• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.329-352
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• 2009

This study examined life in old age and images of the aged perceived by middle-aged and old-aged generations through indepth interviews with 30 persons aged 40s through 80s residing in three areas (city or county) in capital region in Korea to use it as basic information in planning social welfare policy and reorganizing social services in response to population aging in capital region in Korea. In terms of economic life of the middle-aged and olde-aged generations perceived older people's opportunities for work were rarely given to the aged due to ageism and negative stereotypes of aging and the aged, and the aged tended to regard themselves less able or unable to work. In terms of social life of the aged both middle-aged and old-aged generations perceived that the frequency of social participation was low, and the daily life of the aged was found mostly aimless, unorganized and unplanned. In terms of psycho-social life of the aged both generations still felt that they were not alienated from the family, neighbors, and the society. In terms of social welfare services both generations thought the aged needed basic services such as income maintenance, health care, housing services, and particularly they felt lack of social services. The old-aged generation was willing to travel to the distance taking more than one hour to receive social services that they would need. Both the middle-aged and the old-aged agreed upon the necessity of preparation for old age and the benefits of earlier preparation, however, they said that they could not prepare for their old age due to lack of social programs to help preparation for old age and due to spending for rearing and education of their children. In terms of perceived life in old age both middle-aged and old-aged generations tended to be slightly positive, but the degree of positiveness differed between respondents from urban area and those from rural area regardless of generations. Images of the aged were perceived to be overwhelmingly negative while positive images were very few in number regardless of generations. This finding may suggests that negative stereotypes on aging and the aged are also prevalent in Korean society like in Western societies. Based on findings of this study some implications for social policies in response to population aging in capital region were suggested.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.86-97
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• 1997

Background : It is a primary goal for hospital personnel to improve the quality of patient care. In Korea the concept of quality assurance has been spread over the last five years. Many hospitals have implemented quality assurance programs that fit their own philosophy and needs. As a result, they are supposed to have different experiences and attitudes toward quality assurance. To investigate their diversity will be helpful to have a direction to the future and to enhance the quality assurance activities in Korean hospitals. Objectives : The aim of this study is to obtain information about hospital personnel's attitude and opinion toward quality assurance in hospitals. Methods : A questionnaire was developed which consisted of five parts; the general characteristics of respondent, the concepts of quality assurance, need for quality assurance program, current status of quality improvement activities, and participation in programs. Using the registry of Korean hospitals, 102 hospitals with more than 400 beds were selected. Questionnaires were mailed to hospital staffs of each hospital; top managers, clinical department heads, registered nurses, medical recorders, and administrators. Results : Of 2038 questionnaires sent, 877 were returned, giving response rate of 44%. Most respondents(70%) regarded quality assurance as efforts to provide patient with care in highest quality and to improve effectiveness or resource utilization. Ninety-nine percent of respondents agreed to need for quality assurance in their hospitals. There were current quality improvement programs implemented in the department of 553 respondents(62%), and most of the(85%) have participated in at least one program. Lack of motivation was pointed out as a barrier to implement the programs. Conclusion : Although most respondents have known of the concept and need for quality assurance, this study suggests that education and motivation of hospital personnel be needed to activate the quality assurance programs in hospitals.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.229-244
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• 2014

Background: Antibiotic skin test(AST) is very useful for the diagnosis of drug allergies to prevent immediate allergic reactions. Although it is a safe and widespread method, it is performed very diversely by doctors and nurses without consistency and it also differs from countries and hospitals. This study aims to evaluate the current practice of AST by nurses in Korea and to compare it to the general guidelines. Methods: During January 1, 2013 to May 20, 2013, the study was conducted as questionnaires and case-based survey. The questionnaires were given to the nurses who were randomly selected in various University Hospitals (University Hospitals N=276, and Medical center N=19). The case-based surveys were given to the nurses who were conducting AST at various wards of a University Hospital (N=130). The analysis and evaluations of the responses were carried out. Results: The response rate for the questionnaires was 97.6% and 130 cases of the actual case-based surveys were collected. There were clear differences between the survey results and the general guidelines, such as the method of skin test (skin prick test was not conducted), the method of patient selection for AST, test drugs, concentration, volume and interpretation of AST. AST conducted by nurses was highly variable and inconsistent, even among nurses who worked in the same wards and hospitals. Manufactured standard concentration antibiotic solution of AST showed consistency of concentration to a certain degree. Conclusion: Although the general guidelines have been published by several countries including Korea, these are not a great help to nurses as they lack details for conducting AST, practical consideration for nurses in the clinical setting, propagation and education. Standardized guideline for nurses should be published and it should be a safe, clear, comfortable and easily accessible protocol. Futhermore, additional antibiotic solutions to standardize skin test should be developed and manufactured. Lastly, it would be the pharmacists role to compare their hospitals antibiotic skin test methods with the standard guidelines and develop a protocol within the hospital for patients' safety, and to strive to consistently implement it.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.664-675
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate the cross-sectional associations between dietary factors and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in 12,755 subjects (males 5,146, females 7,609) aged 19 years or above using data from the 4th (2007-2009) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The prevalence of MetS in Korean adults was 23.6% (males 26.1%, females 20.9%) with the criteria for modified National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. While males had a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and high blood pressure than females, the prevalence of low HDL-cholesterol level was higher in females than in males. Among dietary guidelines, the response of 'yes' for asking practice of 'avoiding salty foods', and 'eating moderately and increasing physical activity for healthy weight' were significantly associated with the decreased risk of MetS in both males and in females. Especially, the risk of MetS was significantly lower in the subjects that responded the practice of all items of Korean Dietary Guidelines. Significantly negative associations with MetS were also found in the responding for practice of 'limiting consumption of alcoholic beverages' in males, and taking dietary supplements in females. Skipping breakfast was positively associated with the risk of MetS. In conclusion, dietary behaviors such as having breakfast, practice of dietary guidelines, and food consumption in moderation could modify the prevalence of MetS, and our findings could be useful for establishing guidelines for preventing MetS.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.289-306
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• 1998

For continuous development of professional nursing to the powerful professional organization, it is essential that the public understand and help nursing. This research was done to identify the image of nurses and factors that determine that image. The study subjects were 97 admitted patients 95 family members of patients who were admitted to a university hospital and a general hospital in Seoul and 164 parents of stutents in elemantary, middle, high schools in Seoul. The total numbers of subjects was 356. The researcher collected the data from April 13.1998 to April 20.1998. The Research tool was developed by the researcher following a literature review. Cronbach ${\alpha}$ for the tool of the image of nurses was 0.9397 and Cronbach a for the tool for determinants of the image was 0.8764. The obtained data were processed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) and the results are as follows : 1. The mean score for the image of nurses was 90.40${\pm}$15.15(range 47${\sim}$138) indicating a positive response. 2. Analysis of the image of nurses : Four factors were identified traditional. social. professional and personal image. The mean score for traditional image was 3.27. the second highest score. and for social image. 2.95. the lowest score. The mean score for professional image score was 3.48. the highest score. and for personal image, 3.20. a lower score. 3. The image of nurses according to respondents There were significant differences for traditional. social, professional. personal factors between subject groups. A more positive responses was found in the patients and patient' families as a compared to the students' parents. 4. Image of nurses related general characteristics : There was a significant difference for age and school graduation. More negative responses were found in the 31${\sim}$40 years old age group and in the higher educated group. 5. Image of nurses related to experience of nurses The respondents showed a more negative image when their experience related to nurses through the mass media, as a compared to the experiences of having talked with patient who had been admitted to hospital. For the social image factor. a more negative attitude was revealed for those who had the experience of patient who had been admitted to hospital as compared to other factors. 6. Determinants of image of nurses : There were three factors that were named subjective. administrative and media . The mean for the subjective factor score was 3.85. the highest score of the three factors. The mean for the administrative factor score was 3.53. And the mean for the media factor score was 3.27. 7. Determinants of image of nurses according to respondents group : There were no significant differences(F= 1.95, P= .14) Consequently the result showed a low social image of nurses. So. nurses must work to improve the social image of nurses through scientific approaches and by monitoring the mass media for correct descriptions of nurses. Also. it is necessary that excellent education for service and politeness be continually provided in order to positively effect the personal image field. It is also importent to raise the expectations of the recipients of nursing care by having a strategy for the determinants of the image of nurses that allows nurses to personnally develop professionally.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.376-387
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• 2020

Objectives: This study is aimed at offering basic data for making plans for offensive odor management after researching offensive odor occurrence and characteristics in Gangwon Province. Methods: The data used in the study is based on offensive odor data analyzed by the Gangwon Institute of Health and Environment from 2012 to 2019. The data were reclassified by year, month, facility, and region to identify characteristics of occurrence. Finally, a distribution map of offensive odors was created using ArcGIS. Results: The highest monthly frequency of offensive odor occurrence falls in June, August, and July, and the summer season and third quarter are the highest. According to the latest eight-year data for Gangwon Province, complaints about offensive odors in county areas are more frequent than those in city areas. There are many offensive odor complaints in Wonju, Cheorwon, and Heongsung. The main offensive odor emission facilities are livestock and waste treatment (recycling) facilities. Complaints about offensive odors are relatively lower the Yeongdong area than Yeongseo area, which is considered to be the result of characteristics of land-sea breezes and geographical factors. Offensive odors from livestock facilities count for an average of 53.9% of the total, and the inadequacy rate of livestock facilities averages 36.9%. Conclusions: To maintain a clean environment in Gangwon Province, it is strongly recommended that an offensive odor reduction plan for livestock facilities be established. Areas with a high density of offensive odor occurrence should be identified and systematically managed with short- and mid-term measures. If offensive odors is managed using GIS, it is possible to identify the characteristics of occurrence by time and space and also by facility. In addition, since systematic data management is possible, it is believed that a rapid response to offensive odors, prediction of their spread, and efficient management are possible.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.376-387
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• 2018

Among a variety of environmental stresses heat, cold, chilling, high salt, drought, and so on exposed to plants, drought stress has been reported as a crucial factor to adversely affect the growth and productivity of plants. Therefore, to understand the mechanism for the drought stress signal transduction pathway in plants is more helpful to develop useful crops that display the enhanced tolerance against drought stress, and to expand crop growing areas. The signal transduction pathway for the drought stress in plants is largely categorized into two types; ABA-dependent pathway and ABA-independent pathway. It has been reported that two transcription factors, AREB/ABF and DREB2, play predominant roles in ABA-dependent and ABA-independent pathways, respectively. In addition to transcriptional regulation mediated by AREB/ABF and DREB2 transcription factors, post-translational modification (such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination) and epigenetic control are importantly involved in the signal transduction for drought stress. In this paper, we review current understanding of signal transduction pathway on drought stress in plants, especially focusing on the biological roles of a variety of signaling components related to drought stress response. Further understanding the mechanism of drought resistance in plants through this review will be useful to establish theoretical basis for developing drought tolerant crops in the future.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2017

One of the most reliable and simplest tools for structural vibration control in civil engineering is Tuned Mass Damper, TMD. Provided that the frequency and damping parameters of these dampers are tuned appropriately, they can reduce the vibrations of the structure through their generated inertia forces, as they vibrate continuously. To achieve the optimal parameters of TMD, many different methods have been provided so far. In old approaches, some formulas have been offered based on simplifying models and their applied loadings while novel procedures need to model structures completely in order to obtain TMD parameters. In this paper, with regard to the nonlinear decision-making of fuzzy systems and their enough ability to cope with different unreliability, a method is proposed. Furthermore, by taking advantage of both old and new methods a fuzzy system is designed to be operational and reduce uncertainties related to models and applied loads. To design fuzzy system, it is required to gain data on structures and optimum parameters of TMDs corresponding to these structures. This information is obtained through modeling MDOF systems with various numbers of stories subjected to far and near field earthquakes. The design of the fuzzy systems is performed by three methods: look-up table, the data space grid-partitioning, and clustering. After that, rule weights of Mamdani fuzzy system using the look-up table are optimized through genetic algorithm and rule weights of Sugeno fuzzy system designed based on grid-partitioning methods and clustering data are optimized through ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System). By comparing these methods, it is observed that the fuzzy system technique based on data clustering has an efficient function to predict the optimal parameters of TMDs. In this method, average of errors in estimating frequency and damping ratio is close to zero. Also, standard deviation of frequency errors and damping ratio errors decrease by 78% and 4.1% respectively in comparison with the look-up table method. While, this reductions compared to the grid partitioning method are 2.2% and 1.8% respectively. In this research, TMD parameters are estimated for a 15-degree of freedom structure based on designed fuzzy system and are compared to parameters obtained from the genetic algorithm and empirical relations. The progress up to 1.9% and 2% under far-field earthquakes and 0.4% and 2.2% under near-field earthquakes is obtained in decreasing respectively roof maximum displacement and its RMS ratio through fuzzy system method compared to those obtained by empirical relations.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.32-48
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• 2006

The purposes of this study can divided into three parts: First, to investigate high school science teachers' understanding concerning geologic time; second, to analyze contents related to geologic time in the secondary school science textbooks and teachers' guidebooks; and third, to compare the response type of science teachers using the results of the contents. Forty high school science teachers in the Chungbuk province are chosen to answer to the questionnaire. Many teachers (50%) think that the age of Earth is simply measured by radioisotope. However, most of them do not know the measuring method in detail. The over 50% of the teachers think that the uniformitarianism, law of superposition, law of faunal succession law of unconformity, and law of intrusion are the great five laws of historical geology. Many part of the contents related to geologic time in the textbooks and guidebooks are incorrect and described distinctly from each other. Such content includes the age of Earth, age of the oldest rock in Earth, definition and range of geologic time, measuring method of the Earth's age, and law of historical geology. Many of the science teachers do not have a complete understanding of the contents related to geologic time. This study suggests that the reason lies heavily on the contents described in the textbooks and guidebooks. Therefore, it is necessary to review and revise the contents related to geologic time in the textbooks and guidebooks.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.238-245
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• 2015

Background: Pharmacy schools newly adopted a 6-year program strengthening clinical knowledge since 2011 in Korea. The clinical training under the guidance of preceptors at hospital sites is a requisite for pharmacy students during the last year of undergraduate course. It has been rarely studied on the hospital pharmacists' perspective regarding being a preceptor or teaching pharmacy students. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the hospital pharmacists' intention toward student training and to identify the relevant factors among the individual pharmacists' characteristics and working environment within the theoretical frame of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Method: A mail-survey was conducted for pharmacists working in tertiary hospitals in Seoul and Incheon. The survey questionnaire consisting of 131 questions with a 5-likert scale was developed for investigating pharmacists' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and the intention to teach pharmacy students as well as other demographic variables. To estimate the construct validity of components, factor analysis was conducted and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to estimate the reliability of the observed variables. Statistical analyses of one-way variance analysis and multiple regression analysis were performed using SPSS 18.0. Results: The survey response rate was 53% (116/210) and the three constructs of attitude (r = .519), subjective norm (r = .233) and perceived control (r = .392) have appropriate correlations with the intention, proving the appropriateness of using the TPB model. Pharmacists working in inpatient (mean = 3.45) and outpatient clinics (mean = 3.34) generally showed positive intention for teaching. The attitude (${\beta}=.432$, p < 0.01) and perceived control (${\beta}=.270$, p < .01) constructs were significant predictors of the intention. Both age (r = 0.246, p = 0.017) and length of career (r = 0.310, p = 0.002) were positively related with the perceived control. Conclusion: Hospital pharmacists showed generally positive intention to provide student training in spite of the concern on their limited perceived behavioral control. Future research to find the actual barriers pharmacists faced in educating students need to be conducted.