• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.157-173
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• 2021

In the transition to a multipolar international system, the literature has focused on great power competition while little attention has been given to the strategic possibilities of smaller states. However, as a result of globalization, states are so closely interconnected that the primary strategies of even major powers are not to achieve zero-sum solutions but to create asymmetric dependency through which they can influence the behavior of other states and non-state actors. States are assisted in this effort by a variety of tools, including setting up institutions, direct economic influence and through building different forms of infrastructure connectivity networks. By discussing asymmetric dependency situations from the perspective of the great powers, the literature presents smaller states primarily as passive actors, paralyzed by their dependence on great powers. Our paper argues that interdependence allows smaller states to effectively influence larger actors and examines strategies from which smaller states can choose in order to influence the behavior of larger states. Despite an extremely asymmetric relationship between Myanmar and China, actors in Myanmar have sought to influence China's Myanmar policy. We examine a case study of the Myitsone Dam, including Myanmar's strategic aims, chosen strategy and limitations in maneuvering space. Semi-structured interviews with local decision-makers and stakeholders are conducted in order to portray the full picture. Our study concludes that further research on the influencing strategies of small states in response to asymmetric dependence can contribute to a better understanding of the interdependence of states.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was done to analyze nursing assessment and nursing care for pain in the electronic nursing records for the elderly patients with abdominal pain visiting the Emergency Medical Center. Methods: This study is a descriptive study based on nursing records from January to December 2015. A total of 1155 records for elderly patients with abdominal pain were gathered. Results: The mean age of elderly patients whose records were analyzed was 75.2 years. Analysis of nursing records regarding pain management showed that semi-urgent severity (93.7%), direct emergency room visits (58%), and 6.01 hours of emergency room stay (6.01 hours)were the most frequently documented characteristics of the elderly patients with pain complaints. Recording time of nursing assessment for abdominal patients was 1.01 hour; the average pain intensity was 3.97. The mostly used nursing intervention for abdominal pain was medication (65.1%). There was no record of non-pharmacological pain nursing interventions. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that improving knowledge and nursing practice for pain management is much of necessity. In particular, development of the non-pharmacological nursing interventions for pain is needed. Further research is also imperative to develop and evaluate record systems for pain management that can be used in the emergency room.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.15-31
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to classify male consumers and examine their clothing consumption values and the perceived importance of store attributes. Using Internet-based research service, survey data were collected from 651 male consumers aged between 20 and 40. The questionnaire included questions regarding respondents' preference of different store types, clothing consumption values, perceived importance of store attributes. According to the results, the respondents were categorized into 5 distinct groups based on their store type preferences: discount store preference group, multi-channel preference group, store indifferent group, brand store preference group, online store preference group. Multi-channel preference group was the largest among these groups. The five store type preference groups statistically varied in clothing consumption values, i.e., epistemic value, brand/conspicuous value, and economic value. The groups also differed in the importance they placed in the store attributes of: service and product quality, promotion, fashionability, salesperson and store environment, store atmosphere, convenience, and website image. The results of this study have direct implication for retail marketers of fashion companies who are targeting male consumers. Marketers can apply findings of this study in implementing retail strategies for different types of stores.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.171-180
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• 2021

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of credit rationing on the amount of trade credit used by farmers in Vietnam. This study employs a survey data collected through direct interviews with heads of 1,065 rice households randomly selected out of provinces and city in the Mekong River Delta (MRD). In each province or city, the village with the largest area of land devoted to rice production from the district with the largest area of land devoted to rice production was picked up for survey. In each village, 200 rice farmers were randomly chosen for interview. Based on a probit model and a semi-parametric propensity score matching (PSM) estimator while controlling socio-demographic traits of rice farmers, the estimated results show that non-credit rationed farmers use less trade credit to finance production compared to their credit rationed counterparts. Moreover, the amount of trade credit used by farmers decreases as the degree of credit rationing drops. This paper provides evidence of the substitutive relationship between bank credit and trade credit. It also implicitly suggests that banks can drive trade creditors out of the market if they manage to solve the problem of information asymmetry and transaction cost.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1361-1369
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• 2021

Recent technological advancements have had a substantial impact on consumer buying behavior. This research aims to determine the factors affecting consumer behavior related to the adoption of self-service technologies (SSTs). The intended findings of this study are expected to contribute to understanding consumer behavior towards the adoption of SSTs taking into account the logic of two main theories in this regard: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the assumptions of the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). This research follows a triangulation approach. Consequently, a number of semi structured interviews were conducted with experts and executive directors from selected SSTs providers in Jordan. In addition, the convenience sampling technique was employed focusing on current (or) previous users of SSTs in the public and private sectors in Jordan using a self-administrative questionnaire (66% response rate). The results confirmed the influence (direct and indirect) of previous experience and personal initiatives and characteristics on consumer intention to use SSTs. In addition, the results indicated the important role of the mediator variables namely: perceived ease of use (EOU), perceived risk (PR), and perceived usefulness (PU) on consumer attitude towards SSTs which in turn will positively affect consumer intention to use SSTs.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.21-33
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• 2023

Purpose: To study, analyze, and investigate how to improve the service quality distribution and perceived value of passenger loyalty in low-cost airlines in Thailand. Research Design, data, and methodology: The data was collected from low-cost airline passengers who had used low-cost airlines within Thailand more than twice in the last 12 months. In total, 632 questionnaires were received, representing 97.32%, and in-depth interviews were done using the semi-structured technique. The key informants were either executives or representatives from 4 low-cost airlines operating in Thailand. We utilized structural modeling techniques to examine the data relevant to the investigation. Results: The results show that low-cost airline passengers in Thailand have strong opinions about the perceived value of the passenger loyalty of low-cost airlines within this sector of the Thai air travel industry. The variables were sorted in order of importance and included passenger loyalty, satisfaction, trust, perceived value, and service quality distribution. The relationship between the service quality distribution variables and the significance in relation to passenger loyalty according to low-cost airlines in Thailand showed that service quality distribution had a positive effect on perceived value and that passenger satisfaction has a direct positive effect on passenger loyalty. Conclusions: The 8 QPSTL strategy is successful in terms of service quality distribution and passenger satisfaction, therefore it is an important aspect of low-cost airlines in Thailand.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2024

Objectives: Children with disabilities may exhibit a multitude of symptoms, and treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach for a satisfactory outcome. Lack of awareness among physicians, lack of referral, and lack of inter-sectoral coordination have hindered paediatric practice in Tamil Nadu, a state in India with a striking childhood disability rate that warrants a timely interdisciplinary approach. However, the perspectives of paediatricians on paediatric physiotherapy are unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the perspectives of practicing paediatric physicians in Chennai on the role of physiotherapy in paediatrics. Methods: For an in-depth exploration, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted in person with 10 paediatricians. Audio from the sessions was recorded and transcribed, and data saturation was achieved through iterative analysis. Results: A grounded theory analysis of the results yielded 5 domains under which the perspectives and expectations of the physicians were described, along with the barriers experienced by patients' parents as explained by their paediatrician. The responses highlighted deficits in awareness, structural support, accessibility and direct communication between physicians and physiotherapists. Conclusions: Paediatric physicians have different opinions, and some ignorance persists concerning paediatric physiotherapy. This study warrants a proper structure of the paediatric rehabilitation unit and regular interdisciplinary meetings and focus group discussions to increase access for parents and improve patient outcomes.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.59-71
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• 2023

Objectives: The new educational system emphasizes acquisition of clinical competency by the time of graduation from Korean medicine colleges that allow Korean medicine doctors to immediately perform clinical tasks. This study investigated awareness of competency-based education in Korean medicine hospital residents who must simultaneously undergo training and assist medical students in clinical practice. Methods: This was a qualitative research that was conducted using focus group interviews (FGIs) to investigate the awareness of demands for improvement in competency-based Korean medicine education in Korean medicine hospital. To apply the principles and procedures of FGIs, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed. Data analysis was conducted using the five steps of framework analysis. Results: According to contents analysis, first competency-based education that reflects actual clinical practice tasks is needed. Second, sufficient basic skill mastery education must be reinforced. Third, an intermediate curriculum that mediates clinical practice and basic education is needed. Fourth, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination and Clinical Performance Examination must be expanded to prepare for the Korean medicine doctor practical test. Conclusions: Korean medicine residents reported the gap between clinical practice and use of knowledge and skills acquired in the curriculum while acting as direct observers and educations of clinical clerkship in hospitals. Based on this exploratory study it is necessary to conduct research on the educational competency of Korean medicine residents who play an important role as educational leaders in Korean medicine clinical practice training.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.193-215
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• 2016

In recent years, the proliferation of diverse social networking services has led users to use many mediums simultaneously depending on their individual purpose and taste. Besides, while collecting information about particular themes, they usually employ various mediums such as social networking services, Internet news, and blogs. However, in terms of management, each document circulated through diverse mediums is placed in different categories on the basis of each source's policy and standards, hindering any attempt to conduct research on a specific category across different kinds of sources. For example, documents containing content on "Application for a foreign travel" can be classified into "Information Technology," "Travel," or "Life and Culture" according to the peculiar standard of each source. Likewise, with different viewpoints of definition and levels of specification for each source, similar categories can be named and structured differently in accordance with each source. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes a plan for conducting category mapping between different sources with various mediums while maintaining the existing category system of the medium as it is. Specifically, by re-classifying individual documents from the viewpoint of diverse sources and storing the result of such a classification as extra attributes, this study proposes a logical layer by which users can search for a specific document from multiple heterogeneous sources with different category names as if they belong to the same source. Besides, by collecting 6,000 articles of news from two Internet news portals, experiments were conducted to compare accuracy among sources, supervised learning and semi-supervised learning, and homogeneous and heterogeneous learning data. It is particularly interesting that in some categories, classifying accuracy of semi-supervised learning using heterogeneous learning data proved to be higher than that of supervised learning and semi-supervised learning, which used homogeneous learning data. This study has the following significances. First, it proposes a logical plan for establishing a system to integrate and manage all the heterogeneous mediums in different classifying systems while maintaining the existing physical classifying system as it is. This study's results particularly exhibit very different classifying accuracies in accordance with the heterogeneity of learning data; this is expected to spur further studies for enhancing the performance of the proposed methodology through the analysis of characteristics by category. In addition, with an increasing demand for search, collection, and analysis of documents from diverse mediums, the scope of the Internet search is not restricted to one medium. However, since each medium has a different categorical structure and name, it is actually very difficult to search for a specific category insofar as encompassing heterogeneous mediums. The proposed methodology is also significant for presenting a plan that enquires into all the documents regarding the standards of the relevant sites' categorical classification when the users select the desired site, while maintaining the existing site's characteristics and structure as it is. This study's proposed methodology needs to be further complemented in the following aspects. First, though only an indirect comparison and evaluation was made on the performance of this proposed methodology, future studies would need to conduct more direct tests on its accuracy. That is, after re-classifying documents of the object source on the basis of the categorical system of the existing source, the extent to which the classification was accurate needs to be verified through evaluation by actual users. In addition, the accuracy in classification needs to be increased by making the methodology more sophisticated. Furthermore, an understanding is required that the characteristics of some categories that showed a rather higher classifying accuracy of heterogeneous semi-supervised learning than that of supervised learning might assist in obtaining heterogeneous documents from diverse mediums and seeking plans that enhance the accuracy of document classification through its usage.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.144-152
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• 1995

The Jangsan Quartzite of the Joseon Supergroup and the foliated granite (so-called granitlc gneiss of presumed Precambrian age) of the Yeongnam massif are in direct contact at Cheondong-ri area, 6 km @SE of Danyang. sllthough it has been thought traditionally that the Jangsan Quartzite overlies unconformably the f&ted granite, it is difficult to interpret the contact as an unconformity smce the basal conglomerate in- the lower part of the Jangsan Quartzite does not have any clast of the foliated granite, Rather, recent structural studies of this area indlcate that the contact is a ductile shear zone. However, the sense and age of the shear movement are still problematic. Our mesoscopic and microscopic studies of &tre Cheondong-11 semi-brittle shear zone involving foliated cataclasite and phyllonite, which is a pa& of the Ogdong fault, indlcate a top-to-the northeast shearing, i.e., dextral strike slip. We also performed Pb-Pb dating for the age-unknown foliated granite, since the age of deformed granite ccarr emtrain the maximum age of deformation. The whole rock and feldspar Pb isotape data for the foliated granite and a micaceous xenolith define an isoc chron age of $2.16{\pm}0.15$ Ga ($2{\sigma}$;MSWD=4.4) which is interpreted as the emplacement age of the granite. This early Proterozoic age agrees with those of Precambrian igneous activity In the Yeongnam massif reported previously. The obtaiPrfid gge confirms the traditional idea about the age of the foliated granite and indicates that other methd(s) should be employed to constrain the age of the shear movement.