• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.16
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• 2023

The H9N2 avian influenza (AI) has become endemic in poultry in many countries since the 1990s, which has caused considerable economic losses in the poultry industry. Considering the long history of the low pathogenicity H9N2 AI in many countries, once H9N2 AI is introduced, it is more difficult to eradicate than high pathogenicity AI. Various preventive measures and strategies, including vaccination and active national surveillance, have been used to control the Y439 lineage of H9N2 AI in South Korea, but it took a long time for the H9N2 virus to disappear from the fields. By contrast, the novel Y280 lineage of H9N2 AI was introduced in June 2020 and has spread nationwide. This study reviews the history, genetic and pathogenic characteristics, and control strategies for Korean H9N2 AI. This review may provide some clues for establishing control strategies for endemic AIV and a newly introduced Y280 lineage of H9N2 AI in South Korea.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

Respiratory face masks are protective facepieces that are designed to filter inhaled air. They are easy-to-use devices that can protect the wearer against various hazardous particles in the air. Respiratory face masks also prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria-containing droplets that are released from the coughing or sneezing of the infected people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, various types of face masks have circulated on the market. Their ability to filter sub-micron particles, which are the sizes of harmful particulate matter and airborne viruses, needs to be investigated. Their breathability, the easiness of breath through the mask, also needs to be considered. In this study, wwe evaluated the performance of filters used for different types of face masks certified by different standards including Korean (KF94, KF80, KF-AD), USA (N95), and Chinese (KN95) standards. We also tested the filters of nanofiber masks and surgical masks for which there are no standards for filtration test. The N95 mask filters showed the highest quality factor for capturing virus-sized particles. The other types of mask filters have acceptable performance except for nanofiber mask filters whose performance is very low.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2022

African swine fever (ASF) is fatal to domestic pigs and wild boars (Sus scrofa) and affects the domestic pig industry. ASF is transmitted directly through the secretions of infected domestic pigs or wild boars, an essential source of infection in disease transmission. ASFV is also very stable in the environment. Thus, the virus is detected in the surrounding environment where ASF-infected carcasses are found. In this study, ASF infection monitoring was conducted on the swab and whole blood samples from wild animals, various hematopoietic arthropod samples that could access infected wild boar carcasses or habitats to cause maintenance and spread of disease, and soil samples of wild boar habitats. ASF viral DNA detection was confirmed negative in 317 wildlife and environmental samples through a real-time polymerase chain reaction. However, ASF occurs in the wild boars and spreads throughout the Korean peninsula. Therefore, it is necessary to trace the route of ASF virus infection by a continuous vector. Additional monitoring of various samples with potential ASF infection is needed to help the epidemiologic investigation and disease prevention.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.945-963
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• 2022

With the widespread use of social media, online social platforms like Twitter have become a place of rapid dissemination of information-both accurate and inaccurate. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the overabundance of fake information and rumours on online social platforms about the COVID-19 pandemic has spread over society as quickly as the virus itself. As a result, fake news poses a significant threat to effective virus response by negatively affecting people's willingness to follow the proper public health guidelines and protocols, which makes it important to identify fake information from online platforms for the public interest. In this research, we introduce an approach to detect fake news using deep learning techniques, which outperform traditional machine learning techniques with a 93.1% accuracy. We then investigate the content differences between real and fake news by applying topic modeling and linguistic analysis. Our results show that topics on Politics and Government services are most common in fake news. In addition, we found that fake news has lower analytic and authenticity scores than real news. With the findings, we discuss important academic and practical implications of the study.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2024

The Covid 19 pandemic officially broke out in Jan 2020 and ended in Mar.2023, following the WHO, claiming 7 million lives. For the three years, while the world made concerted effort to fight against the deadly virus, South Korea was praised as a model country in that the country effectively contained the spread of the virus. Given this, the paper aims to figure out how South Korea's story was quoted by looking at six editorials in the New York Times and the Washington Post. For this aim, we have analyzed linguistic expressions within White (2003)'s appraisal theory and then conducted a key word frequency analysis. The analysis results as follows: first South Korea's story was quoted to criticize the U.S. government of its wrong management to the Covid-19, also giving some lessons to the world; second, both newspapers attribute the South Korea's success to its swift and rapid response to the pandemic; and third, the Washington Post showed more positive attitude to South Korea than the New York Times by quoting the country's success more frequently with more positive words in evaluating the country's responses to the pandemic while both newspapers showed negative attitudes to the U.S. government to the issue. Thus, it can be concluded that linguistic expressions in quotations are effectively used in showing the newspapers' attitude toward South Korea and the U.S.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.233-236
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• 2019

Citrus vein enation virus (CVEV), which was regulated as a quarantine virus in Korea, was firstly found on Jeju Island in 2017. In February 2018, a survey was carried out to determine the distribution of CVEV in the main commercial areas growing Citrus spp. and Poncirus trifoliata. The survey was performed at 203 groves in the southern Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island. CVEV infection was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detection and sequencing. The coat protein (CP) gene sequences obtained from the CVEV-infected samples showed high similarities (more than 98%) to the previously reported CVEV CP sequences. In summary, CVEV was detected in 136 groves (67%), in which 85.4% of Citrus junos and 77.8% of Citrus unshiu were infected by CVEV. In Jeju Island, the infection rate of CVEV was relatively higher (90.6%). Our result revealed that CVEV has spread widely in Citrus and Poncirus in Korea. Based on the result, the Korean quarantine agency decide to exclude CVEV from quarantine in Korea.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 2007

To breed virus resistant rice variety, developing an efficient screening method is the most important. Two screening methods such as field screening and tray screening method have been used, but the efficiency of the field screening method is too low because of environment factors and the that of the tray screening method is good but screening capability is limited with only $200{\sim}300$ lines per year. To overcome those problems, mass screening method using screen house was developed. Barely as host plant of vector insect was grown in screen house in winter season. Then viruliferous insects are spread in the first spring of the initiation year and sustain them annually. Screening of virus resistance was tested two times in a year, the first screening was from April to June and the second from July to September. The virus infected rate of each susceptible varieties was increased to 92% for RSV and 100% for RDV from the second year. Also, this method can evaluate as many as $1,500{\sim}2,000$ pedigree lines in one time compared with the tray screening method. The result indicates that the mass screening method using screen house, which combines the advantages of the field and tray screening methods, is proven to be more efficient and reliable.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.522-526
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• 2007

Since newly emerged disease, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), spread from Asia to North America and Europe rapidly in 2003, many researchers have tried to determine where the virus came from. In the phylogenetic point of view, SARS virus has been known to be one of the genus Coronavirus, but, the overall conservation of SARS virus sequence was not highly similar to that of known coronaviruses. The natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV are not clearly determined, yet. In the present study, the genomic sequences of SARS-CoV were analyzed by bioinformatics techniques such as multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis methods as well multivariate statistical analysis. All the calculating processes, including calculations of the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) and other genomic parameters using 30,305 coding sequences from the two genera, Coronavirus, and Lentivirus, and one family, Orthomyxoviridae, were performed on SMP cluster in KISTI, Supercomputing Center. As a result, SARS_CoV showed very similar RSCU patterns with feline coronavirus on the both axes of the correspondence analysis, and this result showed more agreeable results with serological results for SARS_CoV than that of phylogenetic result itself. In addition, SARS_CoV, human immunodeficiency virus, and influenza A virus commonly showed the very low RSCU differences among each synonymous codon group, and this low RSCU bias might provide some advantages for them to be transmitted from other species into human beings more successfully. Large-scale genomic analysis using bioinformatics techniques may be useful in genetic epidemiology field effectively.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.244-251
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• 1990

Three viral insecticides were differently formulated with a nuclear polyhedrosis virus isolated from Spdodoptera litura by addition of feeding attractant, anti-precipitate of polyhedra, spreading agent, and UV-protectants. Sucrose was effective for attraction of larval feeding to increase the mortality and for protection of polyhedra from inactivation by sunlight when added 1% to 5% of sucrose solution to the formulations. Contents of additives to the formulations were 0.5% in polyvinyl alcohol to prohibit the precipitation of polyhedra and 0.1% in Triton X-100 to spread and wet the formulations to the plant. Inactivation of the virus under sunlight was decreased when added 800g of white carbon to 100 L of water in the white carbon formulation and 30% of molasses to the molasses's. In the formulation of white carbon and molasses mixtures, activation of the virus was increased when mixtured 500g of the former with 10% of the latter. Three formulations were persisted their pathogenicity more than 95% of mortality at 3 days p.i. Encapsulation of the polyhedral surface was more distinctively coated with the carbon and showed more effective in the residual effects of the white carbon than others, but the molasses more attractive for larval feeding.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2010

Objectives: The pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus has required decision-makers to act in the face of the substantial uncertainties. In this study, we evaluated the potential impact of the pandemic response strategies in the Republic of Korea using a mathematical model. Methods: We developed a deterministic model of a pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in a structured population using the demographic data from the Korean population and the epidemiological feature of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009. To estimate the parameter values for the deterministic model, we used the available data from the previous studies on pandemic influenza. The pandemic response strategies of the Republic of Korea for novel influenza A (H1N1) virus such as school closure, mass vaccination (70% of population in 30 days), and a policy for anti-viral drug (treatment or prophylaxis) were applied to the deterministic model. Results: The effect of two-week school closure on the attack rate was low regardless of the timing of the intervention. The earlier vaccination showed the effect of greater delays in reaching the peak of outbreaks. When it was no vaccination, vaccination at initiation of outbreak, vaccination 90 days after the initiation of outbreak and vaccination at the epidemic peak point, the total number of clinical cases for 400 days were 20.8 million, 4.4 million, 4.7 million and 12.6 million, respectively. The pandemic response strategies of the Republic of Korea delayed the peak of outbreaks (about 40 days) and decreased the number of cumulative clinical cases (8 million). Conclusions: Rapid vaccination was the most important factor to control the spread of pandemic influenza, and the response strategies of the Republic of Korea were shown to delay the spread of pandemic influenza in this deterministic model.