• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Predicting the spread of COVID-19 remains a challenge due to the complexity of the disease and its evolving nature. This study presents an integrated approach using the classic SIR model for infectious diseases, enhanced by the chemical master equation (CME). We employ a Monte Carlo method (SSA) to solve the model, revealing unique aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission. The study, a first of its kind in Korea, adopts a step-by-step and complementary approach to model prediction. It starts by analyzing the epidemic's trajectory at local government levels using both basic and stochastic SIR models. These models capture the impact of public health policies on the epidemic's dynamics. Further, the study extends its scope from a single-infected individual model to a more comprehensive model that accounts for multiple infections using the jump SIR prediction model. The practical application of this approach involves applying these layered and complementary SIR models to forecast the course of the COVID-19 epidemic in small to medium-sized local governments, particularly in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The results from these models are then compared and analyzed.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.64-77
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• 2024

This study aims to examine the causal relationship between information perception and preventive behaviors regarding COVID-19 among working-age people in Bangkok and the metropolitan area of Thailand. The study investigated how information exposure, interpretation, and retention influence hygiene practices, virus spread prevention, health maintenance, and digital lifestyle adaptations among working-age individuals. Employing quantitative research methods, the sample group consisted of 421 working-age people in Bangkok and the metropolitan area. Data collection was conducted using a questionnaire. Analysis involved descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The results showed that the measurement model was well fitted to the empirical data. The findings reveal a significant correlation between information perception and the implementation of preventive measures among the working-age population in Bangkok, highlighting the pivotal role of accurate and effective information dissemination in influencing public behavior, especially now that COVID-19 has become a more manageable aspect of everyday life.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2020

The ASF, which originated in Africa and threatens the world, landed in Asia in 2018 in China, and became a stern threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula when North Korea officially reported the ASF to the OIE in May 2019. In 1921, Montgomery, a British veterinary pathologist, made headlines by naming the African swine fever "African Swine Fever," or ASF, a disease caused by a high fatality virus that existed in East Africa. The ASF, which was a pandemic of endemic diseases in Africa, landed in Portgal around 1957 and swept through farms in Lisbon, Portugal. The ASF continued to settle in Spain and Portugal, causing 40 years of damage until the end of the 1990s, and is now in progress after landing on the Italian island of Sardinia in 1978. The virus, which landed in Portiport of Georgia on the Black Sea coast of the Black Sea in 2007, spread to Russia and caused massive damage to China in 2018, then rapidly spread to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar in May 2019 and spread across the country, causing massive damage to the pork industry and is now in progress. Just three months after confirming the outbreak in North Korea, the outbreak at farms in Paju and Yeoncheon was confirmed on Sept. 16, 2019, leaving South Korea with the stigma of ASF-causing countries, and although the ASF's nationwide expansion has been blocked, it is currently underway in wild boars. If the ongoing ASF in the two Koreas becomes indigenous, it would be a major disaster not only for the pork industry but also for the Korean Peninsula economy. Under the current circumstances, it is impossible to focus only on veterinary areas limited to South Korea, ruling out risk factors from the ASF outbreak. Currently, it is difficult to prevent damage to the pork industry due to the ASF outbreak due to the poor water defense reality in North Korea, and as it is adjacent to China, which has a high risk of developing various epidemic diseases, there is a need for the two Koreas to jointly conduct quarantine and quarantine on the border areas. First of all, I think rapid exchange of information and education on ASF and other diseases is necessary before establishing a joint defense system on the Korean Peninsula. It is important to conduct thorough quarantine and disinfection of ASF-generated areas in North Korea, and areas bordering China and Russia, and jointly conduct thorough quarantine and control of livestock and livestock products in circulation. Cooperation by the South and North Korean water defense industries to prevent the protracted ASF on the Korean Peninsula by all means and methods is essential.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.57-78
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• 2023

COVID-19, which started in Wuhan, China in November 2019, spread beyond China in 2020 and spread worldwide in March 2020. It is important to prevent a highly contagious virus like COVID-19 in advance and to actively treat it when confirmed, but it is more important to identify the confirmed fact quickly and prevent its spread since it is a virus that spreads quickly. However, PCR test to check for infection is costly and time consuming, and self-kit test is also easy to access, but the cost of the kit is not easy to receive every time. Therefore, if it is possible to determine whether or not a person is positive for COVID-19 based on the sound of a cough so that anyone can use it easily, anyone can easily check whether or not they are confirmed at anytime, anywhere, and it can have great economic advantages. In this study, an experiment was conducted on a method to identify whether or not COVID-19 was confirmed based on a cough sound. Cough sound features were extracted through MFCC, Mel-Spectrogram, and spectral contrast. For the quality of cough sound, noisy data was deleted through SNR, and only the cough sound was extracted from the voice file through chunk. Since the objective is COVID-19 positive and negative classification, learning was performed through XGBoost, LightGBM, and FCNN algorithms, which are often used for classification, and the results were compared. Additionally, we conducted a comparative experiment on the performance of the model using multidimensional vectors obtained by converting cough sounds into both images and vectors. The experimental results showed that the LightGBM model utilizing features obtained by converting basic information about health status and cough sounds into multidimensional vectors through MFCC, Mel-Spectogram, Spectral contrast, and Spectrogram achieved the highest accuracy of 0.74.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2011

Purpose: Recently, the incidence of acute hepatitis A has increased nationwide and is related to a low rate of IgG anti-HAV production. To establish effective measures for preventing hepatitis A virus infection, an epidemiologic study on the seroprevalence of anti-HAV is needed. Thus, we investigated the seroprevalence of IgG anti-HAV in children living in Gwangju and Jeonnam. Methods: IgG anti-HAV levels were measured in a total of 1,435 patients who visited Chosun University Hospital between January 2009 and December 2009. Results: The overall seropositve rate was 40.8% (586/1,435). The seropositive rates were 41% among children under the age of 1 year, 49.9% for children 1~5 years old, 51.1% among individuals 5~10 years old, 12.9% for individuals 10~15 years old, and 8.2% for subjects over 15 years old. There was no significant difference between genders in any group. The seropositive rates in Gwangju and Jeonnam were 57.3% and 32.9% for children under the age of 1 year, 52.5% and 44.3% for children 1~5 years old, 60.2% and 33.9% among children 5~10 years old, 14.1% and 9.7% for children 10~15 years old, and 10.8% and 4.2% for individuals over 15 years old. Conclusion: The results demonstrated the low rates of IgG anti-HAV, particularly among subjects over 10 years old, which suggests the possibility of increasing clinical HAV infection rates among adults in the near future. We should actively prevent the spread of hepatitis A virus. Vaccination is the most effective means of preventing hepatitis A virus transmission among persons at risk for infection. Hepatitis A vaccination is recommended for children who have low IgG anti-HAV seropositive rates.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.381-392
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• 2018

The distribution of mosquitoes collected in the Cheongju area from 2016-2018 were compared. The collection sites were established at a residential area, migratory bird sanctuary, and cowshed using black light (BL) and BG sentinel traps. Culex pipiens was the most collected species in the residential area, and Aedes vexans was the most collected species in the migratory bird sanctuary and cowshed in all years. The BG trap collected more individuals than did the BL trap in the residential area and migratory bird sanctuary. In total, 22,679 (10 species) mosquitoes were collected in 2016, and 6,502 (8 species) and 6,803 (9 species) mosquitoes were collected in 2017 and 2018, accounting for 3.49- and 3.33-fold decreases, respectively. The relationship between meteorological conditions and mosquito density, according to various variables, was not significant different. The Chaoyang virus was found in Aedes vexans and Culex pipiens collected at the cowshed in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Based on the results of this study, it is considered that continuous surveillance of mosquitoes should be performed for controlling mosquito populations and mediating diseases spread by this vector.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.777-789
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• 2020

COVID-19 has been rapidly spread world wide since late December 2019. In this paper, our interest is to estimate distribution of incubation time defined as period between infection of virus and the onset. Due to the limit of accessibility and asymptomatic feature of COVID-19 virus, the exact infection and onset time are not always observable. For estimation of incubation time, interval censoring technique is implemented. Furthermore, a competing risk model is applied to estimate the case fatality and cure fraction. Based on the result, the mean incubation time is about 5.4 days and the fatality rate is higher for older and male patient and the cure rate is higher at younger,female and asymptomatic patient.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.591-596
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• 2022

Various COVID-19 quarantine guidelines and measures are being taken by country at the WHO, but the number of confirmed cases has not decreased significantly. In order to prevent the inflow and outflow of COVID-19 through individual droplets, it is mandatory to wear a mask anytime, anywhere. However, as virus bacteria entering the mask amplify, it pollutes the mask and causes a disgusting smell. In this paper, a new method of preventing the spread of COVID-19 was proposed by sterilizing the mask with a dental gait spray introduced into the mask that has been used for a long time. Dental gargle water is usually produced by electrolysis of tap water, and the unstable ion water (HOCl) dissolved in water penetrates the cell barrier of various viruses and fails to act in its nucleus, causing water to self-purify. As a result of the experiment, when the mask used for a long time was washed with gargle water spray, the washed mask was dried after 10 minutes, and the smell of virus droplets or saliva almost disappeared. In particular, as a result of MOS testing the fit of the subjects who participated in the mask cleaning, it was excellent at 4.4 on average. Therefore, the mask was disposable, but if the spray was washed in the proposed method more than twice a day, the mask could be used in a comfortable state for more than a week.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.1809-1819
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• 2024

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of coconut oil extract (COE) in broilers experimentally infected with velogenic Newcastle disease virus (vNDV). Methods: A total of 150 broiler birds (day-old) were equally divided into five study groups i.e., negative control, positive control, COE-1, COE-2, and COE-3. On day 10, broilers of groups COE-1, COE-2, and COE-3 were supplemented with 1, 2, and 3 mL of COE respectively per liter of drinking water for 15 days. On day 13, 0.1 mL/bird (10^-5.25 ELD₅₀) of vNDV was inoculated in broilers of positive control, COE-1, COE-2, and COE-3 groups intramuscularly. During this study, growth performance, morbidity, and mortality rates of each study group were recorded. The antibody titer against NDV was determined on days 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35. The levels of immunoglobulins (IgY and IgM) were also determined on the 7th, 14th, and 21st days post-sheep red blood cells (SRBCs) inoculation. On day 33, avian tuberculin was injected between the 1st and 2nd toes of the left side (intradermally) to measure lymphoproliferative responses. On day 35, the phagocytic activity in the blood was assessed through a carbon clearance assay by injecting carbon black ink into the right-wing vein. The visceral organs having gross lesions were also collected for histopathology. Results: The COE significantly improved the growth performance, and lowered the morbidity and mortality rates of broilers. There was a significant rise in antibody titers against NDV and levels of IgY and IgM antibodies against SRBC in COE-supplemented broilers. The lymphoproliferative response and phagocytic activity were also enhanced. Among COE-supplemented groups, the broilers of the COE-3 group showed a significant increase in growth performance and boosted immune defense. Conclusion: Coconut oil extract has the potential to boost the growth performance and immune status of broilers. It can be used effectively as a feed additive and alternative to antibiotics to prevent the spread of infectious poultry pathogens.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.278-285
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• 2016

Epidemiological studies have shown the association between transportation of live animals and the potential transmission of infectious disease between premises. This finding was also observed in the 2014-2015 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Korea. Furthermore, slaughterhouses played a key role in the global spread of the FMD virus during the epidemic. In this context, in-depth knowledge of the structure of direct and indirect contact between slaughterhouses is paramount for understanding the dynamics of FMD transmission. But the social network structure of vehicle movements to slaughterhouses in Korea remains unclear. Hence, the aim of this study was to configure a social network topology of vehicle movements between slaughterhouses for a better understanding of how they are potentially connected, and to explore whether FMD outbreaks can be explained by the network properties constructed in the study. We created five monthly directed networks based on the frequency and chronology of on- and off-slaughterhouse vehicle movements. For the monthly network, a node represented a slaughterhouse, and an edge (or link) denoted vehicle movement between two slaughterhouses. Movement data were retrieved from the national Korean Animal Health Integrated System (KAHIS) database, which tracks the routes of individual vehicle movements using a global positioning system (GPS). Electronic registration of livestock movements has been a mandatory requirement since 2013 to ensure traceability of such movements. For each of the five studied networks, the network structures were characterized by small-world properties, with a short mean distance, a high clustering coefficient, and a short diameter. In addition, a strongly connected component was observed in each of the created networks, and this giant component included 94.4% to 100% of all network nodes. The characteristic hub-and-spoke type of structure was not identified. Such a structural vulnerability in the network suggests that once an infectious disease (such as FMD) is introduced in a random slaughterhouse within the cohesive component, it can spread to every other slaughterhouse in the component. From an epidemiological perspective, for disease management, empirically derived small-world networks could inform decision-makers on the higher potential for a large FMD epidemic within the livestock industry, and could provide insights into the rapid-transmission dynamics of the disease across long distances, despite a standstill of animal movements during the epidemic, given a single incursion of infection in any slaughterhouse in the country.