• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2014

Purpose: Anorexia is a common symptom in terminal cancer patients. Some data have suggested a role of visfatin in regulating feeding behavior. We studied the relationship of a serum visfatin level and anorexia in cancer patients provided with hospice care. Methods: After informed consent was obtained, 69 cancer patients over 20 years old at a hospice center were enrolled in the study from July 2009 to July 2010. We characterized patients by age, sex, body mass index, primary cancer site, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, etc. Also, blood tests were performed to measure the level of hemoglobin, white blood cell (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), total cholesterol, albumin, lymphocyte count, glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-${\alpha}$), interukin-6, leptin and visfatin. Results: The mean age of subjects was 65.5 years old, According to univariate analysis, pulse, ECOG performance scale, opioid use and visfatin level were different between the anorexia and non-anorexic group (P<0.05). The median visfatin level was higher in the anorexia group than the good appetite group (P=0.0323). Serum visfatin concentrations were not related with either body mass index or serum leptin or total cholesterol levels, but it was negatively correlated with serum albumin levels (P=0.0198) and lymphocyte counts (P=0.0013). Conclusion: This study did not identify a novel link between visfatin levels and anorexia in cancer patients at a hospice.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.56-66
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Despite successes recorded in combating iodine deficiency, more than 2 billion people are still at risk of iodine deficiency disorders. Rural landlocked and mountainous areas of developing countries are the hardest hit, hence the need to explore and advance novel strategies such as biofortification. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We evaluated adoption, purchase, and consumption of iodine biofortified vegetable legumes (IBVL) using the theory of protection motivations (PMT) integrated with an economic valuation technique. A total of 1,200 participants from three land-locked locations in East Africa were recruited via multi-stage cluster sampling, and data were collected using two, slightly distinct, questionnaires incorporating PMT constructs. The survey also elicited preferences for iodine biofortified foods when offered at a premium or discount. Determinants of protection motivations and preferences for iodine biofortified foods were assessed using path analysis modelling and two-limit Tobit regression, respectively. RESULTS: Knowledge of iodine, iodine-health link, salt iodization, and biofortification was very low, albeit lower at the household level. Iodine and biofortification were not recognized as nutrient and novel approaches, respectively. On the other hand, severity, fear, occupation, knowledge, iodine status, household composition, and self-efficacy predicted the intention to consume biofortified foods at the household level; only vulnerability, self-efficacy, and location were the most crucial elements at the school level. In addition, results demonstrated a positive willingness-to-pay a premium or acceptance of a lesser discount for biofortification. Furthermore, preference towards iodine biofortified foods was a function of protection motivations, severity, vulnerability, fear, response efficacy, response cost, knowledge, iodine status, gender, age. and household head. CONCLUSIONS: Results lend support for prevention of iodine deficiency in unprotected populations through biofortification; however 'threat' appraisal and socio-economic predictors are decisive in designing nutrition interventions and stimulating uptake of biofortification. In principle, the contribution is threefold: 1) Successful application of the integrated model to guide policy formulation; 2) Offer guidance to stakeholders to identify and tap niche markets; 3) stimulation of rural economic growth around school feeding programmes.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.105-127
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• 2002

This paper presents an analysis of how the business models of organizations are getting transformed in the Marketspace created by the Internet. We use a research model comprising the transformation scores of four Ps(Product, Price, Promotion, and Place) as dependent variables and three dimensions, Demographics, Technology, and Community elements on the Websites, as explaining variables about the Cyber Transformation of the 4Ps. While most existing literatures have focused on Website's technology, our research model includes 22 five-point-scale items; 10 Demographics /Technology items and 12 Community items. To measure the 4P's transformation scores, the authors selected 14 workable items from the Marketspace Model by Dutta, Kwan, & Segev(1997). A sample of 123 shopping mall Websites comprising three categories(grocery, jewelry/accessory, and cosmetics) from the 100hot.co.kr list are evaluated and the data is analyzed by SPSSWIN 8.0 version. The result shows that there are five significant factors, Technology, Interaction, Connectedness, Business Features, and Domain, while the average transformation scores of 4Ps are at very low level. The factor scores are used in regression analysis for each P. Two factors, Technology and Interaction are influencing all four Ps; Connectedness is influencing only two, Product and Place. Organizations must not simply take their existing business models. They have to adopt the Technology items(navigation, logo, e-mail, guide, graphics) and to facilitate the Interaction items(consulting, number/quality of bulletin boards, participation, offline events) and Connectedness(club activation, contents, partner/site link, entertainment contents) in order to get transformed in the Marketspace successfully in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.77-87
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• 2021

Several studies have been conducted to analyze, predict, and prevent the risk of ground subsidence occurring in urban areas. Nevertheless, there is insufficient research effort on risk analysis that utilizes the correlation between the density of underground structures (i.e., the spatial quantity of buried objects installed in the ground around the interested area) and the occurrence of ground subsidence. In this paper, a study was conducted to analyze the line density of underground structures using GIS-based spatial information data, and to link this with the recorded ground subsidences. An optimization algorithm was developed to maximize the correlation between the line density of 29 recorded ground subsidences and 6 types of underground structures that occurred between 2010 and 2015 for the analysis area. The concept of normalized line density was also proposed for the analysis. The normalized line density of the analysis area was divided into five grades (Grade 1: lowest, Grade 5: highest). When the optimization algorithm was applied, the case where the normalized line density was Grade 4 or higher at the location of the recorded ground subsidences was about > 80%. It is thought that the density analysis result of underground facilities can be applied to the ground subsidence risk analysis by using the proposed optimization algorithm.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2021

The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is an important part of Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). As an economic and trade corridor for dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, and the port as an important link node, the efficiency of port operation directly affects the implementation of BRI's strategy. On the basis of combining BRI and related evaluation methods of port efficiency, this paper uses DEA-BCC model to select port production berth number and production berth length as input index container throughput and cargo throughput as output index to analyze the port efficiency of 14 ports in China. The results show that: (1) The overall efficiency level of the ports along the MSR is relatively low. Most of the ports have not reached the DEA efficiency and there are different degrees of problems in scale investment and technological improvement. However, this situation is accompanied by the implementation of China's maritime cooperation strategy and becoming better year by year. (2) The low operating efficiency of ports along China's MSR is mainly due to the lack of coordination between scale efficiency and technical efficiency, which is caused by insufficient scale investment in the port itself, weak economic linkage between the hinterland and the port, (3) Whether a port has a strong comprehensive strength does not entirely depend on the cargo throughput or scale but also includes the port's operating efficiency.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.513-532
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• 2011

Green supply chain management(GSCM) has emerged as a key approach for firms seeking to become sustainable environmentally. GSCM is a system in which the firm takes life cycle responsibility of the products through material recycling, environment-friendly production, and reverse logistics in addition to the classical operations in a supply chain. This paper endeavors to identify the relationship between the GSCM practice implementation and firms' performance among a sample of Korean manufacturing firms. Based on a literature review, eight hypotheses are put forward. First of all, a factor analysis was conducted to derive groupings of GSCM practice from the survey data which included 54 responses. Then, the first regression was conducted to examine the link between GSCM practice implementation and firms' financial performance. The result shows that green purchasing and green production are significant. The second regression was conducted to examine the impact of GSCM practice implementation on the firms' competitiveness. The result reveals that green purchasing, green production, and reverse logistics are positively signifiant.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.628-636
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• 2019

In various industrial processes, piping serves as a link between unit processes and is an essential installation for internal flow. Therefore, the optimum design of the piping system is very important in terms of safety and cost, which requires the estimation of the pressure drop, flow rate, pipe size, etc. in the piping system. In this study, we developed a software that determines pressure drop, flow rate, and pipe size when any two of these design variables are known. We categorized the flows into single phase, homogeneous two phase, and separated two phase flows, and applied suitable calculation models accordingly. We also constructed a system library for the calculation of the pipe material, relative roughness, fluid property, and friction coefficients to minimize user input. We further created a costing library according to the piping material for the calculation of the investment cost of the pipe per unit length. We implemented all these functions in an integrated environment using a graphical user interface for user convenience, and C # programming language. Finally, we verified the accuracy of the software using literature data and examples from an industrial process with obtained deviations of 1% and 8.8% for the single phase and two-phase models.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.79-91
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• 2011

In order to study interactions between climate change and air quality, a modeling system including the downscaling scheme has been developed in the integrated manner. This research focuses on the development of a downscaling method to utilize CCSM3 outputs as the initial and boundary conditions for the regional climate model, MM5. Horizontal/vertical interpolation was performed to convert from the latitude/longitude and hybrid-vertical coordinate for the CCSM3 model to the Lambert-Conformal Arakawa-B and sigma-vertical coordinate for the MM5 model. A variable diagnosis was made to link between different variables and their units of CCSM and MM5. To evaluate the dynamic downscaling performance of this study, spatial distributions were compared between outputs of CCSM/MM5 and NRA/MM5 and statistic analysis was conducted. Temperature and precipitation patterns of CCSM/MM5 in summer and winter showed a similar pattern with those of observation data in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula. In addition, statistical analysis presented that the agreement index (AI) is more than 0.9 and correlation coefficient about 0.9. Those results indicate that the dynamic downscaling system built in this study can be used for the research of interaction between climate change and air quality.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.125-149
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyse the mediating effects of spirituality on the relationship between functional capacity and depression among the elderly. The conceptual framework was based on the integrated theory by Brief et al.(1993) to life satisfaction. The sample was collected through convenience sampling of 413 elderly persons who were 65 years of age or older drawn from senior welfare centers, community senior centers, and religious institutions in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM). The main findings of the present study are as following: First, spirituality had the mediated effects on which depression and IADL influenced life satisfaction. Particularly, existential spirituality on life satisfaction had larger effect size than religious spirituality. Second, the results showed that religious spirituality had positive effects on existential spirituality. These findings demonstrate that the development and implementation of programs geared for fostering religious spirituality and existential spirituality of senior citizens are needed to improve life satisfaction in the field of social welfare. To this end, the foundation of spiritual practice in the field of social work with older people should be constructed through a spirituality-related system and professional training.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.177-183
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the double mediation effects of interpersonal relationship ability and self-efficacy in the link between family strengths and self-esteem of college students. To this end, a survey was conducted for 1 month in November 2019, targeting 340 students conveniently sampled from C city in Chungcheongbuk-do and J city in Jeollabuk-do, and the analysis was conducted using SPSS Win. 25 and SPSS PROCESS Macro. The applied statistical techniques were mean comparison analysis (t-test, One-ANOVA), correlation analysis, and PROCESS Macro model No. 6 to analyze the double mediating effect. The main findings of the study are: First, self-esteem was significantly higher in education major than in other majors. Second, as a result of correlation analysis, self-esteem showed a significant positive correlation with family strength, interpersonal relationship ability, and self-efficacy. Third, as a result of the double mediation effect analysis, interpersonal relationship ability and self-efficacy double mediated in the relationship between family strength and self-esteem. The results of this study can be used as basic data to enhance the self-esteem of college students by utilizing interpersonal relationship ability and self-efficacy.