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Abstract Background The recently-observed trend towards younger stroke patients in Korea raises economic concerns, including erosion of the workforce. We compared per-person lifetime costs of stroke according to the age of stroke onset from the Korean societal perspective. Methods A state-transition Markov model consisted of three health states ('post primary stroke event', 'alive post stroke', and 'dead') was developed to simulate the natural history of stroke. The transition probabilities for fatal and non-fatal recurrent stroke by age and gender and for non-stroke causes of death were derived from the national epidemiologic data of the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Services and data from the Danish Monitoring Trends in Cardiovascular Disease study. We used an incidence-based approach to estimate the long-term costs of stroke. The model captured stroke-related costs including costs within the health sector, patients' out-of-pocket costs outside the health sector, and costs resulting from loss of productivity due to morbidity and premature death using a human capital approach. Average insurance-covered costs occurring within the health sector were estimated from the National Health Insurance claims database. Other costs were estimated based on the national epidemiologic data and literature. All costs are presented in 2008 Korean currency values (Korean won = KRW). Results The lifetime costs of stroke were estimated to be: 200.7, 81.9, and 16.4 million Korean won (1,200 KRW is approximately equal to one US dollar) for men who suffered a first stroke at age 45, 55 and 65 years, respectively, and 75.7, 39.2, and 19.3 million KRW for women at the same age. While stroke occurring among Koreans aged 45 to 64 years accounted for only 30% of the total disease incidence, this age group incurred 75% of the total national lifetime costs of stroke. Conclusions A higher lifetime burden and increasing incidence of stroke among younger Koreans highlight the need for more effective strategies for the prevention and management of stroke especially for people between 40 and 60 years of ages.

Background: No study of obesity risk for people in developed countries has conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of the association of socioeconomic status with obesity. In this paper, we investigated if education functions as either a confounder or an effect modifier in the association of another socioeconomic status indicator with obesity. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed data of an adult population sample (10,905 men and 14,580 women) from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010–2014). The study performed multivariate logistic regression analyses for three education levels and four indicators of socioeconomic status (i.e., marital status, residential area, occupation, and income). Results: The overall prevalence of obesity was 38.1% in men and 29.1% in women (p < 0.001). In men, while education functioned as an effect modifier in the association between marital status and obesity (p for interaction = 0.006), it functioned as both a confounder (p < 0.001) and an effect modifier (p for interaction < 0.001) in the association between residential area and obesity. In contrast, in women, education functioned as a confounder in the association of residential area with obesity (p = 0.010). However, it functioned as both a confounder (p < 0.001) and an effect modifier (p for interaction = 0.012) in the association between income and obesity. A prediction showed that unlike in women, education was positively associated with obesity risk for some socioeconomic indicator groups in men; for example, in a rural resident group, a higher level of education increased the probability of being obese by 19.7%. Conclusions: The present study suggests the need to examine sex-specific studies regarding the role of education on the association between other socioeconomic status indicators and obesity. This should be considered in planning education policies to reduce the risk of obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is viewed as a highly promising renewable energy process that generates energy without carbon emissions in the age of the climate change regime. While many experimental studies have contributed to the quest for an efficiency that would make the PRO process commercially viable, computational modeling and simulation studies have played crucial roles in investigating the efficiency of PRO, particularly the concept of hybridizing the PRO process with reverse osmosis (RO). It is crucial for researchers to understand the implications of the simulation and modeling works in order to promote the further development of PRO. To that end, the authors collected many relevant papers and reorganized their important methodologies and results. This review, first of all, presents the mathematical derivation of the fundamental modeling theories regarding PRO including water flux and concentration polarization equations. After that, those theories and thermodynamic theories are then applied to depict the limitations of a stand-alone PRO process and the effectiveness of an RO-PRO hybridized process. Lastly, the review diagnoses the challenges facing PRO-basis processes which are insufficiently resolved by conventional engineering approaches and, in response, presents alternative modeling and simulation approaches as well as novel technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: No previous study has explored the interactions between education and lifestyle in relation to obesity. This study hypothesized that education may be obesogenic through its interplay with lifestyle behaviors.Methods: Data for a nationally representative sample (6937 men and 9333 women) from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010-2012) were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed for three education levels and six lifestyle behaviors, each of which comprised two groups.Results: Interactions between education and lifestyle behaviors in relation to obesity were observed for all lifestyle behaviors in women (p for interaction <0.001) and for three lifestyle behaviors in men. Education appeared obesogenic for three groups of lifestyle behaviors in men (p for trend <0.05), but was protective against obesity for 11 groups in women. Each one-unit increase in education level in men increased the odds of obesity by 1.29-fold among under-reported energy intake groups (95 % confidence interval: 1.16, 1.44).Conclusions: Education may be a risk factor for obesity through its interplay with lifestyle behaviors. Further research is required to examine these findings in different socio-cultural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We synthesized low-cost cathodes for use in the electrochemical NO 3 - reduction reaction (NO 3 RR) via the simple reconstruction of AISI 420 stainless steel (SS). Thermochemical treatment of the SS in oxalic acid generated iron oxalate (FeC 2 O 4 ) microrods (BL-SS), with further anodization affording Cr-doped Fe 2 O 3 (R-SS) or FeC 2 O 4 (G-SS). G-SS displayed supreme N 2 selectivity during galvanostatic electrolysis at circumneutral pH. Electroanalysis and descriptor/scavenger analysis indicated that Fe sites were the primary active sites of NO 3 - adsorption, with C 2 O 4 2- as the H-binding sites. The C 2 O 4 2- ligands and Cr dopants altered the electronic structures of the Fe sites. A parametric study of the current density, pH, [NO 3 - ] 0 , and [Cl - ] 0 indicated an Eley-Rideal N 2 generation mechanism, with NO 2 - as an intermediate. Cl - elevated the N 2 selectivity but reduced the NO 3 RR efficiency. To demonstrate the practical applicability of G-SS with a proposed regeneration strategy, its durability was examined in synthetic and real wastewater matrices. Compared with that in synthetic wastewater, G-SS displayed more stable performance in real wastewater owing to the natural buffering capacity at the cathode, which reduced the corrosion rate. Cr-doped FeC 2 O 4 is viable for use in the low-cost, efficient electrochemical treatment of wastewater containing NO 3 - .

The numerical study was conducted to compare process performance depending on the pump type and process configuration. The daily monitoring data of seawater temperature and salinity offshore from Daesan, Republic of Korea was used to reflect the site-specific seawater conditions. An algorithm for reverse osmosis in constant permeate mode was developed to simulate the process in time-variant conditions. Two types of pumps with different maximum leachable efficiencies were employed to organize pump-train configuration: separated feed lines and common pressure center design. The results showed pump type and design configuration did not have a significant effect on process performance. The annual means of specific energy consumption ( SEC ) for every design configuration were under 2 kWh/m 3 , except for a worst-case. The worst-case was decided when the pump was operated out of the best operation range. The two operation strategies were evaluated to determine the optimal configuration. The permeate flow rate was reduced to 80% of the designed permeate flow rate with two approaches: feed flow rate reduction in every train and pump shutdown in a specific train. The operation mode with feed flow rate reduction was more efficient than the other. The operating pressure reduction led to a decrease in SEC .

Objectives: To identify gender-specific associations between education and income in relation to obesity in developed countries by considering both the interaction-effect terms of the independent variables and their main-effect terms., Design: A cross-sectional study. Education and income levels were chosen as socioeconomic status indicators. Sociodemographics, lifestyles and medical conditions were used as covariates in multivariable logistic regression models. Adjusted ORs and predicted probabilities of being obese were computed and adjusted for a complex survey design., Setting: Data were obtained from the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010-2012)., Participants: The sample included 7337 male and 9908 female participants aged ≥19 years., Outcome Measure: Obesity was defined as body mass index of ≥25, according to a guideline for Asians., Results: In models with no interaction-effect terms of independent variables, education was significantly associated with obesity in both men and women, but income was significant only in women. However, in models with the interaction-effect terms, education was significant only in women, but income was significant only in men. The interaction effect between income and education was significant in men but not in women. Participants having the highest predicted probability of being obese over educational and income levels differed between the two types of models, and between men and women. A prediction using the models with the interaction-effect terms demonstrated that for all men, the highest level of formal education was associated with an increase in their probability of being obese by as much as 26%., Conclusions: The well-known, negative association between socioeconomic status and obesity in developed countries may not be valid when interaction effects are included. Ignoring these effects and their gender differences may result in the targeting of wrong populations for reducing obesity prevalence and its resultant socioeconomic gradients., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

Background: The recently-observed trend towards younger stroke patients in Korea raises economic concerns, including erosion of the workforce. We compared per-person lifetime costs of stroke according to the age of stroke onset from the Korean societal perspective., Methods: A state-transition Markov model consisted of three health states ('post primary stroke event', 'alive post stroke', and 'dead') was developed to simulate the natural history of stroke. The transition probabilities for fatal and non-fatal recurrent stroke by age and gender and for non-stroke causes of death were derived from the national epidemiologic data of the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Services and data from the Danish Monitoring Trends in Cardiovascular Disease study. We used an incidence-based approach to estimate the long-term costs of stroke. The model captured stroke-related costs including costs within the health sector, patients' out-of-pocket costs outside the health sector, and costs resulting from loss of productivity due to morbidity and premature death using a human capital approach. Average insurance-covered costs occurring within the health sector were estimated from the National Health Insurance claims database. Other costs were estimated based on the national epidemiologic data and literature. All costs are presented in 2008 Korean currency values (Korean won = KRW)., Results: The lifetime costs of stroke were estimated to be: 200.7, 81.9, and 16.4 million Korean won (1,200 KRW is approximately equal to one US dollar) for men who suffered a first stroke at age 45, 55 and 65 years, respectively, and 75.7, 39.2, and 19.3 million KRW for women at the same age. While stroke occurring among Koreans aged 45 to 64 years accounted for only 30% of the total disease incidence, this age group incurred 75% of the total national lifetime costs of stroke., Conclusions: A higher lifetime burden and increasing incidence of stroke among younger Koreans highlight the need for more effective strategies for the prevention and management of stroke especially for people between 40 and 60 years of ages.