• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2021

Objectives : The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is a global medical crisis imposing particular burden on public sector employees. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychiatric distress among public sector workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods : We conducted a cross-sectional study with 531 public sector workers in Gwangmyung city who completed Korean versions of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised-Korean (IES-R-K). Results : The results revealed more than moderate levels of stress (85.2%), depressive symptoms (22.2%), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (38.8%). PSS total score was significantly correlated with PHQ-9, IES-R-K total scores as well as IES-R-K subscale scores. Total scores on the PSS, PHQ-9, and IES-R-K were all inversely correlated with age. Conclusions : COVID-19-related workers experience considerable stress and depressive symptoms, with self-rated stress correlating significantly with depression scores. Age may serve as a protective factor against occupational stress and burnout. These findings highlight the need for adequate psychiatric screening and intervention for public sector workers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.320-332
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• 2021

This paper investigates the influence of stock-level left-tail risk, which is defined using Value-at-Risk(VaR) estimates of past one-year daily stock returns, in the expected stock returns in the Korean stock market. Our results are summarized as follows: First, monthly-constructed zero-cost portfolios that buy (shortsell) the highest (lowest) left-tail risk decile in the previous month exhibit an average monthly return (called left-tail risk premium) of -2.29%. Second, Fama-MacBeth cross-sectional regressions suggest that left-tail risk in the previous month shows significant and negative explanatory power over return in this month, after controlling for various firm characteristics such as firm size, B/M, market beta, liquidity, maximum daily return, idiosyncratic volatility, and skewness. Third, the stocks with larger recent month loss have lower returns in the next month. Fourth, the magnitude of left-tail risk premium is negatively related with lagged market-level volatility. These results support the hypothesis from a perspective of behavioral finance that the overpricing of stocks with left-tail risk is attributed to the investors' underreaction to it.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.91-105
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• 2021

The current increasing size of container vessels affects the container port's situation. The containerization has changed the inter-modal handling process, which brought more flexibility and comfortableness in the shipping industry sector. Thus, it is very crucial to analyze the efficiency of container ports in the regional sphere. Such kind of efficiency analysis provide a powerful management tool for port operators and shipping managers in the Mediterranean market, and it also helps to form an information for planning new regional and national port operations. This paper aims to analyze the ports' technical efficiency of Mediterranean major container ports. It is conducted to establish the model of port performance and efficiency through the empirical test of the various factors. Regarding to the panel data collected from the 48 DMUs (decision making units), this study attempts to provide the empirical basis of the port efficiency relative to another factors in the total port performance. Due to the complexity of the various activities carried out at container ports, the study focuses only on the technical efficiency at the level of the Mediterranean container port. Unlike the practice of cross-sectional data analysis, originally established by Charnes et al. (1985), the panel data in DEA window analysis applications are used. The main focus of this study is the relative technical efficiency of 12 container ports from 7 countries in the Mediterranean market. The selection of ports under study is based on their high handling capability and rankings in World Top 100 (Containerization International, 2018).

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2021

Background According to the Sasang constitutional medicine, eating habits according to the characteristics of Sasang Constitution (SC) types affect management of chronic diseases and health conditions. The aim of this study is to identify the association between eating habits, such as breakfast, eating frequency, and energy intake, according to SC, and quality of life. Method This study is a cross-sectional study of people aged 33 to 55 years, sampled by stratification based on population distribution. The SC types were classified into Taeeumin (TE), Soeumin (SE), and Soyangin (SY) using a structured questionnaire (KS-15). Items examined regarding eating habits were whether the subjects had breakfast; the frequency of eating such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and after-dinner snacks; and energy intake surveyed using a food frequency questionnaire. As for quality of life, SF-12, which is widely used worldwide to assess health conditions, was utilized. A regression analysis was conducted on the relations between eating habits according to SC and quality of life. Results The SC distribution of the 3,895 subjects was 47% for TE, 22% for SE, and 31% for SY. The scores indicating quality of life differed for TE and SY depending on whether they ate breakfast and eating frequency groups, and those of SE varied depending on levels of energy intake. A regression analysis having adjusted all covariates demonstrated for TE a positive relation between the eating frequency of three times per day or more (compared to 1.5 to 3 meals per day) and quality of life (B=1.365, p<0.001). For SE, there was a negative association between low energy intake (compared to adequate energy intake) and quality of life (B=-1.642, p=0.004). Meanwhile, no relation was found between eating habits and quality of life for SY. Conclusion This study identified the association between eating habits according to SC types and quality of life. For TE, it was found to be important to eat evenly dispersed adequate amounts as opposed to overeating or binging at once. For SE, adequate energy intake affected good quality of life. This study suggests that eating habits based on SC improve quality of life, and health management customized for each constitution should be performed in the future through proper eating habits.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.208-215
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• 2021

In this study, a customiz ed bridge system was developed for North Korea application. For the application of North Korea, the customized bridge system design, fabrication, and construction performance evaluation were performed using ultra-high performance concrete a compressive strength 120MPa or more and a direct tensile strength 7MPa or more. The comparison of the North Korean truck luggage load(30, 40, 55) and the Korean standard KL-510 load showed that cross-section increased as the load increased. Furthermore, a bridge with a span length of 30m was fabricated with ultra-high performance concrete for the construction performance evaluation. The evaluation of the load condition analysis was performed by a flexural test. The results showed that a bridge with a span length of 30m secured about 167% of sectional performance under initial cracking load conditions and about 134% of load bearing capacity under ultimate load conditions. As a result of economic analysis, the customized bridge system using ultra-high-performance concrete was less than about 11% of the upper construction cost compared to the steel composite girder bridge. Therefore, these results suggest that the price competitiveness can be secured when applying the ultra-high-performance concrete long-span bridge developed through this study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.529-537
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• 2021

Although the use of physical restraints is controversial, it is still commonly used in hospitalized patients to prevent patient accidents in clinical practice. It is, therefore, necessary to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, perception, and nursing practices related to the use of physical restraints. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which self-administered questionnaires were collected from 144 nursing students at two Universities. Descriptive statistics, including t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression, were applied to analyze the data collected. Our results reveal that the mean knowledge score of nursing students regarding the use of physical restraints was 11.55±2.81, the mean attitude score was 60.01±7.24, the mean perception score was 59.97±10.68, and the mean nursing practice score was 38.04±4.15. Significant positive correlations were observed between nursing practice and knowledge, attitude, and perception. Multiple regression analysis showed that the factors significantly related to nursing practice and the use of physical restraints were perception (β=.23, p=.005) and attitude (β=.21, p=.009), having a total explained variance of 13.0%. The findings from this study suggest that perception is the strongest predictor of the use of physical restraints in nursing practice. Thus, it is necessary to develop and apply an evidence-based educational intervention program to ensure that nursing students correctly understand the need for physical restraints and later use them appropriately in clinical practice.

• Korea Real Estate Review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.91-104
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• 2018

In this study, the occurrence and degree of herding behavior as a market participant behavior in a housing market were analyzed. For the analysis method, the actual sales price was applied in the CSAD (Cross-sectional Absolute Deviation) model, which has been used the most of late for herding behavior analysis. For the analysis contents, these were subdivided into region, elapsed year, size, and market condition to analyze the regionality and the internal and external factors. For the study results, first, there was no herding behavior in the entire region of Seoul. By region, herding behavior occurred in the downtown, southeast, and northwest regions, which coincided with the results of the precedent study (Ngene et al., 2017). Second, in the market analysis by elapsed year, herding behavior was captured in dilapidated dwellings. By size, herding behavior was observed in small-scale ($60m^2$ or less) apartments and in $85m^2$ or higher and less than $102m^2$ national housing units. Third, during the time of the global financial crisis, herding behavior was not observed in all the regions, whereas when the market situations were in a boom cycle, it was observed in the northwest region. These results suggest that there is a difference from the stock market, where in a period of recession, herding behavior occurs intensively with the expanding fear of incurring losses. This study is significant in that it analyzed the market participant behaviors in the behavioral economic aspects to better understand the abnormal phenomenon in a housing market, and in that it additionally provides a psychological factor - market participant behavior - in market analysis.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.35-71
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine which job-related factors are associated with presenteeism, which is defined as attending work while ill. Although presenteeism is a relatively new concept in academic research, it should be regarded as an important social issue in that presenteeism threatens employees' job prospects and quality of life as well as it causes loss of work productivity. I analyzed a cross-sectional survey of 24,571 wage workers over 15 from the fourth wave of the Korean Working Conditions Survey in 2014. Five logistic regression models were analyzed on experience of presenteeism, and work hours and private life, occupational environment, job insecurity, rewards and welfare were assessed as key predictors of presenteeism. I found that 1) work hours with bad fit with private life, 2) high level of work time-pressure, and low job satisfaction 3) job insecurity, and 4) low benefits are associated with experience of presenteeism. The findings are fairly consistent with the theory of job-person mismatch, which explains that workers tend to preserve their personal resources by going to work while ill (presenteeism) when job demands or work conditions do not match with their level of personal expectation and, thus, workers are afraid of loss of personal resources. Presenteeism influences worker's long-term health and quality of life negatively as well as causes serious social costs. Therefore, we need organizational efforts to prevent the negative effects of presenteeism on society as well as workers.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.837-851
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• 2018

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between frailty and health care utilization in a cross-sectional design of a population-based sample of community-dwelling older adults. We used the data of 516 participants who dwell in Daejon, aged between 65 and 84 years old. Using K-frailty index, frailty status were measured and categorized as three groups: robust, prefrail, and frail. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine if frailty affects emergency department(ED) visit or hospitalization. In addition, negative binomial regression was used to examine the association between outpatient visits and frailty. Our results showed that the frail elderly increased the ED visit and the number of outpatient visit significantly after controlling for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, the number of chronic diseases, and self-rated health status. Considering that frailty is an important independent factor affecting health care utilization, more attention is required to prevent the frailty in our health care system.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.243-249
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• 2017

Objectives: Stress is a psychological reaction to stimuli such as anxiety or threat felt by a person either physically or mentally when placed in a difficult situation. Although a relationship between stress and dry mouth has been reported, it remains understudied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between stress and subjective dry mouth among the elderly living in a rural region. Methods: A total of 214 people aged ${\geq}60years$ living in a rural area were recruited with an informed consent for a cross-sectional analysis. Information about stress and subjective dry mouth was obtained by an interview survey with a constructed questionnaire. Data on other potential confounding factors (including oral factors) such as socio-demographic data, health-related behaviors, the number of remaining teeth, and subjective chewing ability were also gathered at the same time. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the relationship of stress and dry mouth using SPSS. Results: The Crude odds ratio (OR) of stress awareness affecting subjective dry mouth was 2.59 (95% confidence interval: 1.43-4.68). After adjusting for sex, education, income, smoking, and alcohol intake, the adjusted OR was 2.52 (95% confidence interval: 1.30-4.87) which was statistically significant. Conclusions: Elderly people who were stressed had an approximately 2-fold increase in experiencing subjective dry mouth when compared to their stress-free counterparts.