• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.9-17
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• 2010

Objectives: Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly population. In order to estimate the prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the community, the application of a good screening tool is essential. We evaluated the validity and reliability of a Parkinson's disease screening questionnaire and propose an alternative measure to improve its validity for use in community surveys. Methods: We designed the study in a three-phase approach consisting of a screening questionnaire, neurologic examination, and confirmatory examination. A repeated survey was administered to patients with disease detected in the community and on 150 subjects. We examined internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha test, test-retest reliability using the kappa statistic, and validity using sensitivity, specificity, and ROC curves. Unadjusted odds ratios were utilized for the estimation of weights for each questionnaire item. Results: The Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire was 0.708. The kappa statistic for test-retest reliability was good to generally fair in most of the items. When newly proposed weighting scores were used, the optimum cut-off value was 7/8. When cut-off value was 5/6 for surveying prevalence in a community, the sensitivity was 0.98, and the specificity was 0.61, with simultaneous improvement in reliability. Conclusions: We recommend 5/6 as the ideal cut-off value for the survey of PD prevalence in community. This questionnaire designed for the Korean community could help future epidemiologic studies of PD.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.355-369
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• 2014

The in-law relationship traditionally plays a major role in Korean marriages and families because parents-in-law prefer to stay with their son under the same roof. The recent spike in the number of intercultural matches in South Korea may be provoking changes in the traditional family experience. The object of this qualitative study was to explore the contextual factors causing conflicts between mothers-in-law and their daughters-in-law in multicultural families. Six mother and daughter in-law dyads from rural areas of South Korea were recruited and interviewed. We found that the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law had had different motives for the marriage at first. Five major themes emerged from the analysis of the dyadic interviews: the conflicts of the participants were embedded in the alternative family formation, in financial strains and the power structure, barriers in communication, cultural insensitivity and conflicts between value systems, as well as in role conflicts due to differing role expectations and hegemony. In conclusion, the authors of this study suggest that increasing cultural sensitivity and communication skills in immigrant daughter-in-law an Korean mother-in-law relationships will be crucial for a healthy in-law relationship. The need for the availability of Multicultural Family Centers' services in the community was highlighted. In order for mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law to form positive relationships, it is important to facilitate a variety of easily accessible educational programs in the community focusing on fostering the mother-in-law's understanding of the daughter-in-law's perspective.

• Health Policy and Management
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.176-187
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• 2013

Background: In 2006 Emergency Medical Services Index (EMSI), which summarizes the performance of regional emergency medical services system, was developed. This study assesses the performance of the EMSI to help determine whether EMSI can be used as evaluation tool. Methods: To build a composite score of the EMSI from predefined 24 indicators, 3 normalized values were calculated for each indicator, the normalized values of each indicator were weighted using 4 weighting methods, and the weighted values were aggregated into the final composite score using 2 aggregation schemes. The performance of EMSI was evaluated using 3 criteria: discrimination, construct validity, and sensitivity. Discrimination was the proportion of regions that did not include the overall median rank in the 5th to 95th percentiles rank interval, which was calculated from Monte Carlo simulation. Construct validity was a correlation among the alternative EMSIs. Sensitivity of EMSIs was evaluated by total shift of quartile membership and changes of 5th to 95th percentile intervals. Results: The total discrimination performance of the EMSI was 50.0%. Correlation coefficients between EMSIs using standardized values and those using rescaled values ranged from 0.621 to 0.997. Variation of the quartile membership of regions ranged from 0.0% to 75.0%. The total change in the 5th to 95th percentile intervals ranged from -19 to +17 places. Conclusion: The results suggested that the EMSI could be used as a tool for evaluating quality of regional EMS system and for identifying the areas for quality improvement.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.751-754
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• 2013

Neurognathostomiasis is a severe form of human gnathostomiasis which can lead to disease and death. Diagnosis of neurognathostomiasis is made presumptively by using clinical manifestations. Immunoblotting, which recognizes antigenic components of molecular mass 21 kDa and 24 kDa in larval extracts of Gnathostoma spinigerum (Gs 21/24), has high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of neurognathostomiasis. However, only very small amounts of the Gs 21/24 antigens can be prepared from parasites harvested from natural or experimental animals. To overcome this problem, we recently produced a recombinant matrix metalloproteinase (rMMP) protein from G. spinigerum. In this study, we evaluated this rMMP alongside the Gs 21/24 antigens for serodiagnosis of human neurognathostomiasis. We studied sera from 40 patients from Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, Thailand, with clinical criteria consistent with those of neurognathostomiasis, and sera from 30 healthy control adults from Thailand. All sera were tested for specific IgG antibodies against both G. spinigerum crude larval extract and rMMP protein using immunoblot analysis. The sensitivity and specificity for both antigenic preparations were all 100%. These results show that G. spinigerum rMMP protein can be used as an alternative diagnostic antigen, in place of larval extract, for serodiagnosis of neurognathostomiasis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권12호
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• pp.1968-1976
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• 2006

Recombinant E. coli ACV 1003 (recA:: lacZ) was used to measure low concentrations of DNA-damaging chemicals, which produce $\beta$-galactosidase via an SOS regulon system. Very low $\beta$-galactosidase activities of less than 0.01 unit/ml, $\beta$-galactosidase produced through an SOS response corresponding to the 10 ng/ml (ppb) of DNA damaging chemicals in the environment, can be rapidly determined by using an alternative interferometric biosensor with optically flat thin films of porous silicon rather than by the conventional time-consuming Miller's enzyme assay as well as the ELISA method. fu order to enhance the sensitivity in the interferometry, it needs to obtain more uniform distribution and higher biolinking efficiency, whereas interferometric sensing is rapid, cheap, and advantageous in high throughput by using a multiple-well-type chip. In this study, pore size adjusted to 60 nm for the target enzyme $\beta$-galactosidase to be bound on both walls of a Si pore and a calyx crown derivative was apllied as a more efficient biolinker. Furthermore, anti-$\beta$-galactosidase was previously functionalized with the biolinker for the target $\beta$-galactosidase to be specifically bound. When anti-$\beta$-galactosidase was bound to the calyx-crown derivative-linked surface, the effective optical thickness was found to be three times as high as that obtained without using anti-$\beta$-galactosidase. The resolution obtained was very similar to that afforded by the time-consuming ELISA method; however, the reproducibility was still unsatisfactory, below 1 unit $\beta$-galactosidase/ml, owing to the microscopic non-uniform distribution of the pores in the etched silicon surface.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.323-329
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• 2018

In Escherichia coli, the transcription of genes related to metal homeostasis is activated by the presence of target metals. The promoter regions of those genes can be fused with reporter genes to generate whole-cell bioreporters (WCBs); these organisms sense the presence of target metals through reporter gene expression. However, the limited number of available promoters for sensing domains restricts the number of WCB targets. In this study, we have demonstrated an alternative method to generate novel WCBs, based on the notion that since the sensing mechanisms of WCBs are related to metal transportation systems, their properties can be modulated by disrupting metal homeostasis. Mutant E. coli strains were generated by deleting the znt-operon genes zntA, which encodes a zinc-export protein, and zntR, which encodes a znt-operon regulatory protein, to investigate the effects on the metal-sensing properties of WCBs. Deletion of zntA increased the sensitivity but abolished the selectivity of cadmium-sensing WCBs, whereas arsenic-sensing WCBs gained sensitivity toward cadmium. When zntR was deleted, cadmium-sensing WCBs lost the ability to detect cadmium, and this was recovered by introducing exogenous zntR. In addition, the metal-binding site of ZntR was genetically engineered to modulate metal selectivity. This study provides a valuable platform for the development of novel E. coli-based WCBs.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.186-192
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• 2001

Background: Epidural test doses containing epinephrine are an incomplete marker for the detection of inadvertent intravascular injection. Therefore, many investigators have attempted to find a more reliable marker as an alternative to epinephrine in adult patients anesthetized with enflurane. The present study was designed to test whether two different simulated intravenous test doses of isoproterenol could be used as a reliable marker for the detection of inadvertent intravascular injection in adult patients anesthetized with $O_2-N_2O$-enflurane. Methods: Forty healthy adult patients were anesthetized with 1% end-tidal enflurane and nitrous oxide after endotracheal intubation and were randomized to one of two groups according to the dose of isoproterenol. Group 1 and 2 (n = 20 each) received 3 ml of 1.5% lidocaine with 3 and 5 g isoproterenol intravenously, respectively, to simulate an intravascularly administered test dose. Heart rate (HR) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were measured at 20-second intervals for 4 min after injection. Results: Mean maximal HR increases were $24{\pm}17$, $35{\pm}11$ bpm (P < 0.05), mean maximal SBP increases were $14{\pm}8$, $13{\pm}9$ mmHg and mean maximal SBP decreases $20{\pm}11$, $22{\pm}9$ mmHg following the IV injection of 3, $5{\mu}g$ isoproterenol, respectively. The incidence of hypotension was similar in both groups. Isoproterenol 3 and $5{\mu}g$ produced 75%, 100% sensitivity in the HR criteria ($\geq$ 20 bpm increase) and 60%, 70% sensitivity in the SBP criteria ($\geq$ 15 mmHg), respectively. Conclusions: These results indicate that based on the HR response, the epidural test dose containing $5{\mu}g$ isoproterenol to simulate an intravascular administration is a more reliable marker than $3{\mu}g$ isoproterenol in adult healthy patients during enflurane anesthesia.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권16호
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• pp.6983-6987
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• 2014

Background: Modified toluidine blue staining (MTBs) is a simple, inexpensive and time saving method to detect H. pylori in gastric biopsy specimens. As a metachromatic stain, it simultaneously highlights intestinal metaplasia, a gastric cancer precancerous lesion. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of MTBs compared with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) for H. pylori detection using immunoperoxidase staining as the gold standard. This technique would be beneficial for a routine diagnosis and confirmation of H. pylori eradication in developing countries where endoscopic-based approaches are dominant. Materials and Methods: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy with triple site gastric biopsies was undertaken in 207 dyspeptic patients at Thammasat University Hospital, Thailand between 1997 and 1999. H&E, MTBs and immunoperoxidase staining were applied to each specimen. The presence or absence of H. pylori with each stain was interpreted separately and the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of H&E and MTBs were calculated. Results: A total of 282 specimens from 207 patients were evaluated. Using immunoperoxidase staining, organisms were positive in 117 specimens (41%). MTBs proved almost equally sensitive as immunoperoxidase (99%) and significantly more sensitive than H&E (85%). It has comparable specificity (96% vs 96%), PPV (95% vs 94%), and NPV (99% vs 90%) to H&E, using immunoperoxidase staining as gold standard. MTBs compared with immunoperoxidase staining, is cheaper (2 USD vs 12 USD) and faster (20 min vs 16 hrs) compared to immunoperoxidase staining. Conclusions: MTBs is effective, economical and easy to use in daily practice for the detection of H. pylori in gastric biopsy specimens. In addition to saving time in evaluating H. pylori associated gastritis, with a high sensitivity and ability to demonstrate intestinal metaplasia, the technique may have a role in confirmation of H. pylori eradication for gastric cancer prevention in a developing country setting.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.95-105
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• 2020

Purpose: Will more expensive gifts be more pleasurable and appreciated? This is a general expectation of gift-givers. According to the previous study on Americans (Flynn and Adams 2009), recipients tend to appreciate gifts regardless of their price. It indicates that there is an interaction effect between position (giving / receiving) and gift price. This study expands the previous study and aims to answer the following two questions: "Are such an interaction effect observed in Korean, too?" and "What types of people prefer expensive gifts?" Research design, data, and methodology: Study 1 of the current research repeated the Study 3 of Flynn and Adams (2009), with an iPod (high-priced gift condition) and a music CD (low-priced gift condition). That is, a 2 (gift price: high / low) x 2 (position: giver / receiver) between-group design was used. Study 2 used gift certificates of 100,000 won (high-priced gift condition) and 5,000-won gift (low-priced gift condition). Unlike the previous study that measured only one dependent variable (gratitude), this study added five more dependent variables in an attempt to exclude alternative explanations, such as endowment effects or emotional conflicts. This study also measured individualism / collectivism, face sensitivity, and materialism to explore the types of people who prefer expensive gifts. Results: The interaction effect between gift price and position on the level of appreciation was not significant. Meanwhile the main effect of gift price and of position were significant. The gift-recipient was more appreciative than the gift-givers' expectation regardless of the price of gifts. To investigate individual differences, individualism/collectivism, face sensitivity, and materialism were examined, but none of these variables were significantly related to the preference for expensive gifts. Respondents who received gift certificates in Study 2 were less grateful than those who received iPods or music CDs in Study 1. Conclusions: This study found that Koreans tend to be more grateful if they receive expensive gifts, in contrast to the Flynn and Adams (2009)'s study with Americans. In addition, gift-recipients appreciated more than givers' expectation and were more grateful when they received tangible products rather than gift certificates.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.85-92
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• 2003

Due to the expansion of freeway networks in Korea, drivers have more routes to choose. Traffic information on various alternative roadway sections and routes may help drivers choose the optimal route that minimizes travel time or cost. Traffic information on roadways is, therefore, invaluable in sense that individual drivers could reduce their travel time or cost by selecting optimal routes, and furthermore total travel cost of the system could be lowered. However, consensus about the price of traffic information that drivers are willing to pay is not made yet. Current price of traffic information is decided according to the price of similar information such as stock, weather and so on. To investigate the value of traffic information, a survey was conducted at freeway rest areas near Seoul Megalopolis area including Kyunggi Province. Eight hundred drivers who had travelled on freeway within a year were randomly selected. Purposive Quota Sampling was used. A price-response function, a relationship between price and sales, was obtained based on the survey, followed by sensitivity analysis