• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.126-135
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• 2000

Purpose : To evaluate the present status of bereavement care in Korean hospice service as a basic database for the effective bereavement care. Method : The data were collected two sets from September to October, 1999 and from November to December, 2000, 55 hospice institutions identified by the Hospice Education Institution, College of Nursing, Catholic University were contacted for a telephone survey. The researchers conducted telephone interviews with hospice administrators for 10 to 30 minutes. Result : 1) Among the 55 Korean Hospice institutions, 38 institutions(69.1%) provided bereavement services. 2) The contents of bereavement services consisted of telephone call 28 institutions(74.5%), bereaved family meeting 26 institutions(69.4%), home visiting 22 institutions(57.9%), mail 16 institutions(42.1%), personal counselling 7 institutions(18.4%). 3) The 26 hospice institutions(68.4%) which provided meetings for bereaved families met with the following frequency : Annually is 11 institutions(42.3%), biannually 6 institutions(23.1%), monthly 6 institutions(23.1%) and bimonthly 3 institutions(11.5%). 4) Only 4 hospice institutions(10.5%) used the assessment tool to screen for high risk of bereaved. 5) The major difficulties of current bereavement services were low attendance for the bereaved family meeting, shortage of professional managers and volunteers, limited accessibility to hospice institutions, little social awareness for the bereaved, and financial difficulties. 6) The hospice administrators expressed the need for the development of bereavement program, the education program for the bereavement services, trained professionals, the sufficient provision of human resource and financial support for more effective bereavement services. Conclusion : Although many hospice institutions(69.1%) provided bereavement services, they generally lacked capable bereavement professionals and various individualized bereavement services. In conclusion, it is required to develop the specified bereavement program and the training program for the staff and volunteers, so as to provide customized bereavement services based on individual needs. Further research will be necessary to evaluate the effects of customized bereavement services in Korea before applying to practice.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.131-137
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• 2000

The release of hazardous waste materials into the environment poses serious risks in humans and ecosystems. The risk assessment of environmental pollutants including hazardous chemicals requires a comprehensive measurement of hazard and exposure of the chemicals that can be achieved by toxicity evaluation using a biological system such as biomarkers. In this report we have tried to develop a biomarker used to elucidate a molecular basis of, and to monitor abnormal behaviors caused by diazinon in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) as a model organism. First, an attempt was made to clone tyrosine hydroxylase gene from Japanese medaka that would be a candidate for a biomarker for neuronal modulations and behaviors. For monitoring experiments at behavioral and molecular biological levels, the fish were treated under different sublethal conditions of diazinon and their behavioral responses were observed . In this study we have successfully cloned a partial TH gene from the medaka fish through PCR screening of an ovary cDNA library. DNA sequencing analysis revealed that the amplified fragment was 327 bp encoding 109 amino acids. Comparing the DNA sequence of medaka TH with other species, TH gene revealed the DNA sequence was completely identical to that of rat TH. In the RT-PCR, 330 Up of mRNA was consistently amplified in all the treated samples including control There were no significant differences in the TH expression level regardless of treating concentrations (1∼5,000 ppb) and time (0∼48 hr) The reason appeared to be that RT-PCR was not performed using through a quantitative analysis normalized against an actin gene expression. Organ or tissue - specific detection of TH activity and mRNA as biomarkers will be a useful monitoring tool for neurobehavioral changes in fish influenced by toxic chemicals. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of locomotive patterns and its correlation with the neurochemical and molecular data would be highly useful in measuring toxicity and hazard ofvarious environmental pollutants.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2016

A trial of combining and quantifying the effects of food processing on various pesticides was carried out using a meta-analysis. In this study, weighted mean response ratios and confidence intervals about the reduction of pesticide residue levels in fruits and vegetables treated with various food processing techniques were calculated using a statistical tool of meta-analysis. The weighted mean response ratios for tap water washing, peeling, blanching (boiling) and oven drying were 0.52, 0.14, 0.34 and 0.46, respectively. Among the food processing methods, peeling showed the greatest effect on the reduction of pesticide residues. Pearsons's correlation coefficient (r=0.624) between weighted mean response ratios and octanolwater partition coefficients ($logP_{ow}$) for twelve pesticides processed with tap water washing was confirmed as having a positive correlation in the range of significance level of 0.05 (p=0.03). This means that a pesticide having the higher value of $logP_{ow}$ was observed as showing a higher weighted mean response ratio. These results could be used effectively as a reference data for processing factor in risk assessment and as an information for consumers on how to reduce pesticide residues in agricultural products.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2001

This study was attempted to investigate the discriminant validity of Korean version of Eating Attitude Test-26(KEAT-26) and to provide the sensitivity, specificity and efficiency according to cutting score, which may be useful to determine the optimal cutoff point on various purposes. The KEAT-26 was administered to 108 female patients with eating disorders, 179 female participants in body slimming center, 120 female athletic college students, 227 female college students, and 183 healthy normal women. Validity was tested by ANOVA and ROC curve analysis. The results revealed that the total score of the KEAT-26 showed a statistically significance between groups and that the score of the KEAT-26 of eating disorders group was significantly higher than that of the other groups in post hoc test. In comparison of the 4 subfactor score of the KEAT-26 between groups, significant differences in main effect within groups were found in all subfactors except factor IV. ROC curve analysis showed 80% of efficiency to discriminate eating disorders group from normal control group using cutoff score on maximum discriminant efficiency and 69% of efficiency to discriminate eating disorders group from high risk groups for eating disorders. Each cutoff score on maximum in efficiency was as follows ; 25 between eating disorders group and participants in body slimming center, 19 between eating disorders group and healthy normal woman, 23 between eating disorders group and athletic college students, 21 between eating disorders group and college students. Using 22(T score 65) of the KEAT-26 as the cutoff score, sensitivity was 54%, specificity was 84%, and overall efficiency was 80%. These results indicate that the KEAT-26 has a good discriminant validity in Korean population and also suggest that the KEAT-26 may be useful assessment tool to screen the disordered eating problems on clinical and epidemiological purposes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2016

The growth area of living modified (LM) cotton has steadily increased every year, since its first commercialization in 1996. Development of environmental risk assessment tools and techniques for LM cotton is required for ecosystem safety. We therefore developed multiplex PCR assays for simultaneous detection of two (MON15985, MON531) and four (GHB614, LLCOTTON25, MON88913 and MON1445) LM cotton events approved in Korea, with event specific primer pairs. The PCR reactions were optimized by using event specific primers of six LM cottons at various concentrations. The reactions allows amplification of estimated amplicons of MON15985 (214 bp), MON531 (270 bp), GHB614 (119 bp), LLCOTTON25 (164 bp), MON88913 (276 bp), and MON1445 (389 bp) from multiplex PCR reactions. The multiplex PCR assay developed allowed that two annealing steps (15 cycles at $55^{\circ}C$ and 25 cycles at $60^{\circ}C$) were performed for amplification of distinguished two LM cottons, and only one annealing step (50 cycles at $60^{\circ}C$) was necessary for tetraplex PCR. Primer extension step of all PCR reactions was skipped for time-effective amplification. Our methods suggest that two multiplex PCR assays can be cost-effective and a rapid diagnostic tool for environmental LMO monitoring of six LM cottons.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.136-152
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• 2024

Purpose: A comprehensive evaluation item was developed to assess adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices, considering food intake, eating behaviors, and food culture, such as social support and food environment. Methods: The 59 candidate items of the evaluation checklist were obtained based on the results of the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, Korea Dietary Reference Intakes, dietary guidelines for adolescents, Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, national nutrition policies and dietary guidelines, and literature reviews. Four hundred and three middle and high school students residing in metropolitan areas participated in a survey using the 58-item checklist, which was selected through expert evaluation and content validity ratio analysis. The construct validity of the assessment tool for the quality of adolescent diets was assessed by exploratory factor analyses to determine if the checklist items were organized properly and whether the responses to each item were distributed adequately. Results: The Bartlett sphericity test was significant for each area (p <0.001), and the eigen values were greater than one. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and cumulative proportions by areas were food intake (0.765 and 56.8%, respectively), eating behaviors (0.544 and 64.8%, respectively), and food environment (0.699 and 62.4%, respectively). Twenty-two checklists were determined for the final evaluation items for the adolescents' dietary habits and nutritional practices and were categorized into three distinct factors: food intake (10 items), eating behaviors (4 items), and food environment (8 items). Conclusion: The evaluation items for adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices is a useful checklist for easily and quickly assessing the dietary qualities and reflecting Korean adolescents and their food environmental factors related to a sustainable diet.