• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.433-443
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• 2022

Purpose: This qualitative study was to understand the awareness of epidemiological investigation tasks for nurses who were in charge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemiological investigations. Methods: Before data collection, written consent was obtained from 13 participants, and the data were then collected from September 1 to December 31, 2021. Individual interviews were conducted and recorded by video interview using Zoom, and data were transcribed verbatim. Four themes were derived by using the qualitative thematic analysis method. Results: The participants perceived that epidemiological investigations were burdensome but that the field work was important, and that expertise and collaboration were required. The participants started work without preparation due to the explosive increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and they recognized work conflicts, unstable employment, and exhaustion as obstacles to their work performance. On the other hand, the participants took pride in contributing to the national epidemiological investigation and control and felt a sense of responsibility as nursing professionals. Finally, participants mentioned that the training of infectious disease practitioner was important for work improvement. Conclusion: Further research is needed on the development of standardized manuals for the training of nursing personnel as infectious disease specialists through the job analysis of epidemiological investigators.

• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.643-653
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• 1998

In this paper, we analyze a system for an epidemiological model which has a double zero eigenvalue at certain parameter values.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.18.1-18.5
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• 2024

The surveillance and epidemiological investigation systems for companion animals in South Korea are significantly underdeveloped compared to those for humans and livestock. Recent outbreaks, such as idiopathic neuromuscular syndrome and highly pathogenic avian influenza among cats, have highlighted the need for reliable systems. This short review conducts situation analysis regarding disease surveillance and epidemiological investigation for companion animals in South Korea. The current challenges include an absence of administrative leadership, a lack of legal support, and unreliable medical data. The recommendations for future directions include clear leadership by the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, amending the Act on the Prevention of Contagious Animal Diseases to include companion animals, and enhancing the quality of medical data through standardized coding systems, such as Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms. In addition, sentinel surveillance rather than universal systems should be established to provide adequate incentives for local practitioners to provide data and develop sustainable public-private networks. These recommendations could be important for developing a comprehensive and sustainable system for disease surveillance and epidemiological investigation in the companion animal field.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.2550-2572
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• 2023

Epidemiological survey is an important means for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Due to the particularity of the epidemic survey, 1) epidemiological survey in epidemic prevention and control has a wide range of people involved, a large number of data collected, strong requirements for information disclosure and high timeliness of data processing; 2) the epidemiological survey data need to be disclosed at different institutions and the use of data has different permission requirements. As a result, it easily causes personal privacy disclosure. Therefore, traditional access control technologies are unsuitable for the privacy protection of epidemiological survey data. In view of these situations, we propose a black box-assisted fine-grained hierarchical access control scheme for epidemiological survey data. Firstly, a black box-assisted multi-attribute authority management mechanism without a trusted center is established to avoid authority deception. Meanwhile, the establishment of a master key-free system not only reduces the storage load but also prevents the risk of master key disclosure. Secondly, a sensitivity classification method is proposed according to the confidentiality degree of the institution to which the data belong and the importance of the data properties to set fine-grained access permission. Thirdly, a hierarchical authorization algorithm combined with data sensitivity and hierarchical attribute-based encryption (ABE) technology is proposed to achieve hierarchical access control of epidemiological survey data. Efficiency analysis and experiments show that the scheme meets the security requirements of privacy protection and key management in epidemiological survey.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1303-1306
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• 2015

Studies of epidemiological and prognostic factors are very important for oncology practice. There is a rapidly increasing amount of research and resultant knowledge in the scientific literature. This means that health professionals have major challenges in accessing relevant information and they increasingly require best available evidence to make their clinical decisions. Meta-analyses of prognostic and other epidemiological factors are very practical statistical approaches to define clinically important parameters. However, they also feature many obstacles in terms of data collection, standardization of results from multiple centers, bias, and commentary for intepretation. In this paper, the obstacles of meta-analysis are briefly reviewed, and potential problems with this statistical method are discussed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.47-58
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in Chungju City from July to December 2021. Methods: The authors processed and analyzed the epidemiological analysis report written by researcher. The estimated reproduction rate was analyzed using web-based software that calculates time-varying reproduction numbers. The results were analyzed through univariate multiple regression analysis, with a maximum significance level set at 0.05. Results: During the study period, a total of 1,188 patients were identified, with 7.9% of them progressing to a severe status. The maximum reproduction rate recorded was 3.48. Factors associated with the transition to a severe status included the presence of symptoms at the time of diagnosis, lack of vaccination, and belonging to the age group over 40. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be strongly supported that the measures implemented in Chungju City, such as social distancing, vaccination, and preemptive diagnostic tests, were appropriate. Furthermore, it demonstrates that Chungju City effectively managed the impact of COVID-19. Korean Medicine Doctors made significant contributions to the epidemiological investigations of COVID-19. To comprehensively manage infectious diseases, it is crucial to provide administrative and legal support and encourage active research to expand the role of Korean Medicine Doctors in this area.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.838-844
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• 2016

In this study, epidemiological cut-off values were estimated for 44 Photobacterium damselae isolates, since clinical breakpoints have not been established for this pathogenic bacterium. The susceptibility of the isolates to 10 antibiotics was evaluated using internationally standardized disc diffusion protocols. Normalized resistance interpretation was used to generate statistically valid epidemiological cut-off values for the susceptibility data. There were not enough strains exhibiting full sensitivity to ampicillin and amoxicillin to allow analysis of these antibiotics. Because there were only a marginally sufficient number of strains exhibiting full sensitivity to oxytetracycline, the cut-off value generated provided only a provisional estimate. The valid wild-type cut-off values were <13, 13, 9, 22, 25, 27, and 28 mm for gentamicin, cephalexin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, flumequine, florfenicol, and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, respectively. The application of these cut-off values should greatly facilitate the rational selection of antibiotics for use in commercial fish farms.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2009

Hundreds of thousands of South Korean protesters staged candlelight vigils and demonstrations against US beef imports in 2008. The problems, however, went far beyond that of beef imports. The political party veterans, who lost the presidential election, exploited labor unions that were discontent with the economy and ideological student groups to weaken the majority party. In this study, an epidemiological model is constructed with a system of three nonlinear differential equations. The model seeks to examine the dynamics of the system through stability analysis. Two threshold conditions that spread the protests are identified and a sensitivity analysis on the conditions is performed to isolate the parameters to which the system is most responsive. The results are also explored by deterministic simulations. This model can be easily modified to apply to other protests that may occur in various circumstances.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

Normalized resistance interpretation (NRI) analysis for tetracycline was applied to generate information on the epidemiological cut-off value for Vibrio ichthyoenteri isolated from diseased olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) larvae. Thus, 42 strains of V. ichthyoenteri were used to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of tetracycline using Etest. Also, 11 tetracycline resistance related genes were investigated by PCR method. Most tetracycline-resistant strains harbored both tetB and tetM with a few exceptions. NRI-derived mean and 2 SD above the mean of theoretical normal distributions of susceptible isolates were 0.33 mg/L and 1.66 mg/L, respectively. The epidemiological cut-off value for V. ichthyoenteri from the calculations could be set to S ${\leq}$ 2 mg/L. Of the 42 strains, 15 were classified as non-wild type (NWT), and MIC values of the NWT strains vary regardless of tetB and tetM detection, suggesting that there may be other mechanisms involved in tetracycline resistance in this Vibrio species.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.203-207
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• 2014

Hepatitis is a common and serious disease for the Korean population. It is caused by a virus, the A and B types of which are plentiful in Koreans. In this study, we tried to find genetic factors for hepatitis through genome-wide association studies. We took 368 cases and 1,500 controls from Anseong and Ansan cohort data. About 300,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 20 epidemiological variables were analyzed. We did not find any meaningful significant single nucleotide polymorphisms, but we confirmed the influence of major epidemiological variables on hepatitis.