• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2019

Korean and English are both known to show on-focus pitch range expansion and post-focus pitch range compression (PFC). But it is not clear if this prosodic similarity would make it easy for Korean speakers to learn English focus prosody. In the present study, we conducted a production experiment using phone number strings to examine whether Korean learners of English produce a native-like focus prosody. Korean learners of English were classified into three groups (advanced, intermediate and low) according to their English proficiency and were compared to native speakers. Results show that intermediate and low groups of speakers did not increase duration, intensity, and pitch in the focus positions, nor did they compress those cues in the post-focus positions. Advanced speakers noticeably increased the acoustic cues in the focus positions to a similar extent as native speakers. However, their performance in post-focus positions was quite far from that of native speakers in terms of pitch and excursion size. These results thus demonstrate a lack of positive transfer of focus prosody from Korean to English in L2 learning, and learners may have to relearn it from scratch, which is consistent with a previous finding. More importantly, the results provide further support for the view proposed in other works that acoustic properties of PFC were not easily transferred from one language to another.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3887-3895
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• 2016

Background: In order to increase breast and cervical cancer screening uptake in Singapore, women's perceived barriers to screening need to be identified and overcome. Using data from both focus groups and surveys, we aimed to assess perceived barriers and motivations for breast and cervical cancer screening. Materials and Methods: We conducted 8 focus groups with 64 women, using thematic analysis to identify overarching themes related to women's attitudes towards screening. Based on recurring themes from focus groups, several hypotheses regarding potential barriers and motivations to screen were generated and tested through a national survey of 801 women aged 25-64. Results: Focus group participants had misconceptions related to screening, believing that the procedures were painful. Cost was an issue, as well as efficacy and fatalism. Conclusions: By identifying barriers to and motivators for screening through a mixed-method design that has both nuance and external validity, this study offers valuable suggestions to policymakers to improve breast and cervical cancer screening uptake in Singapore.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.106-121
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to classify the attitudes toward fast fashion into groups and analyze the differences of the self-consciousness, and make-up behavior by groups. Questionnaires are being administered from 179 high school girls living in Deagu metropolitan City. Frequency, factor analysis, reliability analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, Duncant-test, and ${\chi}^2$-test are all used for data analysis. Our findings are as follows. The attitude toward fast fashion shows a significant correlation with the sub-variable self-consciousness and make-up behavior. Attitude toward fast fashion is being categorized into convenience focus, fashion focus, design focus, and season focus. Self-consciousness is social self-consciousness, social anxiety, private self-consciousness, and private anxiety. Make-up behavior is positive effect, fashion leader, and conformity. Attitude toward fast fashion is classified into three groups: disposability, fashionability, and low interest of fashion. The groups show a significant difference in the self-consciousness, and make-up behavior. Groups display no distinctions between the sub-variables in the actual conditions of cosmetics such as a first time for make-up and frequence of visit.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.64-70
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• 1996

The prevalence rate of psychiatric symptoms of the refractory epileptic patients was evaluated according to the location of the epileptic focus. The subjects were 91 patients admitted to Epilepsy Monitoring Unit of Seoul National University Hospital. The psychiatric symptoms were assessed by Korean version of Symptom Checklist-90-R(SCL-90-R). The locus of epileptic focus was assessed by clinical features, 2-hour interictal EEG, long-term video-EEG monitoring, brain MRI, interictal and ictal brain SPECT, and interictal brain PET The subjects were divided into three groups according to the epileptic focus, non-temporal(N=29), left temporal (N=26), and right temporal(N=32). There were no statistical differences in demographic and seizure-related variables among groups. The number of patients with $T-score {\geq} 65$ at any subscale of the SCL-90-R were compared by $X^2-test$ among groups. The mean T-scores of each subscale of the SCL-90-R were compared by oneway-ANOVA among groups. The prevalence rate of psychiatric symptoms of the refractory epileptic patients was 38.5%. There was no statistical difference in the prevalence rate of psychiatric symptoms among groups. However, the patients with non-temporal or right temporal epileptic foci showed statistically significant higher mean T-scores of interpersonal sensitivity, depression, hostility, and phobic subscales than the patients with left temporal epileptic foci. These results suggest that the epileptic focus plays an important role in the production of interictal psychiatric symptoms of the refractory epileptics.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.132-147
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to classify the appearance concern into groups and analyze the differences of the attitude toward plastic surgery and clothing behavior by groups. Questionnaires are administered to 206 female adults in their 20's-50's living in Deagu and Kyungbook areas from $10^{th}$ July to $19^{th}$ July, 2013. Frequency, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, Duncan-test and ${\chi}^2$-test were used for data analysis. The appearance concern is categorized as follows: appearance harmony focus and body focus. The attitude toward plastic surgery was found as risk tolerance, image improvement/surgery desire and keeping the secret of surgery. Clothing behaviors are found as individuality focus, other focus, convenience and luxury ostentation. The appearance concern shows a significant correlation with the sub-variable attitude toward plastic surgery and clothing behavior. One test in the groups is determined by demographic variables like occupancy and monthly income. Appearance concerns are classified into three groups as follows: appearance concern group, low appearance concern group and body concern group. The groups show a significant difference in the attitude toward plastic surgery and clothing behavior. This difference indicates that the 20's show a high body focus on their appearance concern, an attitude of image improvement/surgery desire toward plastic surgery and another individuality focus on clothing behavior while 50's care more about convenience in their clothing behavior.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.445-454
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was to explore the empowerment experienced by hospital nurses. Methods: Focus group was used to gather data and open coding method suggested by Strauss and Corbin was used to analyze the data. Thirty-four nurses who have clinical experience of more than three years at three university hospitals were participated in this study. Results: Five categories were identified: Getting chances of opportunities to show personal capabilities and motivations, acknowledgement, support, recognition and delightfulness. The major sources of empowerment were the acknowledgement of patients and family, colleagues, supervisors. doctors, and other personnels in hospital. Conclusion: Focus groups could be an useful tool for empowerment research in nursing. Further research will be needed to clarify the relationship among individual, group and organization.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.283-290
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• 2016

This study presents an 8x four-group inner-focus zoom lens with one-moving group for a compact camera by use of a focus tunable lens (FTL). In the initial design stage, we obtained the powers of lens groups by paraxial design based on thin lens theory, and then set up the zoom system composed of four lens modules. Instead of numerically analytic analysis for the zoom locus, we suggest simple analysis for that using lens modules optimized. After replacing four groups with equivalent thick lens modules, the power of the fourth group, which includes a focus tunable lens, is designed to be changed to fix the image plane at all positions. From this design process, we can realize an 8x four-group zoom system having one moving group by employing a focus tunable lens. The final designed zoom lens has focal lengths of 4 mm to 32 mm and apertures of F/3.5 to F/4.5 at wide and tele positions, respectively.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.132-138
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• 2013

The food choices in childhood have high a probability of being carried through into their adulthood life, which then contributes to the risk of many non-communicable diseases. Therefore, there is a need to gather some information about children's views on foods which may influence their food choices for planning a related dietary intervention or programme. This paper aimed to explore the views of children on foods and the types of foods which are usually consumed by children under four food groups (snacks, fast foods, cereals and cereal products; and milk and dairy products) by using focus group discussions. A total of 33 school children aged 7-9 years old from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur participated in the focus groups. Focus groups were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed according to the listed themes. The outcomes show that the children usually consumed snacks such as white bread with spread or as a sandwich, local cakes, fruits such as papaya, mango and watermelon, biscuits or cookies, tea, chocolate drink and instant noodles. Their choices of fast foods included pizza, burgers, French fries and fried chicken. For cereal products, they usually consumed rice, bread and ready-to-eat cereals. Finally, their choices of dairy products included milk, cheese and yogurt. The reasons for the food liking were taste, nutritional value and the characteristics of food. The outcome of this study may provide additional information on the food choices among Malaysian children, especially in urban areas with regard to the food groups which have shown to have a relationship with the risk of childhood obesity.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.131-145
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• 2004

The informative or important entities in utterances are focused and the focused items are usually accompanied by changes in phonetic manifestation. Phonetic realizations triggered by focus include changes of tonal contours as well as segmental strengthening. Focus in Korean is characterized by new phrase initiation, dephrasing, and initial tone contour with an enlarged pitch range in addition to segmentally lengthened initial segment. Focusing on the prosodic cues which play an important role in delivering the speakers' intention, this study aims to find out what intonational characteristics of Korean focus are realized by English learners of Korean. The English learners are divided into two groups according to their fluency in Korean, and the differences in focus realization between each group are discussed. Furthermore, the phonological and phonetic realizations of focus by English learners of Korean are compared to those by Korean native speakers. The results of this study yields two suggestions for Korean intonation education of L2 learners. First, the comparison between the two speaker groups can give better understanding in how and why the Korean intonation of English speakers is different from that of Koreans. Second, each phonological and phonetic characteristic of focus realization can weigh differently and its realization provides a criterion for evaluation of L2 Korean proficiency.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.51-59
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of attentional focus and distance of external focus on the performance of balance task of upper extremity. Subjects (N=30) held a stick (2 m) and maintained it horizontally. All of the subjects performed balance task of upper extremity under four different attentional focus conditions: focus on hand (internal focus), marker at 10 cm inside of hand (external focus 1), marker at 10 cm outside of hand (external focus 2), marker at 20 cm outside of hand (external focus 3). The mean velocity of the bar (mm/s) and the muscle activity of biceps brachii (%RVC) were measured. They were decreased when the subjects focused on external focuses compared to internal focus and decreased as distance of attentional focus from body increased (p<.05). There were significant differences between groups (p<.05); internal focus-external focus 1, internal focus-external focus 2, internal focus-external focus 3, external focus 2-external focus 3. These results showed that external focus is more effective than internal focus in enhancing motor performance and focusing on more distant attentional focus results in enhanced motor performance promoting the utilization of more automatic control mechanisms.