• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2020

Purpose: D-dimer levels are known to be associated with poor outcomes in patients with various cancers, but their significance at the end of life remains unclear. This study investigated D-dimer levels as a prognostic indicator for terminal cancer patients in the last hours of life. Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at a palliative care unit of a tertiary cancer center, using a database to analyze the records of patients treated from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2018. In total, 67 terminal cancer patients with available data on D-dimer levels were included. Patients' demographic data, clinical information, and laboratory values, including D-dimer levels, were collected. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to identify prognostic factors of poor survival. Results: The most common site of cancer was the lung (32.8%) and the median survival time was 5 days. Most laboratory results, particularly D-dimer levels, deviated from the normal range. Patients with high D-dimer levels had a significantly shorter survival time than those with low D-dimer levels (4 days vs. 7 days; P=0.012). In the Cox regression analysis, only a high D-dimer level was identified as a predictor of a poor prognosis (hazard ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.09~3.07). Conclusion: Our results suggest that at the very end of life, D-dimer levels may serve as a prognostic factor for survival in cancer patients.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

The present study has aimed at analyzing the technical and scale efficiencies of credit utilization by the farmer-borrowers in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. DEA approach was followed to analyze the credit utilization efficiency and to analyze the factors influencing the credit utilization efficiency, log-linear regression analysis was attempted. DEA analysis revealed that, the number of farmers operating at CRS are more in number in marginal farms (40%) followed by other (35%) and small (17.5%) farms. Regarding the number of farmers operating at VRS, small farmers dominate the scenario with 72.5 per cent followed by other (67.5%) and marginal (42.5%) farmers. With reference to scale efficiency, marginal farmers are in majority (52.5%) followed by other (47.5%) and small (25%) farmers. At the pooled level, 26.7 per cent of the farmers are being operated at CRS, 63 per cent at VRS and 32.5 per cent of the farmers are either performed at the optimum scale or were close to the optimum scale (farms having scale efficiency values equal to or more than 0.90). Nearly 58, 15 and 28 percents of the farmers in the marginal farms category were found operating in the region of increasing, decreasing and constant returns respectively. Compared to marginal farmers category, there are less number of farmers operating at CRS both in small farmers category (15%) and other farmers category (22.5%). At the pooled level, only 5 per cent of the farmers are operating at DRS, majority of the farmers (73%) are operating at IRS and only 22 per cent of the farmers are operating at CRS indicating efficient utilization of credit. The log-linear regression model fitted to analyze the major determinants of credit utilization (technical) efficiency of farmer-borrowers revealed that, the three variables viz., cost of cultivation and family expenditure (both negatively influencing at 1% significant level) and family income (positively influencing at 1% significant level) are the major determinants of credit utilization efficiency across all the selected farmers categories and at pooled level. The analysis further indicate that, escalation in the cost of cultivation of crop enterprises in the region, rise in family expenditure and prior indebtedness of the farmers are showing adverse influence on the credit utilization efficiency of the farmer-borrowers.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.26-43
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• 2019

Purpose:The objective of this study was to identify the conceptual constructs of patient centeredness from the perspective of patients and family members in Korea, and to compare them with those included in the Picker Institute framework. Methods: Two focus group discussions were conducted. Each focus group consisted of six participants who had experienced being either a patient or a caregiver. We carried out a thematic analysis, and then compared the contents of our focus group discussions with the components of patient-centered care outlined by the Picker Institute. Results: Six conceptual constructs of patient centeredness emerged from the focus group discussions. Five of these overlapped with those outlined by the Picker Institute: 1)respect for patients' values, preferences, and needs, 2) coordination and integration of care, 3) information, communication, and education, 4) physical comfort, and 5) emotional support and alleviation for fear and anxiety. A new component that was not mentioned in the Picker Institute framework emerged from this study: "ease of making a complaint." Currently, "involvement of family and friends" and "continuity and transition" were not prominent components of patient centeredness according to our focus group discussions. Conclusions: This study presents the conceptual constructs of patient centeredness, five of which overlap with those outlined by the Picker Institute, and provides a qualitative basis of the patient experience survey currently being implemented by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in Korea.

• (The)Korea Educational Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.157-182
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• 2012

As more migrants stay for a longer term or settle in Korea through marriage, labor contract, defeat of North Korea, etc, the discourse on the migration policies gets more complicated and expands further beyond the issue of their adaptation to the Korean culture and their rights to encompass their families and children. The social integration policies for children of migrant families in Korea have been mainly led by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. This paper will look at the challenges that children with migrant background face and their problems while reviewing the policies on children with migrant background in a critical perspective. In conclusion, it gives some suggestions to help establish more open society with multi-cultural values espoused.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.131-136
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• 2022

This study examines the mediating effect of self-esteem in the influence of family decision-making attitudes on adolescents' human rights awareness. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, data from the Korea Youth Policy Research Institute surveyed in 2018 were used and analyzed. After extracting 693 adolescents with part-time work experience among all respondents in this data, missing values, outliers, and weights were removed, and a total of 511 people were selected as final research subjects. The SPSS WIN 25.0 program was used to verify the influence and mediating effect between measurement variables. As a result of the analysis, the partial mediating effect of self-esteem was confirmed in the influence of decision-making attitudes within the family on the human rights consciousness of adolescents. In addition, the Sobel Test was conducted to confirm the significance of the mediating effect of self-esteem. Based on the results of this study, the necessity of social welfare intervention was suggested for desirable communication between parents and children, raising awareness of human rights and enhancing self-esteem suggested.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.219-231
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• 2023

This study examined attitudes toward factors underpinning a successful marriage and their associations with marital satisfaction among married men and women in midlife. The sample comprised 201 married men and women aged between 40 and 59 living in Seoul, South Korea, and the data were collected by a self-report survey in 2019. Attitudes toward factors underpinning a successful marriage were measured using 12 items from the European Values Study Master Questionnaire 2008 and marital satisfaction was measured using three items from the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in order to identify the factors deemed important for a successful marriage, as well as a t-test to explore gendered domains. Additionally, regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between attitudes toward factors underpinning a successful marriage and marital satisfaction. The results revealed two factors that were deemed important for a successful marriage: 'marital exchange based on conditions' and 'qualitative interaction based on sharing.' Women were more likely to believe that both factors were important for a successful marriage than men. The regression analysis revealed that 'qualitative interaction based on sharing' had a positive association with marital satisfaction, while 'marital exchange based on conditions' had a negative association with marital satisfaction, and also that these associations did not differ by gender. The findings imply that a successful marriage can be achieved when married partners make efforts to maintain their relationships through positive interactions and share intimacy in midlife.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.210-217
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• 2020

This paper analyzes the factors influencing the childbirth intention of married women with the goal of analyzing whether times of spouses' housework, marital satisfaction, values of children and traditional gender role, and social services related to the reduction of low fertility contribute to women's intention to give birth. The respondents of the research were 1,000 married women, and the research was conducted with 482 women of childbirth intention. The findings are as follows. Age of sociodemographic factors has an influence on the childbirth intention. Related to family's character, factors influencing childbirth intention are number of children, times of spouses' housework, and marital satisfaction. In addition, emotional and instrumental values of children, number of recognized public services for reduction of low fertility. In other words, the more women share housework with spouses and satisfy their marital life, the more childbirth intention of women is increased. In order to improve childbirth intention, changes of perception of gender role and sharing housework, reinforcement of social system for work and family compatibility that convert changes of perception into action, advanced marital relationship programs, extensive support for subfertility and a huge build-up of social services related to reduction of low fertility need to be provided.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.581-589
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• 2020

This study aims to examine the effects of adjustment factors to college life on the work values of public health major students. We sampled 530 undergraduate students majoring in public health administration and engineering from Kyunggi-do, and analyzed the data using t-test, correlation and regression methods obtained from SPSS Win 21.0 software. We found that (1) a student's intrinsic work value is positively related to their adjustment to college life factors but extrinsic work value is positively related to 'professor-student interaction', 'college life satisfaction' and 'expectation for the service college'; (2) 'social integration', 'professor-student interaction' and 'expectation for the service college' influenced to intrinsic work value; (3) 'career identity', 'family support', and 'college life satisfaction' influenced to extrinsic work value. Based on the results of this study, that the improvement of adjustment to college life factors influence on the work values were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.447-453
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• 2015

Increase of national family income improved demand of high-quality and year-round horticultural products including chrysanthemum. To meet these demand, farmers have introduced protected facilities, such as greenhouses, of which environmental conditions could be monitored and controlled. Environment management up to three weeks after transplanting is critical for chrysanthemum quality. Artificial lighting and light-blocking screen are especially important for long-day (day period > 13 hours) and short-day (night period > 13 hours) treatments. In this study, a web-camera was installed, and the image was obtained and transmitted to mobile phones to monitor the status of 3-wavelength(RGB) lighting environments. RGB pixel values were used to determine malfunctioning of the lighting lamps, and leaking out and incoming illumination status during short-day and long-day treatment periods. Normal lighting lamps provided RGB pixel values of 240~255. During long-day treatment period, G pixel values were useful to detect abnormal lighting conditions (e.g., leaking). During short-day treatment period, R pixel values were useful to determine incoming light (e.g., sun-light). Results of this study would provide useful information for remote monitoring of light conditions for protected chrysanthemum production under artificial lights.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4323-4326
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• 2016

Background: The cancer mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) has been established as an important measure of health disparities in local and global circumstances. Past work has corroborated a linkage between the colorectal cancer MIR and the World Health Organization (WHO) Health System ranking. The literature further documents many Asian countries having incomplete cancer registries and a lack of comprehensive colorectal cancer screening guidelines. Materials and Methods: The colorectal cancer MIR values for 23 Asian countries were calculated from data obtained from the 2012 GLOBOCAN database. The 2000 World Health Organization (WHO) Health System rankings were used as a proxy for health system infrastructure and responsiveness. A regression equation was calculated with the MIR as the dependent variable and the WHO Health System ranking as the independent variable. Predicted MIR values were next calculated based on the regression results. Actual MIR values that exceeded 0.20 from the predicted MIR were removed as 'divergent' points. The regression equation was then re-plotted. Goodness-of-fit for both regressions was assessed by the R-squared test. Results: Asian countries have a relatively wide colorectal cancer MIR range, from a minimum of 0.24 to a maximum of 0.86. For the full dataset, the adjusted R-squared value for this regression was 0.53. The equation was then used to calculate a predicted MIR, whereby two data points were identified as 'divergent' and removed. The adjusted R-squared for the edited dataset increased to 0.66. Conclusions: Asian countries have a marked range in their colorectal cancer MIR values and there is a strong correlationwith the WHO Health System ranking. These results corroborate the contribution of the MIR as a potentially robust tool in monitoring changes in colorectal cancer care for Asian nations.