• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.21-40
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• 2002

Cancer is the second leading cause of the death in Korea. Family caregivers of dying patients manifest many psychological and physical symptoms of stress, and they often seek for informational support from health care providers. Unfortunately, however, few systematic studies identify the actual effect of such support on family caregivers. This study, thus, intends to evaluate the effect of informational support for hospice care. One group pretest-posttest design was used, employing the stress-coping model by Cohen and Wills as a conceptual framework. This research was conducted from July 1 to November 15, 1998, initially with 32 subjects sampled from hemato-oncology department of two general hospitals in Seoul, but reduced to 18 at the end due to the untimely death of patients or caregiver's refusal during the course of study. Informational supports were programmed to provide the family caregivers with 8 times of education and counseling as well as 24-hour hot-line for 4 weeks. A booklet that explains the various problems of hospice care was also prepared and distributed to all subjects. Data were collected by using self-report questionnaires and reviewing medical records. The tools used in this study were based on the Weinert's PRQ-II(scale of perceived social support), Spielberger's state anxiety inventory, and CES-D. Also included in the data collection were the general characteristics of family caregivers and patients, and the pain intensity and the performance status of patients. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon sign rank test and paired t-test using SPSSWIN program. The results of the study were as follows: 1.The perceived social support of family caregivers was not significantly increased with informational support for hospice care(t=1.64, one tailed p=.060). 2.The anxiety of family caregivers was significantly reduced following informational support for hospice care(t=3.48, one tailed p=.002). 3.The depression of family caregivers was significantly reduced following informational support for hospice care(t=-2.18, one tailed=.022). 4.The pain intensity of patients with terminal cancer was significantly reduced following informational support for hospice care(t=-2.41, two tailed p=.027). The results suggest that the informational support provided to family caregivers of patients with terminal cancer reduced not only their anxiety and depression but also the pain intensity of patients. Further study is necessary to consolidate the conceptual framework of this study with expanded number of subjects. Nevertheless, it was certain that the informational support program for hospice care was very helpful to both caregivers and patients. Thus, the informational support program is strongly recommended for the hospitals which have no hospice unit yet.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.446-457
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• 2016

This study analyzed the Korean nurses association news described nurses' work-family balance for fifteen years by drawing on the qualitative thematic approach. From September 14, 2012 to February 10, 2015, data were collected by searching news articles associated with nurses' work and family balance published from 2000 to 2014 in the Korean nurses' association news online. A total of 73 news articles were used for data analysis. Two themes and ten sub-themes were derived; under the first theme of the government policy on work-family balance, the 'policies of maternity leave', 'parenting support', 'working condition improvement', and 'family-friendly culture' were identified as the sub-themes. For the second theme of Korean nurses association activities on work-family balance, the 'activities for various working shifts', 'constructing 24 hours childcare facilities', 'supporting unemployed nursing workforce development', 'healthy birth and parenting environment', 'family-friendly work environment', and 'securing nurses for nursing shortage' were identified as sub-themes. The Korean nurses association news in terms of work-family balance providing a voice for nurses regarding the benefit of maternity leave, increasing awareness of gender equality from a gender perspective, and leading the public attention to it in depth.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.49
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• pp.225-263
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• 2002

This study examined reasons for marital satisfaction among men and women, and explored how sources of marital satisfaction varied with gender. Data were drawn from a sell-administered questionnaire study in which 173 married people residing in Seoul participated. Although the majority of both men and women in this study were at least somewhat satisfied with their marital life, men were, on average, more satisfied with their marriage than were women. Content analysis of reasons for marital satisfaction, obtained through an open-ended question, revealed that both men and women mentioned most frequently as their sources of marital satisfaction in this order: spouse, family, and children. However, while a large proportion of men's reasons for satisfaction concerned spouse, particularly affective relationship with their spouses, women's reasons indicated more diverse sources of marital satisfaction, including spouse, family, children, stability of living and of economy. Analysis of specific reasons for satisfaction in each source revealed that marital satisfaction was intimately connected with one's experience of happiness, love, stability, harmony, and peace, and that respondents experienced such positive emotions, leading to marital satisfaction, not only through relationship with their spouses, but also through other sources, such as children, family members, and respondents themselves. Moreover, good personality and health of spouse, family members, and children were frequently cited as reasons for marital satisfaction, and these reasons were more common among women's responses. Based on these results, both universal and cultural characteristics of marital satisfaction were considered, and gender differences in satisfaction with marital life were discussed. Finally, implications for clinical social work practice from this study were provided.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.77-97
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• 1994

Despite the fact that the national family planning program in korea has accomplished its primary goals of fertility reduction and universal contraceptive use, the induced abortion is still high and there has been an increasing trend in the population sex ratio at birth. It seems that the changes in the imbalance of sex ratio have originated from traditonal boy preference. This indicates that much of the current family planning program can be overhauled, so that the program quality could be better controlled, by preventing the number of unwanted pregnancies and the imbalance of sex ratios. This paper aims, therefore, to examine the determinants of induced abortion through the investigation of pregnancy outcomes and their changes over time and to study the interaction between induced abortion, boy preference and the imbalance of sex ratio in Korea. The abortion rate had increased rapidly until the mid-1980s when there were about the same number of abortions as live births. Thereafter, the abortion rate has been maintained at this high level. By parity it shows a much higher abortion rate for a higher parity at all time. From the first parity, the sex composition of previous children stands out as the most important factor in deciding the pregnancy outcome at all time. The probability of a pregnancy ending in an abortion increases substantially when parents already had a son. The decline of the desired family size and the sustained strong son preference has made the sex of children a more important factor in the determination of the pregnancy outcome. Women's education has had consistently positive effects on the probability of a pregnancy ending in an abortion, but the effect shows a steady decline over time. The premarital pregnancy and urban residence also increase the abortion probability. This study suggests that the main concerns of the family planning program should be to strengthen the social support policies so as to weaken the son preference value leading to a balanced sex ratio and prevention of induced abortions.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.23-42
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• 2013

This paper examines the effects of corporate governance on internationalization in Korean firms. Using the data from 454 Korean manufacturing firms listed in the Korean Stock ExchanFge (KSE) from 1999-2006, we analyzed the role of corporate governance on internationalization in Korean firms, including Chaebols (Korean business groups) and family firms. In addition, we investigated the moderating effect of concentration of ownership on internationalization. The results of the analysis showed a positive association between corporate governance in Chaebols and family firms and internationalization. Interestingly, the influence of ownership concentration overpowered the ambivalent behaviors of Chaebols, leading to less internationalization. We conclude that corporate governance in Chaebols and family firms is important to internationalization strategy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.437-447
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a grounded theoretical analysis on the hospital accreditation experience of head nurses in order to understand their behavior on the adaption of this new system. Methods: The participants were 8 head nurses with more than 3 years of experience. The data were collected through in-depth interviews using audiotape recording analyzed by the constant comparative method described in Strauss and Corbin's methodology. Results: There were 113 concepts, 26 subcategories and 12 categories identified through the open coding process. In the axial coding, the following paradigm model was proposed: 1) the causal conditions were 'hardware problem' and 'software problem', 2) the contextual conditions were 'vertical relationship', 'individual preference', and 'family support', 3) the intervening conditions were 'passive conditions' and 'active conditions', 4) the action/interaction strategies were 'leading role' and 'dependent role', 5) the consequences were 'positive acceptance' and 'negative acceptance', 6) the central phenomenon was 'difficult situation' and 7) the core category was 'leading in harmony'. Conclusion: The new system led head nurses having difficulties as the middleman between the hospital administration and general nurses, but they made a continuous effort to overcome and adapt to it through a number of strategies.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.69-89
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• 2012

This study was conducted in order to develop a Children's Playfulness Rating Scale(CPRS) and to analyze it in terms of item discrimination, validity, and reliability. The participants in this study consisted of 861 parents whose children were aged from three to six years old. The item discrimination, determined by comparing the highest and lowest group using ${\chi}^2$, Cramer's V, was found to be satisfactory. The reliability of factors, as measured by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, ranged from .85 to .95. The results of factor analysis identified 4 factors and 35 items were then selected from the 45 items in the original scale. The four factors identified were as follows; (1) leading participation (2) cognitive flexibility (3) expression of joy (4) voluntary full immersion. Concurrent validity was also established by using correlations between the CPRS and CPS(Children's Playfulness Scale). In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the Children's Playfulness Rating Scale is both reliable and valid.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2010

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complex process in which epithelial cells acquire the characteristics of invasive mesenchymal cells. EMT has been implicated in cancer progression and metastasis as well as the formation of many tissues and organs during development. Epithelial cells undergoing EMT lose cell-cell adhesion structures and polarity, and rearrange their cytoskeletons. Several oncogenic pathways such as transforming growth factor (TGF)-$\beta$, Wnt, and Notch signaling pathways, have been shown to induce EMT. These pathways have activated transcription factors including Snail, Slug, and the ZEB family which work as transcriptional repressors of E-cadherin, thereby making epithelial cells motile and resistant to apoptosis. Mounting evidence shows that EMT is associated with cell invasion and tumor progression. In this review, we summarize the characteristic features of EMT, pathways leading to EMT, and the role of EMT in cell invasion. Three topics are addressed in this review: (1) Definition of EMT, (2) Signaling pathways leading to EMT, (3) Role of EMT in cell invasion. Understanding the role of EMT in cell invasion will provide valuable information for establishing strategies to develop anti-metastatic therapeutics which modulate malignant cellular processes mediated by EMT.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-43
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• 1998

The purposes of this study were to find the general trends of marriage-ideology reflected on the view of marriage of unmarried men and women, to estimate the differences according to related variables and to investigate relation of variables and marriage-ideology. The samples were selected from the unmarried 164 men and 235 women living in Kwang-ju. The major findings were as follows; 1. Unmarried men and women didn't reveal high level of marriage-ideology but men's marriage-ideology scores were higher than women. The overall tendencies were that women's achievement of vicarious status was more imporant than that of personal status, marriage was the male-leading union and men's conditions of mate-selection must be superior than woman. Unmarried men and women usually did not accept equality between sex and they have strong gender-stereotype. In the view of sexuality, premarital viriginity and extramarital intercourse were more rigid with woman and they took a serious view of man-centered kinship. 2. Marriage-ideology were significantly different according to mother's age, necessity of marriage, motive of marriage, marriage taboo according to family origin, the eldest son's parent care-giving, a notion of preferring a son. 3. Men and women's marriage-ideology was positively related to variables. Especially, women's marriage-ideology had high relation to motive of marriage and a notion of preferring a son. But women's marriage-ideology was negatively related to educational level. (Korean J Human Ecology 1(1) : 27∼43, 1998)

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-155
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• 2023

Licorice is a perennial herb belonging to the legume family that mainly grows in northeastern China, Mongolia, Siberia, and other regions. It is used in traditional medicine in the form of dried roots in the East and the West. The main active component of licorice, glycyrrhizin, is known to produce mineralocorticoid effects when consumed chronically, which can lead to apparent mineralocorticoid excess syndrome. Herein, we present the case of a 72-year-old woman who was admitted to the emergency room with severe generalized weakness and difficulty keeping her neck upright, which had developed after daily consumption of licorice-infused water for the past 2 months. Blood tests revealed metabolic alkalosis and severe hypokalemia, and an electrocardiogram showed ventricular bigeminy. The patient was treated with daily potassium and spironolactone supplements, leading to a significant improvement in muscle strength after a week. One week later, the patient was discharged, showing rare ventricular premature contractions on electrocardiography, but with no specific complaints. Chronic licorice ingestion leading to hypokalemia and muscle weakness can be life-threatening, necessitating the discontinuation of the causative agent, close monitoring, and cautious supplementation of potassium and spironolactone as treatment.