• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.306-317
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• 2024

Background/Aims: To determine whether metformin, which is considered a host-directed therapy for tuberculosis (TB), is effective in improving the prognosis of patients with TB and diabetes mellitus (DM), who have higher mortality than those without DM. Methods: This cohort study included patients who were registered as having TB in the National Tuberculosis Surveillance System. The medical and death records of matched patients were obtained from the National Health Information Database and Statistics Korea, respectively, and data from 2011 to 2017 were collected retrospectively. We classified patients according to metformin use among participants who used diabetes drugs for more than 28 days. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality during TB treatment. Double propensity score adjustment was applied to reduce the effects of confounding and multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: The all-cause mortality rate during TB treatment was lower (9.5% vs. 12.4%, p < 0.01) in the metformin user group. The hazard of death due to all causes after double propensity score adjustment was also lower in the metformin user group (aHR 0.76, 95% CI 0.67-0.86, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in mortality between metformin users and non-users for TB-related deaths (p = 0.22); however, there was a significant difference in the non-TB-related deaths (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Metformin use in patients with TB-DM co-prevalence is associated with reduced all-cause mortality, suggesting the potential for metformin adjuvant therapy in these patients.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.559-567
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• 2011

This paper deals with an economic evaluation of domestic low-temperature water electrolysis hydrogen production. We evaluate the economic feasibility of on-site hydrogen fueling stations with the hydrogen production capacity of 30 $Nm^3/hr$ by the alkaline and the polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis. The hydrogen production prices of the alkaline water electrolysis, the polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis, and the steam methane reforming hydrogen fueling stations with the hydrogen production capacity of 30 $Nm^3/hr$ were estimated as 18,403 $won/kgH_2$, 22,945 $won/kgH_2$, 21,412 $won/kgH_2$, respectively. Domestic alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production is evaluated as economical for small on-site hydrogen fueling stations, and we need to further study the economic evaluation of low-temperature water electrolysis hydrogen production for medium and large scale on-site hydrogen fueling stations.

• Architectural research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.133-141
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main policies of the last half century that have shaped the urban architectural fabric of Seoul today, and explore whether a modified approach might better address the current socioeconomic conditions in Korea. The paper defines and examines urban planning in Korea through an overview of the four main urban project policies implemented in Seoul from the 1960s to the present: Land Readjustment (LR), Housing Site Development (HSD), Urban Redevelopment (UR), and Housing Reconstruction (HR). While the fundamental ideology behind these policies served well during a prolonged period of high economic growth, evidence is growing that these policies are losing steam under today's conditions. A growing legacy of stalled and incomplete urban projects from the mid-2000s-the New Town Project is an example-begs the fundamental question as to whether an alternative urban planning paradigm is needed for Korea in an age of low economic growth, low birth rates and a fossil fuel energy crisis. Through the urban morphologies of the three residential areas in Seoul developed by LR projects, this paper looks at the possibility of urban regeneration through the sustainment of urban architecture in those residential areas that have not been affected by HSD, UR, and HR.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2014

Purpose - The focal point of this research is to study the implications of retention, various reasons for attrition and also different ways to control attrition along with the employee retention strategies implementing by the Indian IT sector. Research design, data and methodology - After thorough literature review on employee attrition and retention, questionnaire has prepared to collect the opinions of 200 employees which were chosen from 20 IT companies (10 each from large and medium size companies) with simple random sampling technique and also gathered the opinion of these companies HR managers on strategies they are implementing to retain their talent pool through personal and telephonic interviews. Results -The research completely limited to the IT companies located in the city of Pune which is emerged as a new IT hub of India. The collected data was analyzed with Microsoft Excel and frequency distribution. Conclusions - The researchers identified job associated, compensation related and inter-personal relations for quitting their positions along with the outlook of Indian IT companies related to the identification and implementation of retention strategies like incessant hikes in compensation package, improved working conditions, continuous introduction of employee welfare facilities, and genuine promotional policy, recognition and rewards, career planning and development, and exemplary leadership.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2020

In South Korea, female individuals in their forties show a high rate of incidence, with approximately 13% of the patients being <40 years. This statistic is more than twice as high as that in Western countries. It is therefore necessary to identify the risk factors for breast cancer incidence by age and economic activity participation status. Women aged 30 to 59-whether breast cancer patients or those in the control group and having no breast cancer-were appraised from the sample cohort database. The data were analyzed using the statistical software R36.2. To identify the factors affecting breast cancer incidence, the degree of association was determined with HR and 95% CI by means of cox regression analysis. As for the socio-demographic variables, the older the individual, the higher the risk of breast cancer incidence becomes. As for the economic activity variables, those who were dependents (unemployed) and who had higher income (medium and high) were at higher risk of breast cancer incidence, which was statistically significant. The income-adjusted HR (model 1) for breast cancer development associated with the economic activity was 1.452 (95% CI, 1.19-1.77). The body mass index and alcohol intake-adjusted HR (model 2) was 1.431 (95% CI, 1.18-1.74). One needs to pay attention to policy plans regarding women's quality of life, as well as to the risk of breast cancer incidence by their economic activity. In other words, policies need to give post care, instead of focus on early detection and cancer treatment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.242-247
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• 2018

Objectives: To examine survivorship disparities in demographic factors and risk status for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), which accounts for more than 75% of all urinary bladder cancers, but is highly curable with early identification and treatment. Methods: We used the US National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries over a 19-year period (1988-2006) to examine survivorship disparities in age, sex, race/ethnicity, and marital status of patients and risk status classified by histologic grade, stage, size of tumor, and number of multiple primary tumors among NMIBC patients (n=29 326). We applied Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and Cox proportional hazard methods for survival analysis. Results: Among all urinary bladder cancer patients, the majority of NMIBCs were in male (74.1%), non-Latino white (86.7%), married (67.8%), and low-risk (37.6%) to intermediate-risk (44.8%) patients. The mean age was 68 years. Survivorship (in median life years) was highest for non-Latino white (5.4 years), married (5.4 years), and low-risk (5.7 years) patients (K-M analysis, p<0.001). We found significantly lower survivorship for elderly, male (female hazard ratio [HR], 0.96), Latino (HR, 1.20), and unmarried (married HR, 0.93) patients. Conclusions: Survivorship disparities were ubiquitous across age, sex, race/ethnicity, and marital status groups. Non-white, unmarried, and elderly patients had significantly shorter survivorship. The implications of these findings include the need for a heightened focus on health policy and more organized efforts to improve access to care in order to increase the chances of survival for all patients.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.207-214
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• 2021

Humans are environmentally exposed to various electromagnetic fields, but the evaluation of the harmfulness of electromagnetic field and the development of a system therefor are still incomplete. We aimed to develop a system for evaluating biohazard against electromagnetic fields, and to determine biohazard through the system. An extremely-low frequency magnetic field generator was designed and manufactured, and the output reliability of the device was verified. Using this device, the effect on the formation of cellular stress-granules and the cell cycle progression of cells exposed to high magnetic fields of 6 mT and 60 Hz was confirmed. As a result, exposure to high magnetic fields of 6 hr, 12 hr and 36 hr did not affect the formation of cell stress-induced granules and the cell division cycle. These results are an important basis for the determination of biohazard to the extremely-low frequency high magnetic field.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.24.1-24.13
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• 2022

Background: In modern society, depression is serious issue that causes socioeconomic and family burden. To decrease the incidence of depression, risk factors should be identified and managed. Among many risk factors for depression, this study examined socioeconomic risk factors for depression. Methods: We utilized first (2006), second (2008), and third (2010)-wave data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA). Depressive symptom was measured with the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Short Form (CES-D-10) in the survey in 2008 and 2010. Three risk factors including job security, employment type and monthly income were measured in the survey in 2006. The association between risk factors and depressive symptom was analyzed by Cox proportional-hazard model. Results: We analyzed data from 1,105 workers and hazard ratios (HRs) for 3 risk factors were significant entirely. In addition, regular worker with high income group is the most vulnerable group of poor job insecurity on depression among male workers (HR: 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.81). Finally, HRs for 7 groups who had at least 1 risk factor had higher HRs compared to groups who had no risk factors after stratifying 3 risk factors. In the analysis, significantly vulnerable groups were total 5 groups and the group who had highest HR was temporary/daily workers with poor job security (HR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.36-4.64). The results concerning women, regardless of job type, were non-significant. Conclusions: This study presented one or more risk factors among poor job security, low income, temporary/daily employment type increase hazard for depressive symptom in 2 or 4 years after the exposure. These results inform policy to screen for and protect against the risk of depression in vulnerable groups.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.27-30
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• 2013

Catalyst-free graphene nano-sheets without substrates have been synthesized using fullerene and a high direct current (dc) pulse in the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Graphene nano-sheets were synthesized directly in the gas phase of carbon atoms which are generated from fullerene at a temperature of $600^{\circ}C$. Characterization has been carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1499-1510
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• 2016

This study is the result of a fuzzy-AHP-based evaluation of the support policy for the export of Chinese software, for which nine Class 1 evaluation indexes were established. Following a survey of 10 Chinese software experts, fuzzy AHP was used to assess and evaluate the absolute and relative importance of each index. The evaluation revealed that the support policy had relatively positive effects. More specifically, the analysis showed that several indices - technology development, HR development, marketing reinforcement, fund support, platform establishment, and product support - carried relatively significant importance. Quality management and tax deductions, on the other hand, showed no importance, while the importance of international certification was relatively small. In light of these discoveries, there is a need to train experts, increase software quality, and reconsider software brands.