• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.61
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• pp.93-136
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to find specific practice methods of single parents self-help groups in community welfare centers. A participatory action research was conducted to achieve the purpose. Six social workers and three researchers participated in the study who shared the problem of lack of specific practice methods even though a self-help group was useful for self-reliance and empowerment of low-income single-parents. Various activities such as reading articles, analysis of each self-help group, case studies, and learning facilitation methods were conducted during 10 meetings. At the same time, peer supervision proceeded at each meeting. The progress of each group was shared, the application of practice methods and plans were discussed, and applying discussed methods to group practice and reviewing the process and outcomes of the practice were repeated in the peer supervison. As a result, the following positive changes appeared: First, the goals and vision of each group became clearer. Second, initiative of the members was promoted. Third, intimacy, mutual cooperation, the attatchment to the group were strengthened. A qualitative analysis was also conducted on the content discussed. As a result, 17 practice methods were derived in four themes such as initiative/ empowerment, cohesion, leadership, and destandardization. Practice issues concerning single parents self-help groups in community welfare centers were discussed based on the results.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.324-339
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• 2013

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of cyber communities composed of migrant workers from communities without propinquity in Korea. Its methods are both qualitative and quantitative. It further seeks to discover the relationship between the social capital formed and reproduced within these cyber communities and participants' cultural adaptation to Korean society. The study revealed that ethnic and non-ethnic communities differed in terms of strength of cohesion, space constraints, and links with the outside world. The former showed characteristics of a localized community type. The main motivations for migrant workers' participation in the ethnic cyber community were communication and friendship rather than cooperation and sharing among members. They usually used cyber communication media to communicate with one another. Conversely, the latter showed characteristics of an integrative type. Despite the difficulties in applying for membership and information provided in Korean, a high percentage of migrant workers participated in the community to obtain crucial information. The results did not show a significant correlation between social capital and migrant workers' traits within the cyber community, while a strong correlation emerged among four factors of social capital: faith, norms, networking, and political participation. The study showed that social capital in the cyber community was in direct proportion to an integrative type of cultural adaptation to Korean society. In particular, there was a strong connection between the cultural adaptation exhibited by members of the migrant subculture and their participation in discussions on political issues and human rights, with some migrants even functioning as agents of social change as participants in citizens' movements. The findings suggest that the cyber community facilitates the migrant subculture's communication with and integration into the indigenous Korean culture. Migrant workers' participation in the cyber community is therefore validated as an instrumental practice for members of this subculture to adapt to Korean society.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.351-381
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• 2011

When EU was formed in the late 1950s, the income gap or economic development between member nations was similar so that the interest in execution of regional policies at the level of union was relatively small, with just Italy showing some interest relatively. In 1975, however, ERDF was founded, and nations such as Spain or Portugal that were falling behind in economic development compared to existing member nations joined EU, and the regional policy of the union gradually gained attention. Accordingly, EU gradually increased the budget size for regional policies so that through 1980s and 1990s, the budget size grew over 4 times. In 2004 and 2007, 12 Central-Eastern European nations with great gaps in income level with existing member countries joined EU all at once, so that the resolution of regional inequality among member nations arose as an important assignment in the development of the community. Accordingly, EU has modified the overall goals and basis of regional policies to deal with this matter. From such perspectives, this report examined the development process of regional policies executed by EU for the last 50 years. In the conclusion parts, the issues that appeared in the process of executing EU's regional policies were also examined at the same time.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.480-493
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• 2021

Since the generalized Hoek-Brown criterion (GHB) provides an efficient way of identifying its strength parameter values with the consideration of in-situ rock mass condition via Geological Strength Index (GSI), this criterion is recognized as one of the standard rock mass failure criteria in rock mechanics community. However, the nonlinear form of the GHB criterion makes its mathematical treatment inconvenient and limits the scope of its application. As an effort to overcome this disadvantage of the GHB criterion, the explicit approximate analytical equations for the minimum principal stress, which is associated with the maximum principal stress at failure, are formulated based on the Taylor polynomial approximation of the original GHB criterion. The accuracy of the derived approximate formula for the minimum principal stress is verified by comparing the resulting approximate minimum principal stress with the numerically calculated exact values. To provide an application example of the approximate formulation, the equivalent friction angle and cohesion for the expected plastic zone around a circular tunnel in a GHB rock mass are calculated by incorporating the formula for the approximate minimum principal stress. It is found that the simultaneous consideration of the values of mi, GSI and far-field stress is important for the accurate calculation of equivalent Mohr-Coulomb parameter values of the plastic zone.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.150-155
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• 2014

This study explored the police organizational health diagnosis index development. and the ultimate purpose of this study is to suggest the ways for the police to develop the police organizational health diagnosis index and then to raise the organizational effectiveness. A police organizational health diagnosis index comprises three categories; Organizational Behavior, Group Behavior, and Individual Behavior. A Organizational Behavior questionnaire comprises five categories; Organizational Structure, Organizational atmosphere, Environmental Compliance, Transformational Leadership, and Communication & decision-making. Secondly, A Group Behavior questionnaire comprises five categories; How to manage the personnel, Conflict management style, Group cohesion, Vision and Strategy, and Community-oriented & shared responsibility. Thirdly, An Individual Behavior questionnaire comprises five categories; Job Motivation, work-related factors, Trust, Vitality, and Organizational Cynicism. This author expects this study to contribute to the development of an adequate measuring instrument of the police organizational health diagnosis index.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.671-679
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• 2016

We investigated subgroups within a global communication network to improve the empirical understanding of global communication phenomenon from the social network perspective. We collected global communication data from Twitter and constructed a global communication network. We also added countries' geographic and economic properties used in the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. We analyzed the subgroups' structure within the global communication network using centrality analysis, core-peripheral analysis, and cohesion analysis. We also detected communities embedded within the global communication network with modularity-based community detection methods. We found that the core countries occupy central positions in the global communication network and there is a hierarchical communication structure among the economic subgroups. Futhermore, we discovered some communities within the global communication network and found that countries within the communities can have homophily such as economy, geography, history, culture, and religion.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2018

Objectives: To identify the associations of characteristics of the neighborhood environment with substance abuse among clients receiving treatment for drug abuse in Thailand. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 1128 drug addicts from 28 neighborhoods who were receiving treatment at all 7 compulsory drug detention centers in Thailand. A trained interviewer conducted structured interviews with the subjects about substance use and the perceived neighborhood environment in their community. A multilevel logistic regression model was applied to estimate the effects of the neighborhood environment on substance use. Results: The majority of participants, 53.8% only used methamphetamine pills, 31.3% used other illicit drugs as well as methamphetamine pills, and 14.9% used an illicit drug other than methamphetamine. Three neighborhood characteristics were associated with substance use. A 1-unit increase in the perceived neighborhood cohesion score was associated with a 15% reduction in methamphetamine pill use and an 11% reduction of the use of both methamphetamine pills and another illicit drug. Conversely, a 1-unit increase in perceived neighborhood crime predicted 19 and 14% increases in the use of methamphetamine pills and the use of both methamphetamine pills and another illicit drug, respectively. In addition, a 1-unit increase in the scores for stigma surrounding addiction corresponded to a 25% increase of the use of methamphetamine pills and a 12% increase in the use of both methamphetamine pills and another illicit drug. Conclusions: Substance use among drug addicts was influenced by characteristics of the neighborhood environment. Therefore, prevention and intervention strategies should be designed based on a consideration of the impact of neighborhood context on substance use behaviors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4971-4975
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• 2015

Background: Several methods have been presented for the evaluation of the endometrium in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding, which include minimal invasive and invasive approaches such as diagnostic curettage or endometrial biopsy by Pipelle. Many studies have been performed in order to compare two methods; diagnostic curettage and outpatient endometrial biopsy. This investigation compared sampling adequacy, endometrial histopathology, failure rates, duration and costs between diagnostic curettage in a hospital and endometrial biopsy. Materials and Methods: This single blind clinical trial was performed on 130 patients older than 35 years who was referred to Amir training hospital in 2013 for elective diagnostic curettage because of abnormal uterine bleeding. For all patients eligible for the study, an endometrial sample by Pipelle was taken without anesthesia or dilatation. Then under general anesthesia diagnostic curettage was performed by sharp curette. Sampling duration was calculated and both samples were sent to the same pathologist. The diagnostic values of two methods in the diagnosis of normal endometrium, endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma were compared. The costs of these two methods were also compared. Data analysis was performed by SPSS (version 16.0) software. Chi-Square, Fisher, and Pearson tests were used and were considered statistically significant at P values less than 0.05. Results: Two methods were agreed upon 88% of sampling adequacy and 94% of pathological results. Specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 90% for detection of proliferative endometrium, secretory endometrium, simple hyperplasia without atypia and 100% for cancer were recorded. Pipelle diagnostic accuracy in comparison with curettage, have been reported over 97%, so the failure rate in this study was below 5%. Sensitivity of Pipelle for detection of atrophic endometrium was reported below 50%. Duration and cost was lower in Pipelle versus curettage. Conclusions: It is concluded that due to high agreement and cohesion coefficient between curettage and Pipelle on the issue of sampling adequacy, histopathology finding (except atrophic endometrium), low failure rate, duration of sampling and cost, Pipelle can be introduced as a suitable alternative of diagnostic curettage.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.302-311
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• 2023

Background: Oral health is an important element of well aging. And oral health also affects overall health, mental health, and quality of life. In this study, we sought to identify oral health influencing factors and research trends for well-aging through text analysis of research on well-aging and oral health over the past 12 years. Methods: The research data was analyzed based on English literature published in PubMed from 2012 to 2023. Aging well and oral health were used as search terms, and 115 final papers were selected. Network text analysis included keyword frequency analysis, centrality analysis, and cohesion structure analysis using the Net-Miner 4.0 program. Results: Excluding general characteristics, the most frequent keywords in 115 articles, 520 keywords (Mesh terms) were psychology, dental prosthesis and Alzheimer's disease, Dental caries, cognition, cognitive dysfunction, and bacteria. Research keywords with high degree centrality were Dental caries (0.864), Quality of life (0.833), Tooth loss (0.818), Health status (0.727), and Life expectancy (0.712). As a result of community analysis, it consisted of 4 groups. Group 1 consisted of chewing and nutrition, Group 2 consisted oral diseases, systemic diseases and management, Group 3 consisted oral health and mental health, Group 4 consisted oral frailty symptoms and quality of life. Conclusion: In an aging society, oral dysfunction affects mental health and quality of life. Preventing oral diseases for well-aging can have a positive impact on mental health and quality of life. Therefore, efforts are needed to prevent oral frailty in a super-aging society by developing and educating systematic oral care programs for each life cycle.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.