Factors influencing the health satisfaction of users of public health and medical institutions in South Korea

IntroductionIn this study, we investigated the health satisfaction levels of users of regional health and medical institutions in South Korea and the influencing factors.MethodsWe included randomly selected 300 people with experience in using health and medical institutions from panel data targeting the entire nation. We used questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and sociodemographic characteristics to analyze the health satisfaction. EQ-5D-5L was used to measure health-related quality of life in five areas: mobility, self-management, daily activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed in three steps to examine the factors influencing health satisfaction.ResultsThe analysis showed that the health satisfaction was positively (+) correlated with monthly income, mobility, self-management, daily life, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression, and negatively (−) correlated with the number of chronic diseases and type of health insurance. The influencing factors in Step 1 and 2 were chronic diseases (β = −0.380, −0.385), respectively. The influencing factors in Step 3 were pain/discomfort (β = 0.202), anxiety/depression (β = 0.257), and the number of chronic diseases (β = −0.222).DiscussionsThe current data suggested that regional health and medical institutions should focus their services on residents with chronic diseases. Moreover, they should expand physical activities to relieve physical pain or discomfort and provide services related to mental health. To accomplish these, we suggested that the government will need to promote post-service health checkup results as a key project, provide user-customized services, provide online services utilizing ICT, expanding the government's financial support, and building infrastructure

Brucellosis among ruminants in some districts of Bangladesh using four conventional serological assays

Brucellosis causes a great economic loss to the livestock industries through abortion, infertility, birth of weak and dead offspring, increased calving interval and reduction of milk yield and it is endemic in Bangladesh. The present study was performed to know the seroprevalence of brucellosis for 1000 ruminants (135 Buffaloes, 465 cattle, 230 goats and 170 sheep) in five different districts of Bangladesh by four conventional serological tests such as: Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBT), tube agglutination test (TAT), competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (C-ELISA), and Fluorescent polarization assay (FPA). Sheep has the highest prevalence (8.24%) of brucellosis. The seroprevalence of brucellosis was significantly higher in animals with previous abortion record in case of buffaloes, cattle, goats and sheep than that with no abortion record. C-ELISA can be the most suitable choice for extensive use in many kinds of livestocks and accurate estimation of Brucella antibodies in ruminants in Bangladesh

Bacteriology division, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency. Anyang 480-757

ABSTRACT Background: Haemophilus parasuis is the etiological agent responsible for causing Glässer's disease in pigs, which are major respiratory pathogens that cause large economic losses in the pig industry worldwide. H. parasuis obtains transferrinbound iron by expressing two surface receptors, transferrin-binding protein A and B (TbpA and B). The TbpA and B are capable of binding to transferrin, and an impairment of iron uptake mechanisms is likely to induce virulence. For this reason, these proteins can be useful as a candidate target for H. parasuis vaccination. Also, the live attenuated Salmonella Typhimurium expressing recombinant antigens from other pathogens are attractive vaccine vectors. Materials, Methods & Results: In this study, we constructed attenuated S. Typhimurium vaccine strain by porcine neurtophil passage method. By the passage, the ability of the neutrophil-adapted isolate to utilize d-xylose was lost, while the ability of the strain to ferment trehalose was delayed after 2 or more days of the culture. The aspartate β-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd) gene was eliminated from S. Typhimurium by one-step PCR. Deletion of asd region was confirmed by PCR using primers specific to the endpoints of the targeted region. TbpA fragment was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of H. parasuis serotype 5. To construct TbpA expression plasmids, tbpA was subcloned downstream from the β-lactamase signal sequence in the multicopy asd + pYA3493 vector. This plasmid was subsequently electrotransformed into attenuated S. Typhimurium. The 636bp fragment of the tbpA gene of H. parasuis in attenuated S. Typhimurium was amplified by PCR and the in-frame fusion of the tbpA was confirmed by nucleotide sequencing. The used this strain with Asd + balanced-lethal plasmid pYA3493 vector to specify recombinant TbpA antigen, conserved immunogenic region of H. parasuis. Expression of the TbpA protein was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot. The size of TbpA protein was estimated at about 30kDa. Mice were administered orally in order to evaluate protective efficacy of this vaccine strain against H. parasuis serotype 5. For efficacy test, female ICR mice (5 weeks old) were orally injected, intraperitoneally challenged with a lethal dose (4X10 5 CFU/mouse) of H. parasuis serotype 5, and examined the survival rates compared with vaccination and non-vaccination group. The experiment was terminated two weeks post-challenge. The live attenuated S. Typhimurium conserved pYA3493-TbpA antigen vaccine protected 40% of immunized mice against challenge of H. parasuis serotype 5. This result suggested that the live attenuated Salmonella Typhimurium vaccine expressing TbpA might be protection for Glässer's disease outbreaks caused by H. parasuis. Discussion: This paper has shown protected mice that attenuated S. Typhimurium strain using pYA3493 expresses TbpA antigen against H. parasuis. Vaccination using bacterins is an efficient way to control outbreaks of Glässers disease, but significant variability has been reported. Therefore, the development of a new vaccine system to prevent Glässers disease using pYA3493-TbpA will avoid the disadvantages of the currently used vaccines. We need further works to enhance protection rate and to determine the potential of the vaccine in pigs

Bacteriology division, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency

ABSTRACT Background: Haemophilus parasuis is the etiological agent responsible for causing Glässer's disease in pigs, which are major respiratory pathogens that cause large economic losses in the pig industry worldwide. H. parasuis obtains transferrinbound iron by expressing two surface receptors, transferrin-binding protein A and B (TbpA and B). The TbpA and B are capable of binding to transferrin, and an impairment of iron uptake mechanisms is likely to induce virulence. For this reason, these proteins can be useful as a candidate target for H. parasuis vaccination. Also, the live attenuated Salmonella Typhimurium expressing recombinant antigens from other pathogens are attractive vaccine vectors. Materials, Methods & Results: In this study, we constructed attenuated S. Typhimurium vaccine strain by porcine neurtophil passage method. By the passage, the ability of the neutrophil-adapted isolate to utilize d-xylose was lost, while the ability of the strain to ferment trehalose was delayed after 2 or more days of the culture. The aspartate β-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd) gene was eliminated from S. Typhimurium by one-step PCR. Deletion of asd region was confirmed by PCR using primers specific to the endpoints of the targeted region. TbpA fragment was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of H. parasuis serotype 5. To construct TbpA expression plasmids, tbpA was subcloned downstream from the β-lactamase signal sequence in the multicopy asd + pYA3493 vector. This plasmid was subsequently electrotransformed into attenuated S. Typhimurium. The 636bp fragment of the tbpA gene of H. parasuis in attenuated S. Typhimurium was amplified by PCR and the in-frame fusion of the tbpA was confirmed by nucleotide sequencing. The used this strain with Asd + balanced-lethal plasmid pYA3493 vector to specify recombinant TbpA antigen, conserved immunogenic region of H. parasuis. Expression of the TbpA protein was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot. The size of TbpA protein was estimated at about 30kDa. Mice were administered orally in order to evaluate protective efficacy of this vaccine strain against H. parasuis serotype 5. For efficacy test, female ICR mice (5 weeks old) were orally injected, intraperitoneally challenged with a lethal dose (4X10 5 CFU/mouse) of H. parasuis serotype 5, and examined the survival rates compared with vaccination and non-vaccination group. The experiment was terminated two weeks post-challenge. The live attenuated S. Typhimurium conserved pYA3493-TbpA antigen vaccine protected 40% of immunized mice against challenge of H. parasuis serotype 5. This result suggested that the live attenuated Salmonella Typhimurium vaccine expressing TbpA might be protection for Glässer's disease outbreaks caused by H. parasuis. Discussion: This paper has shown protected mice that attenuated S. Typhimurium strain using pYA3493 expresses TbpA antigen against H. parasuis. Vaccination using bacterins is an efficient way to control outbreaks of Glässers disease, but significant variability has been reported. Therefore, the development of a new vaccine system to prevent Glässers disease using pYA3493-TbpA will avoid the disadvantages of the currently used vaccines. We need further works to enhance protection rate and to determine the potential of the vaccine in pigs

Durability after discontinuation of nucleos(t)ide therapy in chronic HBeAg negative hepatitis patients

Background/AimsRelapse has been reported after stopping nucleos(t)ide (NUC) therapy in the majority of chronic HBeAg negative hepatitis patients. However, the ideal treatment duration of HBeAg negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is not well known. We investigated the frequency of relapse in HBeAg negative CHB patients receiving NUC therapy.MethodsThe NUC therapy was discontinued at least 3 times undetectable level of HBV DNA leave 6 months space in 45 patients. Clinical relapse was defined as HBV DNA >2,000 IU/mL and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) >2 times of upper limit of normal range. Virological relapse was defined as HBV DNA >2,000 IU/mL.ResultsClinical relapse developed in 16 (35.6%) and 24 (53.3%) patients after stopping therapy at 6 months and 12 months off therapy, respectively. Virological relapse developed 22 (48.9%) and 33 (73.3%) patients at 6 months and 12 months off therapy. The factors such as age, gender, cirrhosis, baseline AST, ALT, HBV DNA levels, treatment duration, and consolidation duration were analyzed to investigate the predictive factors associated with 1 year sustained response. Of these factors, cirrhosis (86.1% in CHB, 22.2% in LC) was significantly associated with 1 year virological relapse rate. Baseline HBV DNA and total treatment duration tended to be associated with virological relapse.ConclusionsVirological relapse developed in the majority (73.3%) of HBeAg negative CHB patients and clinical relapse developed in the half (53.3%) of patients at 1 year off therapy. Cirrhosis may be associated with the low rate of virological relapse

Catastrophic Health Expenditures and Its Inequality in Households with Cancer Patients: A Panel Study

This study aims to examine the determinants of catastrophic health expenditure in households with cancer patients by conducting a panel analysis of three-year data. Data are adopted from surveys administered by Korea Health Panel for 2012–2014. We conducted correspondence and conditional transition probability analyses to examine households that incurred catastrophic health expenditure, followed by a panel logit analysis. The analyses reveal three notable results. First, the occurrence of catastrophic health expenditure differs by age group, that is, the probability of incurring catastrophic health expenditure increases with age. Second, this probability is higher in households with National Health Insurance than those receiving medical care benefits. Finally, households without private health insurance report a higher occurrence rate. The findings suggest that elderly people with cancer have greater medical coverage and healthcare needs. Private health insurance contributes toward protecting households from catastrophic health expenditure. Therefore, future research is needed on catastrophic health expenditure with focus on varying age groups, healthcare coverage type, and private health insurance

A Comparative Study on the Structural Response of Multi-Linked Floating Offshore Structure between Digital Model and Physical Model Test for Digital Twin Implementation

A digital twin is a virtual model of a real-world structure (such as a device or equipment) which supports various problems or operations that occur throughout the life cycle of the structure through linkage with the actual structure. Digital twins have limitations as a general simulation method because the characteristic changes (motion, stress, vibration, etc.) that occur in the actual structure must be acquired through installed sensors. Additionally, it takes a huge computing cost to output changes in the structure’s characteristics in real time. In particular, in the case of ships and offshore structures, simulation requires a lot of time and resources due to the size of the analysis model and environmental conditions where the wave load acts irregularly, so the application of a different simulation methodology from existing ones is required. The order reduction method, which accurately represents the system’s characteristics and expresses them in a smaller model, can significantly reduce analysis time and is an effective option. In this study, to analyze the applicability of the order reduction method to the development of digital twins for offshore structures, the structural responses of a multi-connected floating offshore structure were estimated by applying the order reduction method based on distortion base mode. The order reduction method based on the distortion base mode predicts the responses by constructing an order-reduced conversion matrix consisting of the selected distortion base mode, based on the mode vector’s orthogonality and autocorrelation coefficients. The predicted structural responses with the reduced order model (ROM) were compared with numerical analysis results derived using the higher order boundary element method and finite element method with in-house code owned by the Korea Research Institute of Ship & Ocean Engineering and measured responses with a model test. When compared with the numerical analysis results, the structural responses were predicted with high accuracy in the wave direction and wave frequency band of the selected distortion base mode, but there are differences due to changed characteristics of the structure when compared with the results of the model test. In addition, differences were also seen in reduced order model evaluation with different sensor locations, and it was confirmed that the more similar the extracted distortion base modes of input sensor location set is to the distortion base modes of predicted location set, the higher accuracy is in predicting the structural responses. As a result, the performance of the reduced order model is determined by the distortion base mode selection method, the locations of the sensor, and the prediction for the structural response

Typology of Service Innovation from Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

This study provides a conceptual framework with respect to service innovation, especially from a service-dominant logic (S-D logic) perspective. Even though innovation has been discussed as one of the most critical elements in enhancing the competitiveness of service industry, it was not clear how service innovation should be different from diverse types of existing innovation. The S-D logic provides a novel and valuable theoretical perspective that unifies the conventional literature on innovation. According to this new logic, four types of service innovation are presented based on two dimensions: the degree of co-creation and the degree of networked collaboration. We argue that service innovation can arise by the activity of value co-creation between firm and customer on the first dimension. On the second dimension, the firm needs to enhance their own capabilities for service innovation by applying the resources of all actors including suppliers and customers. Our framework indicates that it is critical for productive service innovation to make customers participate in value creation process and to integrate the dispersed resources held by participants. Examples are discussed with respect to different types of services innovation