• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.24 no.12
• /
• pp.1249-1259
• /
• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for osteoporosis screening. Materials and Methods: Eligible patients who had and had not undergone DXA screening were identified from among those aged 50 years or older at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. Age, sex, screening year (index year), and Charlson comorbidity index of the DXA and non-DXA groups were matched using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) for propensity score analysis. For cost-effectiveness analysis, a societal perspective, 1-year cycle length, 20-year time horizon, and discount rate of 2% per year for both effectiveness and costs were adopted in the incremental cost-effectiveness (ICER) model. Results: The outcome analysis included 10337 patients (female:male, 63.8%:36.2%) who were screened for osteoporosis in southern Taiwan between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2021. The DXA group had significantly better outcomes than the non-DXA group in terms of fragility fractures (7.6% vs. 12.5%, P < 0.001) and mortality (0.6% vs. 4.3%, P < 0.001). The DXA screening strategy gained an ICER of US$ -2794 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) relative to the non-DXA at the willingness-to-pay threshold of US$ 33004 (Taiwan's per capita gross domestic product). The ICER after stratifying by ages of 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and ≥ 80 years were US$ -17815, US$ -26862, US$ -28981, and US$ -34816 per QALY, respectively. Conclusion: Using DXA to screen adults aged 50 years or older for osteoporosis resulted in a reduced incidence of fragility fractures, lower mortality rate, and reduced total costs. Screening for osteoporosis is a cost-saving strategy and its effectiveness increases with age. However, caution is needed when generalizing these cost-effectiveness results to all older populations because the study population consisted mainly of women.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.358-374
• /
• 2008

This study examines whether and how ages of child affect accessibility experiences of women and men differently. Space-time accessibility measures based on Time-geographic framework with activity-travel diary datasets in Portland Metro, US were calculated using GIS-based geocomputation, and spatial-temporal patterns of accessibility of dual-earner couples by ages of their youngest child were compared. The results are as follows. (1) Although more women than men work part-time, which would render women more spatial-temporal autonomy, accessibility levels of women are not higher than men's. It implies that there exists another constraint placed on women which largely stems from gender inequality. (2) It is distinctively women with child under age 6 of which accessibility spaces are found to be restricted doser to home compared to men. Women with no child or with child aged over 6, however, show more or less similar spatial-temporal patterns of accessibility with men's which are quite unvarying regardless of parental status and their child age. Women's accessibility experiences characterized by spatial-temporal entrapment, thus, can be seen as problems associated with gender rather than sex. (3) Intensified spatial-temporal entrapment of women with young child are associated with the significant spatial pegs shaping their accessibility spaces, which are located much closer to home compared to men's: workplaces and child's daycare centers.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.37-54
• /
• 2010

In this work, we investigated the images of (unmarried) single women as seen from the viewpoint of married men and women. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-seven (married) men and women of ages from twenties to sixties. By carrying out a content-analysis on the interview results, we could extract three different thematic types of images on single women, which are (1) single women seeking some outlet of their passion instead of forming a family, (2) single women who are enjoying a life of unbound liberty, unlike married men and women, and (3) single women who have distinct personalities from married men and women. Each of these three thematic types could be further classified into narrower themes of specific images. From the first theme of single women who are looking for some outlet of their passion instead of forming a family, one could extract two specific image types in which the single women choose their work as the main outlet of their passion, or else they choose self-development. From the second theme of single women who are leading a life of unbound liberty, four different specific types were found, which are single women with sexual freedom, single women enjoying liberty from the bondage of a family, single women who can freely choose men to go out with, single women who have privileges to enjoy consumption and leisure life only for themselves. From the third theme of single women who have distinct personalities from married men and women, four different types of images were found, that are single women who want to avoid the hard reality of marriage life, single women who are selfish and self-assertive and leading a life that is self-centered or one that is centered around communities of only singles, single women who have secret feelings of emptiness and loneliness, and finally single women who can not find satisfaction in their life style. The images of married men and women on (unmarried) single women are based on the perception that 'those single women are different from us because they are not married'. That is, married men and women look upon the life of single women from the perspective of marriage life that they are experiencing.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.29-41
• /
• 2006

Various current events provide evidence that society is undergoing changes in perceptions of social relationships. Specifically, visual media in the form of advertisements can convey images which reflect society's values and concepts about role relationships. The purpose of this research was to examine ads in fashion magazines to determine what types of model roles and role relationships typically appear in fashion advertising which can mirror society's values. A content analysis was conducted of ads obtained from US Vogue and US GQ for the year 2002. Six kinds of roles/relationships were found: (1) Narcissism (representing self absorption), (2) sexually enticing opposite-sex relationships, (3) close/romantic same-sex relationships, (4) friend relationships, (5) family relationships, and (6) independent relationships. Of these, narcissism predominated, however, a small number of sexually provocative ads appeared as well as same-sex romantic relationships. Because sole (single) models were more typical, they also were examined to determine ways in which they relate to the audience. Characteristics examined included body presentation & pose, eye gaze, and facial expression. Direct eye gaze was the typical way to engage the audience. Gender differences were apparent: smiling was more typical of women, indifference for men. The symbolic meaning and values investigated from this research are the blurring of gender identity portrayed in homosexual imagery, family values, and the value of youth. The consistency of models' race in ads does not portray the diversity reflected in the demographic census.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.65 no.7
• /
• pp.86-100
• /
• 2015

This study is to investigate the relationships between heel height and macro-economic factors - recession and unemployment; and to analyze the time lags reflecting economic factors on heel height index using U.S. data. The life-history evolution theory was applied to propose the relationships studied. The data for the heel height measurements of women's shoes - pump style only - were obtained from US Vogue fashion editorial sections on spring and fall editions from 1950 to 2014. I divided the heel height by the length of the shoes in order to standardize the data. Total of 1581 samples were used, and heel height data were aggregated to create a yearly average. To explore the relationships between macro-economic factors and heel height, this study used OLS of Stata 13 program. The main findings show that unemployment rates influenced heel height for three years in a positive direction. Furthermore, the effects of unemployment rate from two years ago on the current heel height were very close to being on a significant level.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.10
• /
• pp.4237-4245
• /
• 2015

Breast cancer is a menacing cancer, primarily affecting women. Continuous research is going on for detecting breast cancer in the early stage as the possibility of cure in early stages is bright. There are two main objectives of this current study, first establish statistics for breast cancer and second to find methodologies which can be helpful in the early stage detection of the breast cancer based on previous studies. The breast cancer statistics for incidence and mortality of the UK, US, India and Egypt were considered for this study. The finding of this study proved that the overall mortality rates of the UK and US have been improved because of awareness, improved medical technology and screening, but in case of India and Egypt the condition is less positive because of lack of awareness. The methodological findings of this study suggest a combined framework based on data mining and evolutionary algorithms. It provides a strong bridge in improving the classification and detection accuracy of breast cancer data.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.91-103
• /
• 2008

Because of comfortable texture and easy treatment, more and more knit products has been required for leisure such as sports, traveling, hobbies, and various social activities. Therefore, the demand of knit is gradually increasing in the clothing industry. There are, however, several issues, which require solutions, and we must develop higher value-added products, which differentiate from those of developing countries allowing us to compete and win in the world market. The patterns on porcelain of underglaze iron, which had been popular from late-l5th century to mid-16th century, are diverse, unique, and traditional--so valuable patterns of our own. The computer hitting machine enables the designer to conceive new designs and produce samples of fabrics within a few minutes, which allows us to save time for mass production. Therefore, it is an essential tool for the knitting industry. After collecting, analyzing, and choosing various patterns on porcelains of underglaze iron, This study reflects the actual experience of hitting the fabrics with the patterns through the computer knitting machine which is also used to produce patterns after designing the new patterns through Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, which has several merits. This article compares and analyzes them for production, which uses the patterns that has been designed from the patterns on porcelains of underglaze iron.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.147-152
• /
• 2006

This study was conducted to define dietary patterns among 227 Korean American adults and 151 teenagers living in California using frequency of intake of major food groups and to examine associations of dietary patterns with selected demographic and acculturation variables. Three dietary patterns, 'healthful', 'Korean', and 'western', were identified using factor analysis. For both groups, 'healthful' pattern was characterized by high loading on milk/milk products, fruit, fruit juice, and bean/bean products. 'Korean' pattern had high loading on rice and kimchi. 'Western' pattern was characterized by high loading on meat/meat products, soda, and noodle/pasta. Among Korean American adults, women tended to have higher scores of 'healthful' pattern but lower scores of 'western' pattern, while there was no association of 'Korean' pattern with gender. The older adults were likely to have higher 'Korean' pattern score. Length of stay in the US and English levels were negatively associated with 'Korean' pattern. Korean American female adolescents had lower 'western' pattern scores than did male adolescents. Age was inversely associated with 'healthful' pattern in adolescents. The adolescents who had felt more proud of being a Korean descendant had higher scores on 'Korean' dietary pattern. The study findings support that dietary patterns are associated with acculturation variables such as length of residence in the US, English fluency, and particularly pride in ethnicity for adolescents. Further studies are needed to understand associations of dietary patterns and acculturation with health risk of ethnic groups.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.57 no.3
• /
• pp.495-513
• /
• 2011

Murdoch's novel, The Black Prince, is not, as most critics have suggested, an autobiographical novel. It is about the inner life or rather trauma of Bradley Pearson, an artist who repeatedly dreams about a shabby paper shop which used to be run by his "unsuccessful" parents. In this respect, Freudian concept of trauma is helpful since it can explain Bradley's present repetition of his past traumatic experience, while allowing us to understand the nature of his trauma which reveals itself not only through his repeated nightmares but also through the women who are represented as diverse versions of his mother, the origin of Bradley's trauma. Caruth's concept of traumatic awakening and traumatic survival is also instrumental in understanding the nature of the traumatic experience which Bradley undergoes in this novel. Induced by Loxias's address, Bradley makes a confession of "the sins," which makes possible his traumatic survival as well as traumatic awakening, which is transmitted not only to Loxias but also to us the readers. In this sense, the significance of Bradley's awakening is not confined to his past only, but becomes a matter of a social dimension. The meaning of Bradley's writing lies in this fact.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.16 no.7
• /
• pp.300-308
• /
• 2016

Research on OECD and Korea have shown that high-growth startups are the keys to job creation and that these companies are very important for economic growth. Given that the large-scale entry of women into the labor force accelerates economic growth and women have far lower levels of participation in growth-oriented entrepreneurship than men do, accelerating female entrepreneurship could have positive effects on the Korean economy. This paper uses data from several databases to do a comparison analysis between women's and men's start-ups to explore the factors that explain the lag in building high-growth firms among women. Women startups make up nearly 34% of startups(defined as less than 7 years of establishment), but only 6% of high-growth startups. Women rarely own large businesses, reflecting their low levels of initial capital and outside financing. Regardless of gender, entrepreneurs face many of the same challenges in starting businesses, but this study shows three primary factors for female entrepreneurs that lead to a less high-growth startup: a greater financing gap than for men(this gap is more apparent for high-growth firms), a lack of ideas, knowledge, and experience(related to the lack of mentorship), and lastly the difficulty maintaining a work-life balance. The findings are very similar with those found in studie's in the US(financing gap, work-life balance, and lack of mentorship). Further studies are required to identify more specific factors behind the gender gap in ideas, knowledge, and experience.