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Cartridge filter consists of a plastic housing and simple modular melt-blown polypropylene (PP) filter media which is used to provide excellent and stable filtration performance. However, a significant differential pressure is generated in PP cartridge filters during operation of filtering system due to their hydrophobic characteristics. In this study, the surface of PP filter media was coated with polydopamine (pDA) to improve its hydrophilicity and performance. The surface characteristics of pDA-coated PP (PP-pDA) were studied by scanning electron microscopic, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and capillary flow porometer. These results showed that a pDA coating was successfully available on the surface of PP. The hydrophilicity was studied by calculation of water uptake and measurement of contact angle; water uptake of PP-pDA was improved from 37% to 298% (increased by eight times) and contact angle results showed that hydrophilicity of PP-pDA was improved (39.67°) in comparison with pristine PP (120.26°). Eventually, pure water permeability, differential pressure and silica rejections of PP-pDA filter media were improved due to its hydrophilicity. Thus, hydrophilic PP filter media coated with pDA solution could be a good choice for cartridge filters in the water treatment area.

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ABSTRACTObjective:To determine the association between incident proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use and Clostridium difficileinfections across multiple countriesMethod:National data covering the total population in Australia and Korea, the Canadian population over 65 years and a 3 million person random sample data set from Taiwan were assessed, as were data from a worker insurance population and a hospital inpatient/outpatient population in Japan. Sequence symmetry analysis was used to assess the association with oral vancomycin dispensing as the outcome of interest.Results:54,957 patients were included. Positive associations were observed in Australia; adjusted sequence ratio (ASR) 2.48 (95% CI 1.90, 3.12), Korea ASR 2.15 (95%CI 2.11, 2.19), Canada ASR 1.45 (95% CI 1.16, 1.79), Japan hospital dataset ASR 3.21 (95%CI 2.12, 4.55) and Japan worker insurance dataset ASR 5.40 (95% CI 2.73, 8.75). The pooled result was ASR 2.40 (95%CI 1.88, 3.05) and 3.16 (95%CI 1.95, 5.10) when limited to Japan, Korean and Taiwan. Results did not vary by individual PPI. The temporal analysis showed effects within the first two weeks of PPI initiation.Conclusion:Our study confirms the association between PPI initiation and C. difficileinfections across countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

•What is the primary question addressed by this study?Is there any association between ischemic stroke and antidepressant use in older adults according to the degree of serotonin reuptake inhibition?•What is the main finding of this study?The risk of ischemic stroke was 1.192- and 1.057-fold higher in strong and intermediate serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) users than in weak SRI users. The risk was increased especially in high-dose antidepressants even for short-duration use.•What is the meaning of the finding?Intermediate and strong SRIs should be considered more cautiously because of the risk of ischemic stroke in older adult patients. For patients who are exposed to intermediate and strong SRIs of more than 1 defined daily dose or use other concomitant drugs, extra precaution must be taken even for a short duration.

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A growing body of evidence suggests that exercise may contribute to preventing pathological changes, treating multiple chronic diseases, and reducing mortality and morbidity ratios. Scientific evidence moreover shows that exercise plays a key role in improving health-related physical fitness components and hormone function. Regular exercise training is one of the few strategies that has been strictly adapted in healthy individuals and in athletes. However, time-dependent exercise has different outcomes, based on the exercise type, duration, and hormone adaptation. In the present review, we therefore briefly describe the type, duration, and adaptation of exercise performed in the morning and evening. In addition, we discuss the clinical considerations and indications for exercise training.

Research on the relationship between caffeine-containing medicines (CCMs) and the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (HS) is sparse. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between CCMs and the risk of HS.

The Smart Phone market is gradually being extended, and Mobile communication devices in the form of a miniaturized computers has evolved. However, there are limitations due to the nature of the smart phone devices, operating systems and applications is an obstacle in driving. A solution to solve these problems for mobilecloudcomputing technology is attracting attention. However, low compatibility between services without clear standards and specifications is Free. In this paper, in order to solve these problems, utilizing SOA, mobile computing, integrated interface to configure a methodology for cloud services is proposed.

Using a hierarchy that differentiates local mobility from global mobility is more appropriate to the Internet because it improves handoff performance, minimizes the loss of packets that may occur during transition and significantly reduces the mobility management signaling load on the Internet. But the only disadvantage of the Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 is that Mobility Anchor Point are sometimes "far away" and there is too much signaling from the mobile node. This paper assumes a new messaging architecture for the Hierarchical Mobile IPv6, which can shorten the signaling from the mobile node and minimize the handoff latency.

This paper proposes a solution for solving packet loss and out-of-sequence problems in standard Hierarchical MIPv6. These days, the need for Mobile IPTV on Wireless devices which provide IPTV is rapidly increasing. Due to the development of Internet-based IPTV and wireless devices using an increased Mobile network, which uses mobile devices, handovers during movement are bound to be inevitable. Standard MIPv6 (Mobile IPv6) in the event of a handover needs more time to process which will lead to problems, such as packet loss and the out-of-sequence problems. For these reasons, providing wireless services is more difficult than providing wired services. To solve these problems, many protocols have been developed, but a lot of challenges still remain to be solved. We proposed a scheme to solve the packet loss and packet out-of-sequence problems and it also focused on providing better services for Mobile IPTV. We used HMIPv6 (Hierarchical Mobile IPv6) for improvement of handover procedures.

The association between parity and risk of hemorrhagic stroke (HS) remains to be clarified. This study assessed the association of parity with the overall risk of HS and compared its contribution to intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).

The relationship between nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NANSAIDs) and hemorrhagic stroke (HS) remains unclear. We examined the risk of HS associated with the use of NANSAIDs in Koreans.

ABSTRACTTwelve strains of a rapidly growing Mycobacteriumspecies were isolated from an outbreak associated with intramuscular injections of an antimicrobial agent and were identified by comparative sequence analysis of rpoBand hsp65. These isolates were identified as Mycobacterium massiliense(100% similarity).

Background: No epidemiologic study, as of this writing, has been published on the use of cisapride with contraindicated drugs and its relation to mortality rates in a population-based setting.Objective: To estimate the prevalence of concomitant use of cisapride with contraindicated drugs and evaluate the association between this and the risk of mortality.Methods: Claims data were obtained from the Health Insurance Review Agency of Korea. The study population consisted of patients younger than 85 years who visited clinics or hospitals in the city of Busan as new users of cisapride between November 1, 2000, and April 30, 2002. The coprescription of cisapride was defined as prescribing cisapride with one or more contraindicated drugs with the same prescription. Nationwide mortality data were also used. The prevalence of coprescribing cisapride was estimated and the association between this and the risk of mortality was assessed by rate ratios (RRs). The RRs were estimated using Cox's regression model with time-dependent covariate, adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidities.Results: A total of 36 865 patients out of 56 012 claims were newly prescribed cisapride; of these, 1175 patients (3.2%) were concomitantly prescribed at least one contraindicated drug, which suggested adjusted modality RRs of 14.08 (95% CI 7.41 to 26.76) for recent users and 1.33 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.93) for past users of cisapride.Conclusions: Despite the discontinuation of the drug's commercial marketing, cisapride was still in use in clinics and hospitals in Busan. In many cases, cisapride was co-prescribed with contraindicated drugs, which is associated with increased mortality rates.

Several studies have reported a higher prevalence of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma and suggested a pathogenic role for HCV, but studies on hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma are limited. To determine the association between HBV infection and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma, we performed a case‐control study in Korea, a hepatitis B endemic area. We recruited 222 patients newly diagnosed with non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma at Seoul National University Hospital between January 1997 and December 1998 as cases. Four age‐ and sex‐matched controls were selected for each case, and the control groups comprised of 439 patients with non‐hematological malignancy (control group 1) and 444 subjects with non‐malignant conditions (control group 2). Relative risk of developing non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma among individuals tested positive for hepatitis B surface antigen was calculated after controlling for other potential risk factors of lymphoma, such as smoking, alcohol drinking, transfusion history and HCV infection. Hepatitis B surface antigen was positive in 28 of 222 patients (12.6%) with non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma compared with 32 of 439 (7.3%) in control group 1, and 21 of 444 (4.7%) in control group 2 (P=0.001). The crude odds ratio for B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma among the HBV carriers was 2.54 (1.46–4.45) and the adjusted odds ratio was 3.30 (1.69–6.45) by multivariate analysis. The present study suggests that the risk of B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma is increased in HBV carriers and warrants further investigation of the possible role of hepatitis B virus in the pathogenesis of B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A prospective study was performed in 45 patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

We performed a cohort‐based pharmacoepidemiologic study in order to evaluate the pattern of cephalosporin prescriptions in elderly inpatients in Korea. The Korea Elderly Pharmacoepidemiologic Cohort was composed of a geriatric population of beneficiaries of the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation residing in Busan in 1993. The cohort consisted of 23 649 members, comprising 15 221 women (64.4%) and 8428 men (35.6%). The study population for drug utilization review consisted of those cohort members who were admitted into hospitals during the period January 1993 through December 1994. The number of hospitalized patients was 4262, comprising 2631 women (61.7%) and 1681 men (38.3%). The trend of cephalosporin prescriptions over the 2‐year period showed that the use of second and third generation cephalosporins increased relative to the use of first generation. The use of cephalosporins combined with other antibiotics was found to occur in 22.8% aminoglycosides (76.7%) and quinolones (17.1%) being the most common antibiotics combined with cephalosporins. Our result demonstrates an increase in the prescription of second and third generation cephalosporins in Korea, which has implications not only for the elderly population but also for the total population because of the impact on health care costs and the potential for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose— To estimate the incidence of adverse gastrointestinal events in alendronate users. Methods— The computerized pharmacy claims of 12 geographically dispersed United Health Group-affiliated health plans were used to identify 1421 persons who received alendronate prescriptions. The medical claims data of these individuals were searched for subsequent diagnoses of oesophagitis, ulcer of the oesophagus, oesophageal perforation, gastric ulcer, and gastritis/duodenitis. The incidence level was estimated as cumulative incidence and incidence density and their 95% confidence intervals. Results— Thirty-nine persons had a diagnostic code indicating an incident oesophageal or gastric diagnosis of interest, including 22 with oesophagitis, two with oesophageal ulcer, one with gastric ulcer, and 15 with gastritis/duodenitis. Thirteen cases (33.3%) underwent upper endoscopic examination. Five (12.8%) patients were hospitalized. Reflecting alendronate use, 95% of patients were female. The cumulative incidence of oesophageal and gastric events for alendronate users was 3.1% in females, 2.0% in males, and 3.0% overall. The incidence density of a diagnosis of oesophageal or gastric events was 9.0 per 100 woman-years of exposure. There was no significant variation in the cumulative incidence among different age groups. Conclusions— These results suggest the incidence of oesophageal and gastric diagnostic codes is high among alendronate users. Further research is needed to assess the possible association between alendronate and adverse upper gastrointestinal events. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose— To estimate the incidence of adverse gastrointestinal events in alendronate users.

Using chorio-allantoic membranes (CAMs) of chick embryos and severe-combined-immunodeficient (SCID) mice, we investigated the effects of urokinase-type plasminogen-activator receptor (u-PAR) over-expression on the process of invasion and tumorigenicity. By the transfection of u-PAR cDNA, 3 u-PAR-over-expressing clones expressing 1.6- to 4.6-fold more u-PAR mRNA than parent cells were obtained from a human epidermoid-carcinoma cell line, HEp3, that expresses urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) and u-PAR. All the u-PAR-over-expressing clones showed greater invasiveness (13 to 29%) than that of parent HEp3 cells on CAMs. Immunohistochemistry revealed densely stained u-PAR-positive cells near the margin of the tumor, where a u-PAR-over-expressing clone, designated SM-3, was invading thickened fibrous tissue on CAMs. Three u-PAR-over-expressing clones formed larger tumors (>40 mm³) than did parent HEp3 cells on CAMs. Moreover, when the u-PAR-over-expressing clone (SM-3) was injected s.c. into the back of the SCID mice it produced a larger tumor volume than the control (HEp3) and down-regulated (AS-2) clones and significantly shortened the survival of SCID mice. These results demonstrate that increased u-PAR expression is an important factor in determining the malignant phenotype that makes cancer cells more invasive and tumorigenic. Int. J. Cancer 77:257–263, 1998.© 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Background: In order to ensure safer use of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs), continuously detecting unexpected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) after market approval is necessary.Methods: We performed disproportionality analysis to evaluate association between ADRs and NOACs including apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban using data from the Korea Institute of Drug Safety and Risk Management–Korea Adverse Event Reporting System database (KIDS-KD) between 2012 and 2016. There was no significant signal other than bleeding when considering quantity, signal strength, seriousness, and causality. In order to evaluate the NOAC reports about bleeding, we selected 62 WHO-ART diagnostic codes associated with bleeding. Among the 26 codes that referred to major bleeding, 18 codes referred to gastrointestinal bleeding and 8 were referred to intracranial bleeding. We evaluated the significance of the signals using reporting odds ratios (RORs) adjusted for age and sex.Results: Treatments with apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban were associated with 1989, 1668, and 2960 adverse events, respectively. Any type of bleeding with apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and warfarin was reported in 174 (8.8%), 209 (12.5%), 523 (17.8%), and 620 (9.5%) events, respectively. For any bleeding, adjusted RORs of apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban were 0.99 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83–1.17], 1.47 (95% CI: 1.25–1.75), and 2.48 (95% CI: 2.16–2.84), respectively. With respect to major bleeding, the adjusted RORs of apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban were 1.08 (95% CI: 0.82–1.41), 1.46 (95% CI: 1.10–1.90), and 1.82 (95% CI: 1.43–2.32), respectively.Conclusion: Rivaroxaban might have stronger association with bleeding than apixaban and dabigatran.

Objective To determine whether treatment with methylphenidate in children and young people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was associated with cardiovascular events.Design Self controlled case series analysis.Setting Nationwide health insurance database, 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2011, in South Korea.Participants 1224 patients aged ≤17 who had experienced an incident cardiovascular event and had had at least one incident prescription for methylphenidate.Main outcome measures A recorded diagnosis (either a primary or secondary cause) of any of the following cardiovascular adverse events: arrhythmias (ICD-10 (international classification of diseases, 10th revision) codes I44, I45, I47, I48, I49), hypertension (codes I10-I15), myocardial infarction (code I21), ischemic stroke (code I63), or heart failure (code I50). Incidence rate ratios were calculated with conditional Poisson regression and adjusted for time varying comorbidity and comedication.Results Increased risk of arrhythmia was observed in all exposed time periods—that is, periods of treatment with methylphenidate—(incidence rate ratio 1.61, 95% confidence interval 1.48 to 1.74), and the risk was highest in the children who had congenital heart disease. No significant risk of myocardial infarction was observed for all exposed time periods (1.33, 0.90 to 1.98), though risk was higher in the early risk periods between eight and 56 days after the start of treatment with methylphenidate. No significant increased risk was observed for hypertension, ischemic stroke, or heart failure.Conclusion The relative risk of myocardial infarction and arrhythmias is increased in the early period after the start of methylphenidate treatment for ADHD in children and young people. Though the absolute risk is likely to be low, the risk-benefit balance of methylphenidate should be carefully considered, particularly in children with mild ADHD.

ObjectiveTo define the risk of intracranial haemorrhage among patients treated with antidepressants and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), compared with the risk among those treated with antidepressants without NSAIDs.DesignRetrospective nationwide propensity score matched cohort study.SettingKorean nationwide health insurance database between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2013.ParticipantsPatients who began receiving antidepressants for the first time (index date) without a history of having received a prescription for antidepressants during the preceding year. Patients who had been diagnosed as having cerebrovascular diseases within a year before the index date were excluded.Main outcome measureTime to first hospital admission with intracranial haemorrhage within 30 days after drug use. Matched Cox regression models were used to compare the risk of intracranial haemorrhage among patients who were treated with antidepressants with and without NSAIDs, after propensity score matching with a 1:1 ratio.ResultsAfter propensity score estimation and matching in a 1:1 ratio, the cohort used in the analysis included 4 145 226 people. The 30 day risk of intracranial haemorrhage during the entire study period was higher for combined use of antidepressants and NSAIDs than for use of antidepressants without NSAIDs (hazard ratio 1.6, 95% confidence interval 1.32 to 1.85). No statistically meaningful differences were found in risk of intracranial haemorrhage between the antidepressant drug classes.ConclusionsCombined use of antidepressants and NSAIDs was associated with an increased risk of intracranial haemorrhage within 30 days of initial combination.

ObjectiveTo assess the efficacy of vitamin and antioxidant supplements in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.DesignMeta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Data sources and study selectionPubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, CINAHL, and ClinicalTrials.gov searched in June and November 2012. Two authors independently reviewed and selected eligible randomised controlled trials, based on predetermined selection criteria.ResultsOut of 2240 articles retrieved from databases and relevant bibliographies, 50 randomised controlled trials with 294 478 participants (156 663 in intervention groups and 137 815 in control groups) were included in the final analyses. In a fixed effect meta-analysis of the 50 trials, supplementation with vitamins and antioxidants was not associated with reductions in the risk of major cardiovascular events (relative risk 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.98 to 1.02; I2=42%). Overall, there was no beneficial effect of these supplements in the subgroup meta-analyses by type of prevention, type of vitamins and antioxidants, type of cardiovascular outcomes, study design, methodological quality, duration of treatment, funding source, provider of supplements, type of control, number of participants in each trial, and supplements given singly or in combination with other supplements. Among the subgroup meta-analyses by type of cardiovascular outcomes, vitamin and antioxidant supplementation was associated with a marginally increased risk of angina pectoris, while low dose vitamin B6supplementation was associated with a slightly decreased risk of major cardiovascular events. Those beneficial or harmful effects disappeared in subgroup meta-analysis of high quality randomised controlled trials within each category. Also, even though supplementation with vitamin B6was associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular death in high quality trials, and vitamin E supplementation with a decreased risk of myocardial infarction, those beneficial effects were seen only in randomised controlled trials in which the supplements were supplied by the pharmaceutical industry.ConclusionThere is no evidence to support the use of vitamin and antioxidant supplements for prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Background. Stomach cancer is the most common cancer among Koreans. There is wide agreement that dietary factors are important in gastric carcinogenesis, but the role of many Korean food items remains unknown. Methods. A case-control investigation involving 213 incident cases of histologically confirmed stomach cancer and an equal number of controls, matched by age (within 2 years) and sex, was conducted from June 1990 to October 1991. Results. An Increased risk of stomach cancer was noted among those with high consumption of stewed foods such as soybean paste stew and hot pepper-soybean stew, broiled fish, and those who liked salty food. However, mung bean pancake, tofu (soybean curd), cabbage, spinach, and sesame oil decreased the risk of stomach cancer. Stratified analysis by salt in combined foods, such as stewed foods and pickled vegetables, disclosed salt as being an important risk factor. Analysis of cooking methods showed that broiling and salting increased the risk of stomach cancer, but that frying tended to decrease the risk. These results suggest that the cooking method might modify the gastric carcino-genicity of foods. As non-dietary factors, smoking and a family history of stomach cancer increased the risk, but use of a refrigerator decreased the risk of cancer. Conclusions. Heavy salt consumption and cooking methods like broiling and salting seem to play a major role in gastric carcinogenesis among Koreans.