• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2023

Objectives: National health insurance herbal prescription of Korean medicine has been serving important role in public healthcare in spite of continuous demand on revision of system. However, the categories of insurance herbal prescriptions are not equally distributed throughout the KCD-based major disease categories. We analyzed statistical database of claimed national health insurance classified as major disease categories by years. We classified all 56 herbal prescriptions as per their total medical indications into 22 major disease categories to analyze their distribution. Significant increase of M and S-T code claims were found, whereas decrease of U code claims by years. We figured out that the 56 prescriptions were unequally distributed along with enrichment of certain codes such as K and J. Meanwhile, the insurance claim of each prescription was positively correlated with number of code types of their indications. As a result, we believe that the reform of national health insurance herbal prescription list is necessary to promote use of it in clinic.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigated whether parenting stress, work-family conflict, resilience affect retention intent in Korean nurses returning to work after parental leave. Methods: The participants in this study were 111 nurses recruited from 10 hospitals in Korea, who were working after formal parental leave from their hospitals. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the t-test, analysis of variance, the Mann-Whitney U-test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hierarchical regression. Results: Retention intention (33.80±7.78), parenting stress (101.70±17.57), and resilience (85.02±12.75) were at greater than moderate levels and a midpoint level of work-family conflict (29.63±7.00) was noted in this sample of mostly women nurses in their 30s. The factors affecting retention intent were parental leave duration, the number of times that participants had taken parental leave, health condition, work-family conflict, and resilience. The total explanatory power of these variables was 36.7%. Retention intent had a negative correlation with parenting stress and work-family conflict. Conversely, retention intent was positively correlated with resilience. Conclusion: This study supports the need for flexible adjustment of returning nurses' working hours and family-friendly policies to promote balance between work and family. It is also necessary to develop and apply measures that boost resilience and support health improvement for nurses returning to work.As nurses are often assigned to new areas of work upon return, training programs to aid their adjustment may also be helpful.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigated Korean healthcare providers' attitudes toward sexual and gender minority (SGM) persons and their knowledge and behavior concerning the collection of data on sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI). Methods: In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, 137 Korean healthcare providers were recruited through convenience sampling from internet communities for medical professionals. A structured questionnaire was created using Google Surveys. The Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman correlation analysis were performed. Results: The sample was mostly women (80.3%) and nurses (83.9%), who had overall negative attitudes toward SGM persons and low levels of knowledge and behavior with regard to the collection of patients' SO/GI data. Participants in their 20s, who were religious, and had clinical experiences in treating or providing nursing care for SGM persons had higher levels of knowledge about the collection of SO/GI data. The level of engagement in collecting SO/GI data was higher among women and in their 20s and 30s, unreligious participants, nurses, and those with less than 10 years of clinical experience. Positive attitudes toward SGM persons were associated with higher levels of knowledge, but lower levels of behavior, regarding the collection of SO/GI data. Conclusion: It is important to recognize the diversity of patients' SO/GI and to collect the corresponding information. To this end, it is necessary to develop and use a standardized SO/GI form. Healthcare providers should also receive education and training related to the health of SGM persons to resolve health problems that disproportionately affect SGM persons and related health disparities.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.383-408
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• 2010

This paper intends to suggest the positive, ecological vision of sustainability in Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust that Billie Jo Kelby recovers herself through her readjustment of interior consciousness and outer environment in her tragic situations caused by the Dust Bowl. In spite of her desires for happiness and affluence of home, she loses her mother and brother, and her musical talent as a pianist, and lies in self-abandonment. But she finally raises up herself with her courage and patience, reconciliating with the nature and ameliorating the community by taking care of the devastated landscapes. Hence it is appropriate to approach the loss-recovery process of nature and consciousness with ecological solutions, The Dust Bowl breaks down human mind and body, and eventually leads to the situations of despairs and death. Hesse proposes the primary solution that humans should reconstruct their interior consciousness and participate in recovering the nature because humans are inevitably linked with nature. In this novel, the nature takes a dynamic and active role as a catalyst, reconciling the self with other humans and settling with the conflicting situations in history and culture. This verse novel as an active, self-ordering, and corrective process gives the more intense ecological message. As Hesse defines the setting of Dirty Thirties as a channel of energy, she creates the utmost effects of ecological process that human and environment are part of a total situation, representing the transactional formulation, each conditioned by conditioning to the other. Therefore Billie Jo takes her part as an interpreter and actualizes herself, understanding the nature with metaphor and symbol. Eventually Billie Jo realizes that she should rebuild her environment not out of the dust but in the dust, accepting the reality of Dust Bowl.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.273-280
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• 2023

Background: Intraoral local anesthesia is essential for delivering dental care; however, injection of this local anesthetic is perceived as the most painful and distressing agent for children, parents, and healthcare providers. Reducing pain as much as possible is essential to ensure smooth subsequent treatment procedures, especially in pediatric dentistry. In clinical practice, oral sucrose administration has been reported to decrease the pain during heel lance and cold pressor tests in neonates and children. This study aimed to determine whether the prior administration of a 30% sucrose solution reduced the pain related to inferior alveolar nerve block in children. Methods: A total of 42 healthy children aged 7-10 years requiring dental treatment of mandibular molars involving inferior alveolar nerve block were recruited. The participants' demographic details were recorded, height and weight were measured, and the anesthetic injection was delivered after receiving the respective intraoral sucrose solution and distilled water by the intervention (group 1) and control (group 2) group participants for 2 min. The subjective pain perceived during injection was measured using an animated emoji scale. The pain scores between the groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The median pain score and range for the intervention and control groups were 4 (2 - 6) and 6 (4 - 8), respectively, and statistically significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed in the intervention group. Age, sex, height, and weight did not influence the analgesic effect of the sucrose solution. Conclusion: Oral administration of sucrose may relieve pain associated with inferior alveolar nerve block in children.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.347-355
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• 2023

Background: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been reported to be very efficacious for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety-related conditions. However, a review of the literature reveals the sparse use of this therapy in the field of pediatric dentistry. This study aimed to evaluate anxiety trends in pediatric dental patients during local anesthesia and extraction with and without EMDR therapy. Methods: Children in the age range of 8-12 years who required dental extractions were assigned randomly into two groups: an EMDR group (group 1) and a routine behavior management therapy group (group 2; receiving more traditional interventions such as tender love and care behavioral modeling, and distraction). Anxiety scores were recorded at four levels using the visual facial anxiety scale (VFAS) preoperatively, after therapy, after the administration of local anesthesia (LA), and after extraction. Results: Reduced anxiety was observed after the delivery of EMDR therapy, after LA administration, and post-extraction in the EMDR group compared to pre-operative anxiety scores of anxiety (P < 0.001; unpaired Student's t and Mann-Whitney U tests). In the control group, mild reductions in anxiety after routine behavior management therapy were observed, accompanied by spikes in anxiety levels after LA and extractions. Conclusion: EMDR therapy was found to be valuable for reducing anxiety among pediatric dental patients during tooth extraction procedures.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.32-43
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the impact of an intervention using voice recording of family members on pain, anxiety, and agitation in patients undergoing weaning from mechanical ventilation. Methods: A randomized control pre-post experimental design was implemented to 53 participants, with 27 and 26 participants in the experimental and control groups, respectively. A 70-second voice recording of a family member, repeated three times at 10-minute intervals was used as an intervention for the experimental group. Meanwhile, participants in the control group used headset for 30 minutes. Structured instruments were utilized to measure pain, anxiety, agitation, and the weaning process. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test and the Mann-Whitney U test, or χ² test, were used for data analysis. Results: The experimental group exhibited significant decrease in pain (Z = - 3.53, p < .001), anxiety (t = 5.45, p < .001), and agitation (Z = - 2.99, p = .003) scores compared with those of the control group. However, there was no significant difference between groups in the weaning process' simplification (χ² = 0.63, p = .727). Conclusion: Intervention using family members' voice recording effectively reduces pain, anxiety, and agitation in patients undergoing weaning from mechanical ventilation. This can be actively utilized to provide a more comfortable process for patients.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2024

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of preoperative guidance and operating room environment experience using virtual reality on increasing satisfaction with information and reducing anxiety in preoperative patients undergoing general anesthesia and local anesthesia. Methods: A non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was employed. The participants were 80 surgical patients from 4 wards (40 experimental group and 40 control group) of the general hospital located in Gyeonggi-do. Data collection was conducted from June to November 2023 after completing the control group survey in January 2023. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test using SPSS 23.0 program. Results: Satisfaction with preoperative information was higher in the experimental group than that of the control group. Additionally, anxiety related to surgery in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group. The preoperative state anxiety score in the experimental group was not significantly lower than that of the control group. Conclusions: These results suggest that providing patient education and information using virtual reality technology can not only alleviate patients' anxiety related to surgery, but also have the potential to be used as an effective intervention to improve positive patient experiences.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.151-160
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• 2023

Breast cancer is the most dangerous and deadly form of cancer. Initial detection of breast cancer can significantly improve treatment effectiveness. The second most common cancer among Indian women in rural areas. Early detection of symptoms and signs is the most important technique to effectively treat breast cancer, as it enhances the odds of receiving an earlier, more specialist care. As a result, it has the possible to significantly improve survival odds by delaying or entirely eliminating cancer. Mammography is a high-resolution radiography technique that is an important factor in avoiding and diagnosing cancer at an early stage. Automatic segmentation of the breast part using Mammography pictures can help reduce the area available for cancer search while also saving time and effort compared to manual segmentation. Autoencoder-like convolutional and deconvolutional neural networks (CN-DCNN) were utilised in previous studies to automatically segment the breast area in Mammography pictures. We present Automatic SegmenAN, a unique end-to-end adversarial neural network for the job of medical image segmentation, in this paper. Because image segmentation necessitates extensive, pixel-level labelling, a standard GAN's discriminator's single scalar real/fake output may be inefficient in providing steady and appropriate gradient feedback to the networks. Instead of utilising a fully convolutional neural network as the segmentor, we suggested a new adversarial critic network with a multi-scale L1 loss function to force the critic and segmentor to learn both global and local attributes that collect long- and short-range spatial relations among pixels. We demonstrate that an Automatic SegmenAN perspective is more up to date and reliable for segmentation tasks than the state-of-the-art U-net segmentation technique.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2024

Purpose: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) usually causes a mild disease in children and the most serious consequence is multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Currently, there are no data about the protective role of vaccination performed by parents on children regarding the development of MIS-C. The aim of our study is to establish whether parental vaccination is related to MIS-C and the protective value of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination performed by parents against the occurrence of MIS-C in their children. Materials and Methods: Our retrospective single center study included 124 patients aged 1 month to 18 years admitted to emergency department from April 2020 to March 2022 for coronavirus disease 2019 disease. Results: Parental vaccination was negatively correlated with the development of MIS-C: 4% of patients with both parents vaccinated developed MIS-C, while patients with no parent vaccinated to have developed MIS-C were 20%. Conclusion: Parental vaccination could be an important factor influencing the course of the disease and reduces the probability that a child would develop MIS-C by 83% if both parents vaccinated.