OBJECTIVES: A positive association between air pollution and both the incidence and prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has been reported in some epidemiologic and animal studies, but little research has evaluated the relationship between air pollution and diabetic coma. Diabetic coma is an acute complication of DM caused by diabetic ketoacidosis or hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state, which is characterized by extreme hyperglycemia accompanied by coma. We conducted a time-series study with a generalized additive model using a distributed-lag non-linear model to assess the association between ambient air pollution (particulate matter less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter, nitrogen dioxide [NO2], sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone) and emergency department (ED) visits for DM with coma in Seoul, Korea from 2005 to 2009. METHODS: The ED data and medical records from the 3 years previous to each diabetic coma event were obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service to examine the relationship with air pollutants. RESULTS: Overall, the adjusted relative risks (RRs) for an interquartile range (IQR) increment of NO2 was statistically significant at lag 1 (RR, 1.125; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.039 to 1.219) in a single-lag model and both lag 0-1 (RR, 1.120; 95% CI, 1.028 to 1.219) and lag 0-3 (RR, 1.092; 95% CI, 1.005 to 1.186) in a cumulative-lag model. In a subgroup analysis, significant positive RRs were found for females for per-IQR increments of NO2 at cumulative lag 0-3 (RR, 1.149; 95% CI, 1.022 to 1.291). CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that ambient air pollution, specifically NO2, is associated with ED visits for diabetic coma.
Air Pollutants ; Air Pollution* ; Animals ; Carbon Monoxide ; Coma ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetic Coma* ; Diabetic Ketoacidosis ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Hyperglycemic Hyperosmolar Nonketotic Coma ; Incidence ; Insurance, Health ; Korea* ; Medical Records ; Nitrogen Dioxide ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Prevalence ; Seoul* ; Sulfur Dioxide

Purpose: Dementia is an important health issue in Korea due to its associated medical costs. Our study aimed to estimate the prevalence of dementia in Korea by analyzing hospital utilization rates. Materials and Methods: We examined National Health Insurance data from 2008 to 2016 and identified all dementia cases. Crude and age- and sex-standardized prevalence were calculated. A generalized linear mixed model was used to estimate prevalence ratios. Results: We identified 176746 and 530269 dementia cases in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Alzheimer’s disease was the most common dementia subtype (65.4% and 86.1% in 2008 and 2016, respectively). Across all age groups, the prevalence of dementia increased consistently: the increase was prominent among patients ≥85 years of age. Among patients ≥65 years of age, crude prevalence was estimated at 31.3 and 72.2 per 1000 population in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Age- and sex-standardized prevalence increased from 31.3 to 62.0 per 1000 population between 2008 and 2016, respectively. The prevalence ratio for dementia in 2016 was 2.02 times (95% confidence interval, 2.01–2.03) higher than that in 2008. When adjusted for age, dementia was more prevalent among females. The most common comorbidity was hypertension, followed by diabetes and stroke. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that hospital utilization for dementia increased significantly from 2008 to 2016, reflecting a proportional increase in the prevalence of dementia. Korean healthcare policy must prioritize dementia treatment.

The government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) has established relevant laws and a master plan for infectious disease control and prevention based on their experiences with past epidemics. In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has designed a standard manual for risk management that involves pan-governmental crisis management systems. This national infectious disease management system is constantly being supplemented and developed in face of infectious disease-related crises. In this study, we set out to present directions for infectious disease prevention and flow of management and governance between central and local governments to ensure systematic quarantine activities in the ROK. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, public-private partnerships have been established to collect, provide, process, and disseminate information for effective quarantine. This has enabled the development and rapid approval of test kits, the tracking of cases, and the allocation of appropriate resources for patient treatment. Additionally, the Infectious Disease Control Agency has actively utilized information and communication technology platforms to disclose information necessary in real-time for COVID-19 quarantine and management. Overall, these efforts have played an important role in epidemiological investigations, patient management, and quarantine in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: Dementia is an important health issue in Korea due to its associated medical costs. Our study aimed to estimate the prevalence of dementia in Korea by analyzing hospital utilization rates. Materials and Methods: We examined National Health Insurance data from 2008 to 2016 and identified all dementia cases. Crude and age- and sex-standardized prevalence were calculated. A generalized linear mixed model was used to estimate prevalence ratios. Results: We identified 176746 and 530269 dementia cases in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Alzheimer’s disease was the most common dementia subtype (65.4% and 86.1% in 2008 and 2016, respectively). Across all age groups, the prevalence of dementia increased consistently: the increase was prominent among patients ≥85 years of age. Among patients ≥65 years of age, crude prevalence was estimated at 31.3 and 72.2 per 1000 population in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Age- and sex-standardized prevalence increased from 31.3 to 62.0 per 1000 population between 2008 and 2016, respectively. The prevalence ratio for dementia in 2016 was 2.02 times (95% confidence interval, 2.01–2.03) higher than that in 2008. When adjusted for age, dementia was more prevalent among females. The most common comorbidity was hypertension, followed by diabetes and stroke. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that hospital utilization for dementia increased significantly from 2008 to 2016, reflecting a proportional increase in the prevalence of dementia. Korean healthcare policy must prioritize dementia treatment.

The government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) has established relevant laws and a master plan for infectious disease control and prevention based on their experiences with past epidemics. In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has designed a standard manual for risk management that involves pan-governmental crisis management systems. This national infectious disease management system is constantly being supplemented and developed in face of infectious disease-related crises. In this study, we set out to present directions for infectious disease prevention and flow of management and governance between central and local governments to ensure systematic quarantine activities in the ROK. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, public-private partnerships have been established to collect, provide, process, and disseminate information for effective quarantine. This has enabled the development and rapid approval of test kits, the tracking of cases, and the allocation of appropriate resources for patient treatment. Additionally, the Infectious Disease Control Agency has actively utilized information and communication technology platforms to disclose information necessary in real-time for COVID-19 quarantine and management. Overall, these efforts have played an important role in epidemiological investigations, patient management, and quarantine in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purchasing professionals utilize a e-commerce to sell or buy better products with good price. The marketers of agricultural products recognized that e-commerce has made significant inroads, and the Internet is fast becoming an essential tool for purchasing. The purpose of this research was to assess the realities of internet shopping malls of agricultural products including the actual condition of the sites, payment methods, order methods, membership and shipping methods. The results show that operating internet shopping mall of agricultural products are operated poorly in terms of buyer-seller relationship, payment and distribution. The results also provide some practical implication for marketers regarding the establishment of database, improvement of distribution and internet shopping mall operation, and importance of education on e-business for agricultural markets.
Education ; Internet* ; Ships

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to verify the correlation between abdominal subcutaneous fat thickness (ASFT) measured by ultrasonography (US) during the first trimester of pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) of the second trimester in Korean women and to establish a standard of ASFT for predicting GDM. METHODS: A total of 333 singleton pregnant women participated in this study. Their ASFT was measured by US during the 10+6 to 13+6 weeks of pregnancy; then a GDM confirmatory test (100 g oral glucose tolerance test) was conducted during the 24 to 28 week period of pregnancy. Based on the GDM tests, comparative analyses of the ages of the subjects, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), and weight gain during pregnancy were conducted. RESULTS: The ages of the subjects and weight gains during pregnancy were not correlated to the GDM of the second trimester of pregnancy, but the pre-pregnancy BMIs (22±3.3 kg/m²) and the ASFT (1.9±0.5 cm) measurements between the control group and subjects during the first trimester of pregnancy were found to show significant differences (P < 0.001). The cut-off value of the ASFT for predicting GDM was determined to be 2.4 cm (area under the curve=0.90, sensitivity 75.61%, specificity 91.78%, P < 0.001). The odds ratio was 2.91 (95% confidence interval, 1.07 to 7.92; P=0.034), which was higher than the 2.4 cm ASFT. CONCLUSION: It was determined that ASFT as measured by US during the first trimester of pregnancy can be used to predict the risk of developing GDM during the second trimester of pregnancy and for prognosis.
Body Mass Index ; Diabetes, Gestational* ; Female ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Humans ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, First ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Pregnant Women ; Prognosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Subcutaneous Fat, Abdominal* ; Ultrasonography* ; Weight Gain

OBJECTIVES: Snake or active contours are extensively used in computer vision and medical image processing applications, and particularly to locate object boundaries. Yet problems associated with initialization and the poor convergence to boundary concavities have limited their utility. The new method of external force for active contours, which is called gradient vector flow (GVF), was recently introduced to address the problems. METHODS: This paper presents an automatic initialization value of the snake algorithm for the segmentation of the chest wall. Snake algorithms are required to have manually drawn initial contours, so this needs automatic initialization. In this paper, our proposed algorithm is the mean shape for automatic initialization in the GVF. RESULTS: The GVF is calculated as a diffusion of the gradient vectors of a gray-level or binary edge map derived from the medical images. Finally, the mean shape coordinates are used to automatic initialize thepoint of the snake. The proposed algorithm is composed of three phases: the landmark phase, the procrustes shape distance metric phase and aligning a set of shapes phase. The experiments showed the good performance of our algorithm in segmenting the chest wall by chest computed tomography. CONCLUSIONS: An error analysis for the active contours results on simulated test medical images is also presented. We showed that GVF has a large capture range and it is able to move a snake into boundary concavities. Therefore, the suggested algorithm is better than the traditional potential forces of image segmentation.
Diffusion ; Snakes ; Thoracic Wall ; Thorax ; Vision, Ocular