• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6121-6125
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• 2014

Background: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a potential biomarker for early detection of prostate cancer (PCa) but its level is known to be affected by many background factors and roles of ubiquitous toxicants have not been determined. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are ubiquitous reproductive toxicants used in consumer products, which promote tumor formation in some reproductive model systems by binding to AhR, but human data on its expression in prostate cancer as well as its association with PSA levels are not clear. This study aimed to evaluate the expression levels of AhR and its association with serological levels of PSA and to detect possible effects of background factors and EDC exposure history on PSA levels in PCa cases. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on the tissue levels of AhR and serum levels of PSA in 53 PCa cases from 2008-2011 and associations between each and background and lifestyle related factors were determined. Results: Although the AhR was overexpressed in PCa and correlated with the age of patients, it did not correlate with PSA levels.Of nutritional factors, increased intake of polysaturated fats and fish in the routine regimen of PCa cases increased the PSA levels significantly. Conclusions: AhR overexpression in PCa pontws to roles of EDCs in PCa but without any direct association with PSA levels. However, PSA levels are affected by exposure to possible toxicants in foods whichneed to be assessed as possible risk factors of PCa in future studies.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.179-187
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the influential factors for the choice of dental institutions among adult office workers who were one of major medical consumer groups, the relationship between their health promotion lifestyle and their choice of dental institutions, ways of boosting the efficiency of hospital management and differences in differentiation strategies among dental institutions. Methods : The subjects in this study were 160 office workers who were aged 20 and over and worked in Seoul, North Jeolla Province and South Jeolla Province. They were selected by convenience sampling, and a survey was conducted from February 1 to July 20, 2011. The answer sheets from 149 respondents were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS WIN 12.0 except for 11 incomplete ones. Results : As for the selection factors of dental institutions by general characteristics, they attached a statistically and significantly different importance to convenience according to gender(p<0.05), to reliability, facilities and cleanness according to age(p<0.05), to reliability and convenience according to academic credential(p<0.05) and to facilities and cleanness according to academic credential(p<0.01). Concerning the links between the form of using dental institutions and the selection factors of dental institutions, they gave a statistically and significantly different weight to reliability according to that(p<0.05). Convenience(p<0.001) was the primary selection factor of dental institutions among those who scored higher in health promotion lifestyle. Conclusions : Given the above-mentioned findings, it seemed that the regular implementation of oral health plans geared toward workers and the development of educational programs are required to promote the oral health of workers. But this study examined the workers in several regions only, and the findings might not be generalizable.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.17-45
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• 2017

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is expected to improve the quality and efficiency of care by allowing providers online access to healthcare information generated by other providers at the point of care. However, the adoption of the technology in Korea has been slow since its pilot program in 2007~2010 at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The objective of this study was to survey stakeholders on the incentive program for the facilitation of HIE adoption. We surveyed 39 experts representing 6 categories of stakeholders-provider, insurer, government, information service firms, customers, and medical informatics experts for the interviews. Interview questions included program objectives, program participation requirements, incentive payment method, and administrative burden for program participation. Experts indicated that the quality of care was the most important value the program should aim to achieve through the HIE adoption. They suggested that the requirements and administrative burden for participation should be kept at minimum to recruit a large number of providers to the program, which is an indicator of program success. Experts were divided on the payment method whether the incentive should be paid as a part of the fee payment scheme operated by the National Health Insurance (NHI) or should be a payment made independent of the NHI. The source of the divide was conflict of interest among stakeholders as to who pays for the program, and the insurer and consumer groups were against the NHI taking the financial burden. It appeared to be the most significant factor for the successful program launching to resolve the gap in perceptions about benefits of the technology among stakeholders and to win the willingness to pay for the program.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.21-39
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate service support programs for the work-family balance in the community. Service support programs in the community are at beginning stages of development, because it has taken about 10 years to put a self-governing system into practice in Korea. This study concentrates on service support programs developed by various service organizations in the city and does not include any rural districts. First, the developmental process of the work-family balance model and type of the service support program in the community were studied. Next, the situation of care service support was examined based on written articles. Finally, a few suggestions were made f3r work-family balance in the community. The developmental situation of work-flmily balance in Korea is in a stage which is shifting from the company-leading model to a family-company-community model. The most common type of service support program offered in the community until now has been the informal sector through relatives, neighbors or friends. However, service support programs, in the public sector by the government and in the voluntary sector by nonprofit organizations and corporations, has rapidly been growing and the number of services from each sector has also increased. Profit organizations in the private sector, such as medical and care service centers, are also now rapidly increasing. It appears that service support programs contributing to the work-family balance in the community come from a number of sectors, including public, voluntary, private and informal sectors, to suit consumer needs.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.69-83
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• 2007

As a hospital environment is reconstructed from supplier-centered values to consumer-centered ones for the existence in the rapidly changing medical market, it can be said that not only must old slogans such as unconditional restructuring, remodelling, etc. be reconsidered, but a new strategy for the development and renovation of a hospital must be urgently required. Accordingly, development of customer-oriented practical strategies is needed and it appears possible to develop marketing and manage contacts, as a practical management strategy, for raising satisfaction of internal and external customers. The ultimate goal of such strategy development may be to ensure consistent potential development by maintenance of existing customers and securing new customers through a strategy of satisfying both existing and new customers. It appears that the competition in the medial will be keener in the future by human resources, members of an organization, Under these circumstances, and in relation to appearance of a new type of occupation of a coordinator, if a hospital could offer appropriate service which can meet the demand of the customers by efficiently utilizing the limited resources through efficient management of contacts between the customers and personnel, the competitive power of a hospital would be much stronger. Therefore, it is necessary to seek customer-impressing management by utilizing a coordinator as a more specialized intermediary as well as many-sided contact management through positive introduction of an expert coordinator system for internal and external customer contact management. It is expected that a hospital can secure a competitive advantage in the market through strategy development supported by an expert coordinator and increasing competitive power by means of practice of a developed creative strategy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.275-281
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• 2015

The recent health care is growing rapidly want to receive offers users a variety of medical services, can be exploited easily exposed to a third party information on the role of the patient's hospital staff (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) depending on the patient clearly may have to be classified. In this paper, in order to ensure safe use by third parties in the health care environment, classify the attributes of patient information and patient privacy protection technique using hierarchical multi-property rights proposed to classify information according to the role of patient hospital officials The. Hospital patients and to prevent the proposed method is represented by a mathematical model, the information (the data consumer, time, sensor, an object, duty, and the delegation circumstances, and so on) the privacy attribute of a patient from being exploited illegally patient information from a third party the prevention of the leakage of the privacy information of the patient in synchronization with the attribute information between the parties.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1367-1374
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• 2016

The present study evaluated the total phenolic and flavonoid contents as well as total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of three cultivars of Actinidia arguta Planch. kiwi berries; cv. Mansoo (Mansoo), cv. Chiak (Chiak), and cv. Haeyeon (Haeyeon). In addition, the anti-inflammatory effects of the three cultivars of kiwi berries were investigated using a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cell line. Mansoo had the highest total phenolic content and TAC among the three cultivars, whereas Chiak had the highest total flavonoid content. The total antioxidant capacities of the kiwi berry extracts were more strongly correlated with total phenolic content than with total flavonoid content. The kiwi berry extracts suppressed the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α, from LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. The release of nitrite, an indirect indicator of nitric oxide, was also ameliorated by pre-treatment with the kiwi berry extracts in a dose-dependent manner. Cellular-based measurements of antioxidant capacity exhibited that the kiwi berry extracts had cellular antioxidant capacities. Such cellular antioxidant effects are possibly attributed to their direct antioxidant capacity or to the inhibition of reactive oxygen species generation via anti-inflammatory effects. Our findings suggest that kiwi berries are potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2015

Radiation technology is the one for developing new products or processes by applying radiation or for creating new functions in industry, research and medical fields, and its application is increasing consistently. For securing an advanced technology competitiveness, it is required to create a new added value by information consumer through providing an efficient system for supporting information, which is the infrastructure for research and development, contributed to its collection, analysis and use with a rapidity and structure in addition to some direct research and development. Provision of the management structure for information resources is especially crucial for efficient operating the system for supporting information in radiation technology, and then a standard classification structure of information must be first developed as the system for supporting information will be constructed. The standard classification structure has been analyzed by reviewing the definition of information resources in radiation technology, and those classification structures in similar systems operated by institute in radiation and other scientific fields. And, a draft version of the standard classification structure has been then provided as 7 large, 25 medium and 71 small classifications, respectively. The standard classification structure in radiation technology will be developed in 2015 through reviewing this draft version and experts' opinion. Finally, developed classification structure will be applied to the system for supporting information by considering the plan for constructing this system and database, and requirements for designing the system. Furthermore, this structure will be designed in the system for searching information by working to the individual need of information consumers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.184-192
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• 2015

Korea has already entered into an aging society. In recent decades, the health problems for seniors has received considerable interest. We often see the elderly who have been struggled from discomfort or illness of the foot. Those foot related problems mainly cause from the use of improper shoes. Recently, shoe makers sell the shoes for seniors, so called comfort shoes, but the shoes are too expensive for seniors to buy easily. In this paper, we develop cheap insoles for seniors as an alternative of the comfort shoes and suggest the systematic process for the insoles development. This systematic process is as follows: 1) Survey the literature about the market of insole, 2) Investigate the standard size of body and foot for the seniors in Korea, 3) Analyze the customer needs by survey, 4) Study the walking pattern by experiments, and 5) Develop the novel insole for the seniors to relieve the inconveniences related with foot. From the newly developed insoles, the company B gains the sales increasing effect approximately 30% over through the increase in consumer satisfaction and company reputation and secures for intellectual property rights. Using the database from Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, the reliability of developing technology of the functional insole has been obtained. The seniors are also enable to choose an alternative of comfort shoes for foot health. In the future, the insoles developed from this study have wide applications in the medical, cosmetic fields, and leisure sports fields. Accordingly, it seems to require more systematic studies utilizing Walk Analyzer and Foot Pressure Meter.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.1052-1060
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• 2018

Triclosan (TCS) is a phenolic antimicrobial chemical used in consumer products and medical devices. Evidence from in vitro and in vivo animal studies has linked TCS to numerous health problems, including allergic, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative disease. Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system, we here show that short-term TCS treatment ($LC_{50}$: ~0.2 mM) significantly induced mortality in a dose-dependent manner. Notably, TCS-induced mortality was dramatically suppressed by co-treatment with non-ionic surfactants (NISs: e.g., Tween 20, Tween 80, NP-40, and Triton X-100), but not with anionic surfactants (e.g., sodium dodecyl sulfate). To identify the range of compounds susceptible to NIS inhibition, other structurally related chemical compounds were also examined. Of the compounds tested, only the toxicity of phenolic compounds (bisphenol A and benzyl 4-hydroxybenzoic acid) was significantly abrogated by NISs. Mechanistic analyses using TCS revealed that NISs appear to interfere with TCS-mediated mortality by micellar solubilization. Once internalized, the TCS-micelle complex is inefficiently exported in worms lacking PMP-3 (encoding an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter) transmembrane protein, resulting in overt toxicity. Since many EDCs and surfactants are extensively used in commercial products, findings from this study provide valuable insights to devise safer pharmaceutical and nutritional preparations.