• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.128-135
• /
• 2021

Objectives : The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the incidence and severity of childhood and adolescent self-harm. Methods : Medical records were retrospectively reviewed for patients under the age of 18 who visited the emergency room of Konyang University Hospital to compare the rate of self-harm attempts and the demographic, clinical, and self-harm-related of self-harm attempters aspects before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Results : During 11 months after the COVID-19 outbreak, the proportion of the number of children and adolescents patients with self-harm and their episodes increased significantly compared to that during 11 months before the COVID-19 outbreak (𝛘²=14.397, p<0.001; 𝛘²=24.156, p<0.001). Between about the year before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, there was a significant difference in the prior self-harm history and psychiatric history among children and adolescents who visited the emergency room and the ratio of hospitalization to other departments than department of psychiatry (p<0.05; p<0.05; p<0.05). Conclusions : In the COVID-19 situation, the proportion of children and adolescents who visited the emergency room due to self-harm and admission to other departments are increasing. And it has been shown that the incidence of self-harm has significantly increased in children and adolescents with a history of prior self-harm and psychiatric past history. These findings underscore the need for the psychiatric evaluation and intervention of self-harm related high-risk groups among children and adolescents in pandemic situations.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.54 no.2
• /
• pp.79-94
• /
• 2022

Due to the highly contagious nature and severity of the respiratory diseases caused by COVID-19, economical and accurate tests are required to better monitor and prevent the spread of this contagion. As the structural and molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 were being revealed during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers of COVID-19 diagnostic kits actively invested in the design, development, validation, verification, and implementation of diagnostic tests. Currently, diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 are the most widely used and validated techniques for rapid antigen, and immuno-serological assays for specific IgG and IgM antibody tests and molecular diagnostic tests. Molecular diagnostic assays are the gold standard for direct detection of viral RNA in individuals suspected to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. Antibody-based serological tests are indirect tests applied to determine COVID-19 prevalence in the community and identify individuals who have obtained immunity. In the future, it is necessary to explore technical problems encountered in the early stages of global or regional outbreaks of pandemics and provide future directions for better diagnostic tests. This article evaluates the commercially available and FDA-approved molecular and immunological diagnostic assays and analyzes their performance characteristics.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.533-543
• /
• 2023

This study explores the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Korean art market and contrasts the classic hedonic method of art price prediction with the Artificial Neural Network technique. The empirical analysis of this paper utilizes 14,639 observations of Korean art auction data from 2015 to 2021. There are three types of variables in this study: artist-related, artwork-related, and sales-related. Previous studies have suggested that these three types of variables influence art prices. The empirical findings in this research are in twofold. First, in terms of RMSE and R², the Artificial Neural Network outperforms the hedonic model. Both techniques discover that sales and artwork variables have a greater impact than artist-related attributes. Second, when the primary factors of art price are controlled, Korean art prices are found to fall dramatically in 2020, shortly following the onset of COVID-19, but to rebound in 2021. The main lesson in this study is that the Artificial Neural Network enhances art price prediction and reduces information asymmetry in the Korean art market even in the face of unanticipated turmoil such as the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Advanced Industrial SCIence
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to verify the mediating effects of job insecurity on the relationship between COVID-19 risk perception and mental health in hotel workers. For this study, a sample of 633 hotel workers completed the questionnaires: COVID-19 risk perception, job insecurity, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms. The data was analyzed by SPSS 25.0 program and PROCESS macro program. The main results can be summarized as follows. 1. The risk group of the job insecurity had a significantly higher level of mental health(depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms) compared with the normal group. 2. COVID-19 risk perception showed a significant effects on job insecurity and mental health(depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms). 3. The results showed a partial mediating effects of job insecurity on the relationship between COVID-19 risk perception and mental health(depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms). On the basis of the results, we discuss that hotel workers have the vulnerability of mental health in disaster situations such as COVID-19 pandemic, and that mental health risk increases due to the job insecurity caused by COVID-19. we propose the need to support human resource management measures and psychological programs for hotel workers.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.83-93
• /
• 2024

Purpose: Since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, various variants of concern have emerged. We divided the representative COVID-19 mutation period into four waves and aimed to analyze the clinical and laboratory features of children with COVID-19 from pre-mutation wave to the middle of omicron wave. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of hospitalized patients aged ≤19 years with laboratory confirmed COVID-19. Clinical and laboratory findings during pre-mutation (February 1st 2020 to September 30th 2020), alpha/beta (October 1st 2020 to May 31st 2021), delta (June 1st 2021 to October 31st 2021), and omicron (November 1st 2021 to May 31st 2022) waves were compared. Results: Among total 827 patients, 163 (19.7%) were asymptomatic, and the frequency of fever and cough was 320 (38.7%) and 399 (48.2%), respectively. The proportion of fever ≥38.5℃ was observed to be high during the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years. Lymphopenia was observed highly in the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years, and in the delta wave in the age group older than 12 years. Neutropenia was highly observed in the delta wave in the 0-4 years age group. Conclusions: There were distinct characteristics during all epidemic waves of COVID-19. Children with COVID-19 had more frequent persistent fever during delta wave and children during the omicron wave had a higher peak fever.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.173-192
• /
• 2024

This study aims to understand the changes in the beauty industry due to the pandemic from the consumer's perspective based on consumers' opinions about their skin online before and after the pandemic. Furthermore, this study tries to derive strategies for companies and governments to support sustainable growth and innovation in the beauty industry. To this end, posts on social media from 2017 to 2022 that contained the keyword 'skin concerns' are collected, and after data preprocessing, 96,908 posts are used for the structural topic model. To examine whether consumers' interest areas related to skin change according to the pandemic situation, the analysis period is divided into 7 periods, and the variables that distinguish each stage are used as meta-variables for the structural topic model. As a result, it is found that consumers' interests can be divided into 22 topics, which can be categorized into four main categories: beauty manufacturing, beauty services, skin concerns, and other. The results of this study are expected to be utilized in construction of product development and marketing strategies of related companies and the establishment of economic support policies by the government in response to changes in demand in the beauty industry due to the pandemic.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.12
• /
• pp.509-518
• /
• 2021

Amid the Covid pandemic surge last year, customers and businesses started embracing digital transactions. Digital banking, as an answer to the cash-less-contact-less way of doing financial transactions, was highly convenient during the pandemic, especially in the Philippines. This position examines the Gen Y and Gen Z in the Philippine case and its willingness to encourage digitalization of the financial sector. This study aimed at evaluating the intention to use digital banking services using the factors (1) ease of use; (2) perceived usefulness; (3) perceived risk; (4) trust; (5) convenience. A total of 226 respondents were selected by random sampling method and linear regression was used to analyse the collected data. Analysis of the results show that the components (1) perceived ease of use; (2) perceived usefulness; (3) perceived risk; (4) trust; (5) convenience had a significant effect on intention to use digital banking while the demographics - gender, age, monthly income, and educational attainment do not have any significance on the intention to use digital banking. The relevance of the study can be used for marketing and financial strategies to increase the intention to use digital banking and to contribute to the enhancement of technology acceptance concerning digital banking.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2022

Metaverse refers to a world that transcends reality. Metaverse is a compound word of meta (transcendence) and universe (universe). The impact of the corona pandemic has provided an opportunity to rapidly grow the metaverse based on realistic content along with online and non-face-to-face environments. Various content and service platforms reflecting the concepts of metaverse and digital twin are rapidly spreading around the world in line with the pandemic situation. As their needs accelerate in response to the COVID-19 situation, the technology of metaverse and digital twin is attracting attention again as an indispensable condition for business, culture and art, national industry, and public services. In particular, the metaverse requires the balanced development of ecosystem components based on various advanced convergence technologies. In this paper, the concept of metaverse and digital twin, types of platforms, and development status are examined, and trends of key element technologies are investigated and analyzed. As these key element technologies, XR sensory technology, avatar technology, and other XR devices and parts were examined. Through this, we want to clearly pinpoint the direction in which the metaverse will develop through future technologies, services, and follow-up research.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.403-412
• /
• 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact in various ways. It changes the normal routine of lives and businesses. Many businesses encounter tremendous financial pressure, some of them lay off workers or choose to close down. According to the statistics, e-commerce experiences a four-fold growth in sales during the pandemic period. There is an urgency for firms to digitalize their businesses to respond to the change in the landscape of purchasing patterns of consumers. The purpose of this study is to understand the success of a few popular apparel brands in digital businesses. This is a qualitative research, and secondary data is collected for the analysis. The findings reveal that all of them engage in omni-channel methods in digitizing their businesses while utilizing other forms of technologies in their product and operational management. All selected firms agree with the importance of digital business, and omni-channel retailing is their choice. In these unprecedented times, the sustainable success of the apparel firms in digital businesses requires a flexible and innovative approach and a commitment to achieving operational excellence. Continuous renewal and digital transformation are needed so that these companies have the capabilities to adapt to changes and reap the benefits of a satisfactory organizational performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.19 no.7
• /
• pp.51-59
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Anger has become one of the dominantly experienced emotions in recent years, particularly under the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the critical role that anger plays in consumers' lives, the present research examines how feeling angry about money influences consumers' spending and money distribution decisions. Research design and methodology. Three experiments were conducted using different emotion induction methods (i.e., dictator game, autobiographical recall, and scenario). Results. Feeling angry about money decreased pro-social spending (i.e., less money distribution to the others), but it did not affect virtuous or utilitarian spending for the self-unlike past finding on negative feelings that increased utilitarian spending. Furthermore, whereas anger-tainted money decreased pro-social spending of that money, guilt-tainted money increased pro-social spending. However, the effects of guilt versus anger were not completely symmetrical. The antagonistic effect of anger was diffusive across spending on distant and close others, whereas the pro-social effect of guilt was limited to distant others. Conclusions: These findings help policy makers and financial institutions forecast how money will be distributed or circulated when it is likely to be dampened by anger under the pandemic. They also highlight the importance of examining the effects of discrete emotions (e.g., anger vs. guilt) beyond valence.