74 aged over 60 in Seoul and Chungju, Korea. Blood pressure was taken in the sitting Position at 15mins, 30mins and 60mins after starting meals. Result: 1) The prevalence of postprandial hypotension was 12.2% at 15mins, 25.7% at 30mins, 25.7% at 60mins after starting meals. 2) There was no significant difference in a9e, but there was significant difference in basal systolic blood pressure between responders and nonresponders to postprandial hypotension over the three different times. 3) There was no significant relation between the occurrence of postprandial hypotension and its related symptoms over the three different times. Conclusion: Findings indicate that this study will contribute to develop an assessment protocol and nursing strategies to identify risk factors and to prevent postrprandial hypotension for the aged.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.77-89
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational therapy intervention on the community mobility for stroke patients, and to provide evidence of intervention in the clinical fields. Methods : A systematic review was executed according to the PRISMA checklist. The accessed database was PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), ProQuest Dissertations & thesis (PQDT), RISS, and KoreaMed. We included the articles published from 2005 to September 2018. RoBANS checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the articles. Included articles, totally eight, were categorized according to the type of intervention. Results : The study design of the literature was varied from two-group randomized trial, quasi-experimental study, case-control trial, one group pre-post comparison study, and cross-sectional study. In the evidence level, 6 articles were included in level II (75%). The percentage of low risk of bias in each article ranged from 52.5%~87.5%. Four studies (50%) provided intervention based on virtual reality or virtual environment. The three (37.5%) provided intervention based on the protocol, and the other (12.5%) did wheelchair training. All studies reported significant effects of the intervention. Conclusion : This systematic review provided evidences to use proper intervention in the clinical fields. Various type of studies should be conducted to prove the effect of occupational therapy intervention for community mobility.