• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.201-207
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• 2018

A genome contains all genetic information of an organism. Within a specific species, unique traits appear for each individual, which can be identified by analyzing nucleotide sequences. Many Genome-Wide Associations Studies have been carried out to find genetic associations and cause of diseases from slightly different base among the individuals. It is important to identify occurrence of slight variations for polymorphisms of individuals. In this paper, we introduce an analysis and visualization tool for specific variation pattern identification of polymorphisms in nucleotide sequences and show the validity of the tool by applying it to analyzing nucleotide sequences of subcultured pOka strain of varicella-zoster virus. The tool is expected to help efficiently explore allele frequency variations and genetic factors within a species.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.403-417
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• 2021

Purpose: Owing to differences in the general characteristics of gastric cancer (GC) according to histological type, the association of GC risk factors, such as diet, may also differ depending on the histological type. We investigated the associations between individual and combined intake of soy products, vegetables, and dairy products and GC mortality by following up cases of death among Korean GC cases and whether these associations differ according to the histological type. Materials and Methods: A total of 508 GC cases were enrolled from two hospitals between 2002 and 2006. Their survival or death was prospectively followed up until December 31, 2016, through a review of medical records and telephonic surveys. Finally, 300 GC cases classified as intestinal- or diffuse-type GC cases were included. The median follow-up period was 7.1 years. Results: In the fully adjusted model, a high intake of soy products (hazard ratio [HR], 0.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.19-0.96) and the combination of soy products and vegetables (HR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.12-0.96) or soy products and dairy products (HR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.14-0.98) decreased the mortality from intestinal-type GC. In particular, patients consuming various potentially protective foods (HR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.06-0.83) showed a highly significant association with a lower mortality from intestinal-type GC. However, no significant association was found with diffuse-type GC. Conclusions: High intake of potentially protective foods, including soy products, vegetables, and dairy products, may help increase survival in intestinal-type GC.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.576-590
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• 2024

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify genes associated with 305-day milk yield (MY) and fat yield (FY) that also influence the adaptability of the Thai multibreed dairy cattle population to tropical conditions. Methods: A total of 75,776 imputed and actual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 2,661 animals were used to identify genomic regions associated with MY and FY using the single-step genomic best linear unbiased predictions. Fixed effects included herd-year-season, breed regression, heterosis regression and calving age regression effects. Random effects were animal additive genetic and residual. Individual SNPs with a p-value smaller than 0.05 were selected for gene mapping, function analysis, and quantitative trait loci (QTL) annotation analysis. Results: A substantial number of QTLs associated with MY (9,334) and FY (8,977) were identified by integrating SNP genotypes and QTL annotations. Notably, we discovered 17 annotated QTLs within the health and exterior QTL classes, corresponding to nine unique genes. Among these genes, Rho GTPase activating protein 15 (ARHGAP15) and catenin alpha 2 (CTNNA2) have previously been linked to physiological traits associated with tropical adaptation in various cattle breeds. Interestingly, these two genes also showed signs of positive selection, indicating their potential role in conferring tolerance to trypanosomiasis, a prevalent tropical disease. Conclusion: Our findings provide valuable insights into the genetic basis of MY and FY in the Thai multibreed dairy cattle population, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms of tropical adaptation. The identified genes represent promising targets for future breeding strategies aimed at improving milk and fat production while ensuring resilience to tropical challenges. This study significantly contributes to our understanding of the genetic factors influencing milk production and adaptability in dairy cattle, facilitating the development of sustainable genetic selection strategies and breeding programs in tropical environments.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.131-144
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was performed to identify the associations of empowerment and social capital (such as social participation and trust) with self-rated health in Korean communities with poor health. Methods: This study used the data from community health interviews conducted at 29 administrative sections (dong, eup, or myeon) with high mortality from August to October in both 2010 and 2011 as part of the Health Plus Happiness Plus Projects in Gyeongsangnam-do Province. The study subjects comprised 6,383 individuals composed of approximately 220 adults randomly sampled from each administrative section. The empowerment was measured with five-point Likert scale responses to seven perceived control questions (two at the individual level, five at the community level). The social participation was measured with 'participation in formal and/or informal group' and trust using responses to three questions about trust of others. Results: The high empowerment scores at both individual and community levels, social participation in informal groups, and high trust level had independent and significant associations with good self-rated health after adjusting for socio-demographic factors (sex, age, marital status, occupation, and food affordability) and health behaviors (smoking, alcohol drinking, and exercise) in the logistic regressions. There were weak but significant associations among empowerment, social participation, and trust levels. Conclusions: Empowerment, social participation, and trust were weakly inter-related and significantly associated with self-rated health. More studies are warranted for empowerment and other social capital indices in health promotion.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.59-70
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to measure the level of individual social capital, and to reveal the associations between social capital and self-rated health status and how the administrative section(dong, eup, and myeon) might modify the relationships. Methods: This study used the data from Gyeongsangnam-Do health survey (2008). The study subjects were 6,500 adults randomly sampled from 20 counties. Trained interviewers conducted the interviews in the interviewees' houses using structured questionnaires. The association of social capital with self-rated health was analyzed using hierarchical logistic regression. Results: The proportion of trust and social participation were the highest at eup region and the lowest at myeon, The significant social capital associated with self-rated good health were both social participation and trust in the subgroups of dong. The significant social capital associated with self-rated good health were social participation and trust in the subgroups of eup. The significant social capital associated with self-rated good health was trust in the subgroups of myeon. Conclusions: This study highlights that self-rated good health was associated with social capital measured by social participation and trust, and the direction is different in the administrative section. But, health policy encouraging social capital to improve health should be considered.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.443-455
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• 2012

The configuration of a musculoskeletal (MS) system is closely related to the individual motions of the human body. Many researches have been focused on evaluating the associations between the MS configuration and the individual motion using patient-specific MS models, but it still remains a challenging issue to accurately predict the motion by differed configurations of the MS system. The main objective of this paper is to predict the changes of a patient-specific gait by altering the geometric parameters of the hip joint using function-based morphing method (FBM). FBM is suitable for motion analysis since this method provide a robust way to morph a MS model while preserving the biomechanical functions of the bones. Computed-muscle control technique is used to calculate the muscle excitations to reproduce the targeted motion within a digital MS model without the motion-captured data. We applied this approach to a patient who has an abnormal gait pattern. Results showed that the femoral neck length and the angle significantly affect to the motion especially for the hip abduction angle during gait, and that this approach is suitable for gait prediction.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.83-93
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• 2013

This is the second paper on a systematic search for variable stars in Cyg OB3 region. In this paper we present the observational properties of 46 variable stars found in the region. Among them, 27 are eclipsing binaries and others are semi-long periodic or slow irregular variables. Only 5 are known variables and the rest are newly discovered ones. We have obtained the period and amplitude of 20 eclipsing binaries using the phase fitting method, and present the light curves of 46 variable stars.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.145-155
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• 2001

Cytochrome P4502C19 (CYP2C19) is one of human polymorphic xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes. The enzyme has been reported to catalyze more than 70 substrates, involving more than 100 reactions. These include several classes of therapeutic agents (e.g. anti-microbial. cardiovascular, psycho-active, etc.), sex hormones and insecticides. Associations of the CYP2C19 genotype/phenotype with individual differences in drug efficacy (e.g. diazepam, omeprazole, proguanil) and toxicity (e.g. mephenytoin, barbiturates) have been documented by many investigators. At least 11 allelic variants of CYP2C19 gene were reported to date. Most of the mutant alleles found in the poor metabolizer (PM) led to the production of truncated and/or inactive proteins. Except for the exon 6, single-nucleotide mutations were reported in all nine exons of the gene. Genetic polymorphism of CYP2C19 shows marked interethnic variation with the population frequencies of PM phenotype ranging from 1∼2% up to more than 50%. The prevalence of CYP2C19 PM tends to be higher in Asian and certain Pacific Islanders than other race or ethnic specificity. Genotyping results of CYP2C19 also revealed that there are different proportions of individual mutant alleles among ethnic populations. This may, in part, explains the interethnic difference in the metabolism of certain drugs (i.e. diazepam), though they were from the same CYP2C19 phenotype. Recently, our research group has studied the genotype and phenotype of CYP2C19 and found that the PM frequency (7∼8%) in Thais is lower than other Asian populations. Molecular and clinical impacts of this finding warrant to further investigation.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aims to assess the relationships between individual, social and physical environmental correlates and physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in Korean children. Methods: A total of 1,134 elementary school students (512 boys, $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ graders) in Seoul participated in the survey including self-reported moderate and vigorous intensity PA and SB as well as demographic and psychological correlates. These data were matched them with school- and community-level environmental data from the government sources. The relationships of the multilevel correlates with PA and SE were analyzed using gender-specific hierarchical regression analysis. Results: Boys were more active than girls, but there was no gender difference in SB. Students with higher levels of self-efficacy were more likely to participate in moderate and vigorous PA. There were gender-specific associations between social and physical environments correlates and PA. Boys with higher levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy were less likely to involve in SB. Girls in the $6^{th}$ grade were more likely to involve in SB. Conclusions: In order to encourage PA and discourage SB in children, school- and community-level environmental support should be considered along with programs to improve self-efficacy and self-esteem.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5265-5270
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• 2014

Background: In Korea, the National Health Insurance program has initiated various copayment policies over a decade in order to alleviate patient financial burden. This study investigated healthcare spending and utilization in the last 12 months of life among patients who died with lung cancer by various copayment policy windows. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using nationwide lung cancer health insurance claims data from 2002 to 2012. We used descriptive and multivariate methods to compare spending measured by total costs, payer costs, copayments, and utilization (measured by length of stay or outpatient days). Using 1,4417,380 individual health insurance claims (inpatients: 673,122, outpatients: 744,258), we obtained aggregated healthcare spending and utilization of 155,273 individual patient (131,494 inpatient and 103,855 outpatient) records. Results: National spending and utilization is growing, with a significant portion of inpatient healthcare spending and utilization occurring during the end-of-life period. Specifically, inpatients were more likely to have more spending and utilization as they got close to death. As coverage expanded, copayments decreased, but overall costs increased due to increased utilization. The trends were the same in both inpatient and outpatient services. Multivariate analysis confirmed the associations. Conclusions: We found evidence of the higher end of life healthcare spending and utilizations in lung cancer patients occurring as coverage expanded. The practice pattern within a hospital might be influenced by coverage policies. Health policy makers should consider initiating various health policies since these influence the long-term outcomes of service performance and overall healthcare spending and utilization.