• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.226-233
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• 2020

Background: Currently, the over-the-counter (OTC) drug market is flooded with series OTC products. The pharmacist must follow the OTC product's indication, given that the most critical role of a pharmacist is the right selection and recommendation of an OTC drug for a patient's symptoms in a dynamic pharmacy environment. Therefore, pharmacists must know each OTC product information precisely to avoid any ambiguity due to several OTC series brand names. Objective: We evaluated the risk and effectiveness of OTC series medicines. Methods: From December 5 to December 18, 2019, an online survey was conducted among 145 community pharmacists. Results: A total of 51.0% of pharmacists knew the difference between products named in a series and could explain it spontaneously. Only 0.7% of the pharmacists admitted to not knowing the difference between products named in a series. While 42.9% of pharmacists who owned a pharmacy opined that the OTC medicines named in a series have health benefits for patients, 50.0% of employee pharmacists admitted that they were rather confused because there are several OTC series medicines. In contrast, 69.2% of pharmacists who owned pharmacies and 72.2% of employee pharmacists admitted that OTC series drugs with names similar to popular OTC drugs sell better. Conclusion: While pharmacists had different opinions regarding OTC series drugs per employment status, they opined that OTC series are more helpful in pharmacy management than completely new brand names. Further studies in this regard are needed.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.127-134
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• 2021

Canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) is a genetically predisposed inflammatory and pruritic skin disease presenting characteristic clinical features in dogs. Despite oclacitinib and lokivetmab being commonly used, no study has compared their efficacies in CAD. This study aimed to compare the efficacy, safety, and control of CAD-associated pruritus and skin lesions between oclacitinib and lokivetmab. It also investigated whether switching to lokivetmab from oclacitinib or prednisolone had any benefits. Twenty-five client-owned dogs, newly diagnosed with CAD, were allocated to the oclacitinib (n = 20) and lokivetmab (n = 5) groups and administered oclacitinib (0.4-0.6 mg/kg orally, twice daily for 14 days, then once daily) and lokivetmab (2 mg/kg subcutaneously, every month) for 8 weeks, respectively. The switching group included five dogs previously administered with oclacitinib (n = 4) or prednisolone (n = 1) who were switched to lokivetmab directly at the start of the study. The pruritus visual analog scale (PVAS) and Canine Atopic Dermatitis Extent and Severity Index (CADESI-04) values were surveyed at weeks 0, 4, and 8. Oclacitinib and lokivetmab significantly reduced the PVAS and CADESI-04 scores. Switching from oclacitinib or prednisolone to lokivetmab maintained the severity of pruritus (4 weeks: p = 0.068; 8 weeks: p = 0.068) and dermatitis (4 weeks: p = 0.144; 8 weeks: p = 0.068) at the levels measured at baseline. Thus, both oclacitinib and lokivetmab reduced CAD-associated pruritus by a similar degree. Switching to lokivetmab maintained the severity of pruritus and dermatitis at the same level as the previous treatment.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2020

Background : The study aimed at examining the awareness and satisfaction level of Korean medicine treatment of musculoskeletal patients and non-musculoskeletal patients. Method : The frequency and percentage were calculated to identify the overall characteristics, and to identify the characteristics of the respondents who visited the hospital to treat musculoskeletal diseases and those who visited for the treatment of non-musculoskeletal diseases, the correlation between the variables was analyzed using the chi-square analysis (χ2-test). Furthermore, analysis items were compared depending on detailed diseases within the musculoskeletal disorder (lumbar pain, sprains, arthritis, frozen shoulders, spondylitis, disc) Result : Respondents who used Korean medicine for the purpose of treating musculoskeletal diseases had answered that costs involved in Korean medicine was expensive, and answered that herbal decoction was the preferred Korean medicine treating method for expanding health insurance benefits. Regarding the safety awareness of Korean medicinal herbs, responses that said it was safe was high, and their willingness to use and recommend Korean medicine in future was also high. Respondents who used Korean medicine for the purpose of treating musculoskeletal diseases said they were overall satisfied along with the attitude of Korean medical doctors, treatment results, and costs of treatments. Conclusion : The study was aimed at securing basic data to indirectly identify the national demand for Korean medicine, through investigating the level and degree of differences that exist in the perception and satisfication level and further find a point where policy intervention is possible in future.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2022

Objective : Despite many advancements in endovascular treatment, the benefits of mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in patients with large infarctions remain uncertain due to hemorrhagic complications. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of recanalization via MT within 6 hours after stroke in patients with large cerebral infarction volumes (>70 mL). Methods : We retrospectively reviewed the medical data of 30 patients with large lesions on initial diffusion-weighted imaging (>70 mL) who underwent MT at our institution within 6 hours after stroke onset. Baseline data, recanalization rate, and 3-month clinical outcomes were analyzed. Successful recanalization was defined as a modified treatment in cerebral ischemia score of 2b or 3. Results : The recanalization rate was 63.3%, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in six patients (20%). The proportion of patients with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores of 0-3 was significantly higher in the recanalization group than in the non-recanalization group (47.4% vs. 9.1%, p=0.049). The mortality rate was higher in the non-recanalization group, this difference was not significant (15.8% vs. 36.4%, p=0.372). In the analysis of 3-month clinical outcomes, only successful recanalization was significantly associated with mRS scores of 0-3 (90% vs. 50%, p=0.049). The odds ratio of recanalization for favorable outcomes (mRS 0-3) was 9.00 (95% confidence interval, 0.95-84.90; p=0.055). Conclusion : Despite the risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage, successful recanalization via MT 6 hours after stroke may improve clinical outcomes in patients with large vessel occlusion.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.152-161
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• 2022

Several types of chemical bactericides have been used to control fire blight. However, their excessive usage leads to environmental deterioration. Therefore, several researchers have analyzed antagonistic microorganisms as promising, effective, and safe biological control agents (BCAs). The primary aim of this study was to screen for potential antagonistic bacteria that suppress Erwinia amylovora. Among the 45 isolates studied, 5 strains showed the largest inhibition zone against E. amylovora. 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified them as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (KPB 15), B. stratosphericus (KPB 21), B. altitudinis (KPB 25), B. safensis (KPB 31), and B. subtilis (KPB 39). KPB 25 and 31 reduced the lesion size of fire blight by 50% in immature apple fruits, and did not show antagonism against each other. Therefore, KPB 25 and 31 were selected to develop an antagonistic mixture against fire blight. Although the mixture with KPB 25 and 31 showed a slightly increased ability to reduce lesion size on immature fruits, they did not exhibit a synergistic effect in reducing E. amylovora population compared to each strain alone. Nevertheless, we have identified these two strains as useful and novel BCAs against fire blight with additional benefits safety and potential in developing a mixture without loss of their activity, owing to the absence of antagonism against each other.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.720-737
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• 2022

Objectives: To compare the effectiveness and safety of East Asian traditional medicine treatments (EATMT) versus conventional management in patients following heart valve replacement surgery. Methods: We searched several databases, including the Korean Studies Information Service System, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Citation Information by NII. The search range included randomized controlled trials from each first issue until June 27, 2021. Two review authors independently extracted the data. We assessed the risk of systematic errors by evaluating risk domains using the "Risk of bias" tool. Results: We included 5 trials in the review. In the EATMT, the investigators reported significant improvements in reshaping of the heart structure: left ventricular end diastolic diameter (MD -4.43, 95% CI -6.06 to -2.79; 130 participants; 2 studies; high evidence). Comparisons with usual care revealed a significant decrease in gastrointestinal complications rate (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.47; 503 participants; 2 studies; high evidence). We assessed 4 studies as having a low risk of bias and 1 study as having a high risk of bias. Conclusion: This systematic review suggests that East Asian traditional medicine interventions may be effective in preventing and alleviating complications, but we found evidence of important trade-offs between known benefits and known adverse effects in cardiac dysfunction and inflammation following heart valve replacement. Consequently, additional high-quality studies should be conducted.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.96-112
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• 2019

Purpose - "Trade Facilitation" aims the easier flow of trade across borders, driven not only by effective customs administration, the efficiency of appropriate authorities, but also by telecommunications, the quality of infrastructures and competent logistics. Facilitating trade will help lower trade development costs as well as improve economic development and enhance economic benefits for emerging economies at a time when imports and exports are sent in and out across borders several times in the form of intermediate and final products. Not only that, globalization is being accelerated, which in turn increases competitiveness and this makes logistics one of the key factors when it comes to international trade. Highly efficient logistics services promote product movement, ensure product safety and delivery speed, and reduce trade costs between countries. The purpose of this study is, by using the LPI indices based on gravity model estimates, to analyze the impact of each LPI component on trade with the 20 biggest exporting countries of Northeast Asian countries-Korea, Japan, and China-which account for 19.05% of global exports. Design/methodology - Also, this study statistically analyzes the impact of trade on Northeast Asian countries' top 20 exporting countries, using the LPI indices relevant to Trade Facilitation based on the gravity model estimates. Findings - As a result, it was turned out that the distance, GDP, and the LPI components have relevant impact on the trade exports of all three countries but demonstrated little relation to the demographic perspective. Originality/value - The study also found we can increase the trade volume by improving three countries' trade partners' LPI indices since Korea, Japan, and China share most of their 20 biggest trade partners.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2022

Engineering structures in operation essentially belong to time-varying or nonlinear structures and the resultant response signals are usually non-stationary. For such time-varying structures, it is of great importance to extract time-dependent dynamic parameters from non-stationary response signals, which benefits structural health monitoring, safety assessment and vibration control. However, various traditional signal processing methods are unable to extract the embedded meaningful information. As a newly developed technique, variational mode decomposition (VMD) shows its superiority on signal decomposition, however, it still suffers two main problems. The foremost problem is that the number of modal components is required to be defined in advance. Another problem needs to be addressed is that VMD cannot effectively separate non-stationary signals composed of closely spaced or overlapped modes. As such, a new method named generalized adaptive variational modal decomposition (GAVMD) is proposed. In this new method, the number of component signals is adaptively estimated by an index of mean frequency, while the generalized demodulation algorithm is introduced to yield a generalized VMD that can decompose mode overlapped signals successfully. After that, synchrosqueezing wavelet transform (SWT) is applied to extract instantaneous frequencies (IFs) of the decomposed mono-component signals. To verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed method, three numerical examples and a steel cable with time-varying tension force are investigated. The results demonstrate that the proposed GAVMD method can decompose the multi-component signal with overlapped modes well and its combination with SWT enables a successful IF extraction of each individual component.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.431-438
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• 2022

Efficient heat dissipation in current electronics is crucial to ensure the best performance and lifespan of the devices along with the users' safety. Materials with high thermal conductivity are often used to dissipate the generated heat from the electronics to the surroundings. For this purpose, polymer composites have been attracted much attention as they possess advantages rooted from both polymer matrix and thermally conductive filler. In order to meet the thermal conductivity required by relevant industries, composites with high filler loadings (i.e., >60 vol%) have been fabricated. At such high filler loadings, however, composites lose benefits originated from the polymer matrix. To achieve high thermal conductivity at a relatively low filler loading, therefore, constructing the heat conduction pathway by controlling filler structure within the composites may represent a judicious strategy. To this end, this review introduces several recent approaches to manufacturing heat dissipating materials with high thermal conductivity by manipulating thermally conductive filler structures in polymer composites.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.61-74
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• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to analyse: 1) the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) and frequency of TKM therapies used and their relationship with conventional treatments. Methods: This prospective observational study enrolled children with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 6-78 months (n=126). The children who used herbal medication for >30 days or acupuncture treatment >12 sessions within 6 months were defined as the integrated rehabilitation (IR) group; the remaining participants were included in the conventional rehabilitation (CR) group. Results: Changes in the Gross Motor Function Measure-66 (GMFM-66) were greater in the IR group (6.4±6.1) than in the CR group (4.6±5.8). The reduction in the number of other health problems was greater in the IR group than in the CR group. The GMFM-66 improvement was greatest in gross motor function classification system level 1. There was no between-group difference in the frequency of rehabilitation therapy (10.9±6.6 and 12.0±9.9 in the IR and CR groups, respectively). Conclusion: TKM may offer additional benefits in terms of the GMFM-66 score and other health problems. However, there is a need for further randomized controlled trials involving a restricted CP type and a controlled treatment type and intensity to confirm these findings.