• Journal of Convergence Korean Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2022

Objectives: Smoking had a long negative impact on public health. The ingredients of a cigarette are major risk factors for several diseases. Owing to the problems about economic and quality of life, we need to ensure smoking cessation (SC). There are several approaches for SC including pharmacological therapy, nicotine replacement therapy, education, and behavioral intervention. However, due to some limitations, other alternative approaches are gaining popularity. Acupuncture has been reported to have few side effects and be more effective than some conventional treatments in several articles. However, there are no systematic reviews on the comparison of acupuncture combination treatment with other conventional monotherapies. Methods: Randomized controlled trials that used acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for SC will be searched and data will be summarized according to the predefined criteria. The primary outcome will be the abstinence rate, and secondary outcomes will be adverse events and biochemical indicators. We will use Review Manager to perform a meta-analysis, Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias tool for the risk of bias assessment, and the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to determine the quality of evidence. We will investigate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combination treatment for SC with this study. Ethics and dissemination: This study will provide reliable clinical evidence on additional effect of acupuncture on smoking cessation. We will publish our results in a peer-review journal.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.229-241
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• 2023

Microphysogobio rapidus is designated as endangered species class I by Ministry of Environment, and its distribution and population have been gradually declining, and it is now limited to the Nam River and some tributary streams of the Nakdong River Watershed. For the restoration of this highly endangered species, it is important to identify the causes of the decline and establish appropriate restoration plans. However, due to lack of basic data and ecological research, most steps are stagnant. Therefore, in this study, we identified the differences in the physical, biological, and sociological habitats between current and past distributed sites through field surveys and literature reviews. As a result of the field survey, there were differences in conductivity between the current and past distributed sites, and fish communities were also showed differences. The literature data also showed that the physico-chemical values of the past distributed sites were generally unfavorable, which generated negative consequences on biological factors. In particular, the effects of urbanization were found to be a major factor affecting the habitat of M. rapidus. Habitat stabilization is crucial for the recovery of this endangered species. However, in the past distributed sites, disturbances such as stream development and weir construction have altered streams physico-chemically and result in changes of M. rapidus. Therefore, a comprehensive plan that considers both stream connectivity and water quality is needed to manage and restore the habitat of M. rapidus.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.325-348
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• 2009

This study intends to investigate the main and mediating effects which caregiving appraisal and positive reappraisal exert on quality of life (QOL) of primary family caregivers of cancer patient considering the relationship with social support. The processes of this study areas follows. First, the variables which research model were chosen on the basis of stress-appraisal-coping theory through reviews of the previous studies. Second, a survey was conducted upon 295 primary caregiver of patient with cancer at National Cancer Center. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS 12.0 and SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) method using AMOS 5.0. The summary of the result is as follows. First, the entire model including measurement and structural model shows sufficient fit index of CFI(.951), TLI(.940) and RMSEA(.062). Second, the results of analysis of direct effects among variables are as follows. The 'Social support' has statistically significant direct effect on the 'feeling of burden' and 'growth'. The 'feeling of burden' has statistically significant direct effect on the 'growth' and 'QOL-mental and physical'. The 'growth' has statistically significant direct effect on the 'QOL-mental'. Third, the results of analysis of mediating effects of the 'social support and QOL' and 'feeling of burden and QOL' are as follows. The effects of 'social support' on 'QOL-mental' are significantly mediated by the 'feeling of burden' and 'growth'. The effects of 'social support' on 'QOL-physical' are significantly mediated by the 'feeling of burden'. The effects of 'feeling of burden' on 'QOL-mental' are significantly mediated by 'growth'. Through this research, these implications in social work study and practice are found: (1) this study extended the scope of study in the caregiver's health area from negative sides into positive ones by using growth variables as positive reappraisalof caregiving in research model, which has not been tried on the Korean family caregivers of the cancer patient. (2) The effects of positive reappraisal on QOL-mental can provide a foundational necessity for social workers to help family caregivers find positive meaning in their caregiving experience. This approach of social work practice will improve QOL of family caregivers. (3) This study present a framework including social support, negative appraisal, positive reappraisal, and QOL variables available to social work practice and explaining affective relationships among these variables in various aspects.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.61-101
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• 2014

This study investigates when and how disagreements in online customer ratings prompt more favorable product evaluations. Among the three metrics of volume, valence, and variance that feature in the research on online customer ratings, volume and valence have exhibited consistently positive patterns in their effects on product sales or evaluations (e.g., Dellarocas, Zhang, and Awad 2007; Liu 2006). Ratings variance, or the degree of disagreement among reviewers, however, has shown rather mixed results, with some studies reporting positive effects on product sales (e.g., Clement, Proppe, and Rott 2007) while others finding negative effects on product evaluations (e.g., Zhu and Zhang 2010). This study aims to resolve these contradictory findings by introducing preference heterogeneity as a possible moderator and causal attribution as a mediator to account for the moderating effect. The main proposition of this study is that when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high, a disagreement in ratings is attributed more to reviewers' different preferences than to unreliable product quality, which in turn prompts better quality evaluations of a product. Because disagreements mostly result from differences in reviewers' tastes or the low reliability of a product's quality (Mizerski 1982; Sen and Lerman 2007), a greater level of attribution to reviewer tastes can mitigate the negative effect of disagreement on product evaluations. Specifically, if consumers infer that reviewers' heterogeneous preferences result in subjectively different experiences and thereby highly diverse ratings, they would not disregard the overall quality of a product. However, if consumers infer that reviewers' preferences are quite homogeneous and thus the low reliability of the product quality contributes to such disagreements, they would discount the overall product quality. Therefore, consumers would respond more favorably to disagreements in ratings when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high rather than low. This study furthermore extends this prediction to the various levels of average ratings. The heuristicsystematic processing model so far indicates that the engagement in effortful systematic processing occurs only when sufficient motivation is present (Hann et al. 2007; Maheswaran and Chaiken 1991; Martin and Davies 1998). One of the key factors affecting this motivation is the aspiration level of the decision maker. Only under conditions that meet or exceed his aspiration level does he tend to engage in systematic processing (Patzelt and Shepherd 2008; Stephanous and Sage 1987). Therefore, systematic causal attribution processing regarding ratings variance is likely more activated when the average rating is high enough to meet the aspiration level than when it is too low to meet it. Considering that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity occurs through the mediation of causal attribution, this greater activation of causal attribution in high versus low average ratings would lead to more pronounced interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity in high versus low average ratings. Overall, this study proposes that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high as compared to when it is low. Two laboratory studies lend support to these predictions. Study 1 reveals that participants exposed to a high-preference heterogeneity book title (i.e., a novel) attributed disagreement in ratings more to reviewers' tastes, and thereby more favorably evaluated books with such ratings, compared to those exposed to a low-preference heterogeneity title (i.e., an English listening practice book). Study 2 then extended these findings to the various levels of average ratings and found that this greater preference for disagreement options under high preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high compared to when it is low. This study makes an important theoretical contribution to the online customer ratings literature by showing that preference heterogeneity serves as a key moderator of the effect of ratings variance on product evaluations and that causal attribution acts as a mediator of this moderation effect. A more comprehensive picture of the interplay among ratings variance, preference heterogeneity, and average ratings is also provided by revealing that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity varies as a function of the average rating. In addition, this work provides some significant managerial implications for marketers in terms of how they manage word of mouth. Because a lack of consensus creates some uncertainty and anxiety over the given information, consumers experience a psychological burden regarding their choice of a product when ratings show disagreement. The results of this study offer a way to address this problem. By explicitly clarifying that there are many more differences in tastes among reviewers than expected, marketers can allow consumers to speculate that differing tastes of reviewers rather than an uncertain or poor product quality contribute to such conflicts in ratings. Thus, when fierce disagreements are observed in the WOM arena, marketers are advised to communicate to consumers that diverse, rather than uniform, tastes govern reviews and evaluations of products.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2014

Private consulting firms that are currently participating in rural area development projects with a bottom-up approach are involved in nearly all areas of rural area development, and the policy environment that emphasizes the bottom-up approach will further expand their participation. Reviews of private consulting firms, which started out with high expectations in the beginning, are now becoming rather negative. Expertise is the key issue in the controversy over private consulting firms, and the analysis tends to limit the causes of the problems within firms. This study was conducted on the premise that the fixation on cause and structure results in policy issues in the promotion process. That is because the government authorities are responsible for managing and supervising the implementation of policies, not developing the policies. The current issues with consulting firms emerged because of the hasty implementation of private consulting through the government policy trend without sufficient consideration, as well as the policy environment that demanded short-term outcomes even though the purpose of bottom-up rural area development lies in the ideology of endogenous development focused on the changes in residents' perceptions. Research was conducted to determine how the problems of private consulting firms that emerged and were addressed in this context influenced the consulting market, using current data and based on the firms' business performance. In analyzing the types, firms were divided into three groups: top performers including market leaders (9), excellent performers (36), and average performers (34). An analysis of the correlation between the business performance of each type and managerial resources such as each firm's expertise revealed that there was only a correlation between human resources and regional development in excellent performers, and none was found with the other types. These results imply that external factors other than a firm's capabilities (e.g., expertise) play a significant role in the standards of selecting private consulting firms. Thus, government authorities must reflect on their error of hastily adopting private consulting firms without sufficient consideration and must urgently establish response measures.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.19-38
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• 2017

Collaborative filtering (CF) algorithm has been popularly used for implementing recommender systems. Until now, there have been many prior studies to improve the accuracy of CF. Among them, some recent studies adopt 'hybrid recommendation approach', which enhances the performance of conventional CF by using additional information. In this research, we propose a new hybrid recommender system which fuses CF and the results from the social network analysis on trust and distrust relationship networks among users to enhance prediction accuracy. The proposed algorithm of our study is based on memory-based CF. But, when calculating the similarity between users in CF, our proposed algorithm considers not only the correlation of the users' numeric rating patterns, but also the users' in-degree centrality values derived from trust and distrust relationship networks. In specific, it is designed to amplify the similarity between a target user and his or her neighbor when the neighbor has higher in-degree centrality in the trust relationship network. Also, it attenuates the similarity between a target user and his or her neighbor when the neighbor has higher in-degree centrality in the distrust relationship network. Our proposed algorithm considers four (4) types of user relationships - direct trust, indirect trust, direct distrust, and indirect distrust - in total. And, it uses four adjusting coefficients, which adjusts the level of amplification / attenuation for in-degree centrality values derived from direct / indirect trust and distrust relationship networks. To determine optimal adjusting coefficients, genetic algorithms (GA) has been adopted. Under this background, we named our proposed algorithm as SNACF-GA (Social Network Analysis - based CF using GA). To validate the performance of the SNACF-GA, we used a real-world data set which is called 'Extended Epinions dataset' provided by 'trustlet.org'. It is the data set contains user responses (rating scores and reviews) after purchasing specific items (e.g. car, movie, music, book) as well as trust / distrust relationship information indicating whom to trust or distrust between users. The experimental system was basically developed using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), but we also used UCINET 6 for calculating the in-degree centrality of trust / distrust relationship networks. In addition, we used Palisade Software's Evolver, which is a commercial software implements genetic algorithm. To examine the effectiveness of our proposed system more precisely, we adopted two comparison models. The first comparison model is conventional CF. It only uses users' explicit numeric ratings when calculating the similarities between users. That is, it does not consider trust / distrust relationship between users at all. The second comparison model is SNACF (Social Network Analysis - based CF). SNACF differs from the proposed algorithm SNACF-GA in that it considers only direct trust / distrust relationships. It also does not use GA optimization. The performances of the proposed algorithm and comparison models were evaluated by using average MAE (mean absolute error). Experimental result showed that the optimal adjusting coefficients for direct trust, indirect trust, direct distrust, indirect distrust were 0, 1.4287, 1.5, 0.4615 each. This implies that distrust relationships between users are more important than trust ones in recommender systems. From the perspective of recommendation accuracy, SNACF-GA (Avg. MAE = 0.111943), the proposed algorithm which reflects both direct and indirect trust / distrust relationships information, was found to greatly outperform a conventional CF (Avg. MAE = 0.112638). Also, the algorithm showed better recommendation accuracy than the SNACF (Avg. MAE = 0.112209). To confirm whether these differences are statistically significant or not, we applied paired samples t-test. The results from the paired samples t-test presented that the difference between SNACF-GA and conventional CF was statistical significant at the 1% significance level, and the difference between SNACF-GA and SNACF was statistical significant at the 5%. Our study found that the trust/distrust relationship can be important information for improving performance of recommendation algorithms. Especially, distrust relationship information was found to have a greater impact on the performance improvement of CF. This implies that we need to have more attention on distrust (negative) relationships rather than trust (positive) ones when tracking and managing social relationships between users.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2009

Recently, there seems to besome problems in the urban visual landscape as a result of continuous economic growth and industrial development. At the same time, the public has begun to be aware of the importance of visual resources, and the necessity for visual landscape conservation and improvement. Therefore, the development of evaluative indicators for systematic visual landscape planning and design is urgent. The purpose ofthis study is to discover evaluative models and indicators for the diagnosis of urban visual landscapes. This study included the selection of 18 physical indicators(statistical data) by literature reviews, adoption of field and questionnaire surveys at 12 autonomous districts in Seoul and surrounding major mountain valleys and river streams(i.e. Mt. Nam and Han-River). The content of the questionnaire is scenic beauty. Moreover, the linear regression analysis between the scenic beauty mean scores and the physical indicator scores figure out the scenic beauty prediction model. As this study suggests, the most important indicators in urban visual landscapes are 'Greens', 'Park' and 'the number of apartment buildings(higher than 20 stories).' Based on the results, greens and parks should be priority elements to considerin urban landscape planning and design. Moreover, since the number of apartment buildings that are higher than 20 stories has a negative correlation with the scenic beauty score, it can be used as basic data for landscape planning. For the scenic beauty prediction models and evaluative indicators suggest a direction of urban management, each indicator becomes basic data for visual landscape planning and design. In following studies, if physical indicators and case studies are added, the scenic beauty prediction models and evaluative indicators could be more synthetic and systematic. Moreover, the development of physical indicators in three dimensions(3D)(i.e. results from visual district analysis, view surface analysis) could be expected to obtain more general and varied results.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.179-187
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• 2019

Purpose: Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome is a leading cause of periodic fever in children. This study describes the clinical characteristics of PFAPA syndrome in patients from a single center. Methods: Thirteen children diagnosed with PFAPA syndrome at Seoul National University Children's Hospital were included in this study. Retrospective medical chart reviews were performed. Results: Among the 13 patients, 8 (61.5%) were male. The median follow-up duration was 3.3 years (range, 10 months-8.3 years). The median age of periodic fever onset was 3 years (range, 1-6 years). All patients had at least 5 episodes of periodic fever and pharyngitis, managed with oral antibiotics, before diagnosis. The median occurrence of fever was every 3.9 weeks and lasted for 4.2 days. All patients had pharyngitis and 12 (92.3%) had cervical lymphadenitis. Blood tests were performed for 12 patients, and no patients had neutropenia. Both the C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were elevated at medians of 4.5 mg/dL (range, 0.4-13.2 mg/dL) and 29 mm/hr (range, 16-49 mm/hr), respectively. Throat swab cultures and rapid streptococcal antigen tests were negative. Nine (69.2%) patients received oral prednisolone at a median dose of 0.8 mg/kg, and in 6 (66.7%) patients, fever resolved within a few hours. Three (23.1%) patients received tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Conclusions: PFAPA syndrome should be considered when a child presents with periodic fever along with aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, or cervical lymphadenitis. Glucocorticoid administration is effective for fever resolution and can reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.36
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• pp.437-467
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• 2014

This study is intended to reveal reading comic books helps improve creativity. Though the long-lasting negative recognition towards comic books has positively changed these days, we need a ground upon which the social recognition needs improvement in that children's comic books have been used as a learning tool. Its introduction points out that there has been shortage of empirical researches on comic book reading, and as one of the empirical research methods, presents a method of comparative analysis on comic book reading, school study, and creativity tests via survey. The theoretical background in the 2nd chapter, first, puts emphasis on the significance of the creativity theory among all the other theories related to creativity, which focuses on problem-solving capacity. Second, it theoretically reviews the meaning which 'fun' and 'interest' have in development of creativity in the context of developmental process of the modern educational theories. Third, it empathizes that traits of reading comic books start off with 'fun' and 'interest', that awareness of reality gets expanded via the process of characters making their way through a strange world with empathy and absorption, and that comic book reading has to do with creativity. Fourth, it presents a model questionnaire with which to study relationship between comic books and creativity in an empirical way. The analysis on the survey outcome in the 3rd chapter shows, first, that smart students read many comic books, not to mention that studying helps improve creativity, which indicates above all, comic book reading and improvement of creativity are not negatively related, but are mutually complementary. Second, that creativity enhanced by reading comic books is higher than that enhanced by studying, which may mean comic book reading is more effective than studying in developing creativity. It has drawn a conclusion based upon these results, that reading comic books bears positive efficacy on both studying and developing creativity. Standing on this conclusion, it proposes it necessary to develop methods by grades of educating how to read comic books and to provide a recommended list of comic books to read.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.28-42
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• 2016

Objectives : The author tried to find out reasons why and how hysteria(and conversion disorder) patient numbers, which were so prevalent even a few decades ago, have decreased and the phenotype of symptoms have changed. Methods : The number of visiting patients diagnosed with conversion disorder and their phenotype of symptoms were investigated through chart reviews in a psychiatric department of a University hospital for the last 12 years. Additionally, the characteristics of conversion disorder patients visiting the emergency room for last 2 years were also reviewed. Those results were compared with previous research results even if it seemed to be an indirect comparisons. The research relied on Briquet P. and Charcot JM's established factors of the vicissitudes of hysteria(and conversion disorder) which has been the framework for more than one hundred and fifty years since hysteria has been investigated. Results : The author found decreased numbers and changes of the phenotype of the hysteria patients(and conversion disorder) over the last several decades. The decreased numbers and changes of the symptoms of those seemed to be partly due to several issues. These issues include the development of the diagnostic techniques to identify organic causes of hysteria, repeated changes to the symptom descriptions and diagnostic classification, changes of the brain nervous functions in response to negative emotions, and the influence of human evolution. Conclusions : The author proposed that the evolutionary brain discord reaction theory explains the causes of disappearance of and changes to symptoms of hysteria(conversion disorder). Most patients with hysteria(conversion disorder) have been diagnosed in the neurological department. For providing more appropriate treatment and minimizing physical disabilities to those patients, psychiatrists should have a major role in cooperating not only with primary care physicians but with neurologists. The term 'hysteria' which had been used long ago should be revived and used as a term to describe diseases such as somatic symptom disorder, functional neurological symptoms, somatization, and somatoform disorders, all of which represent almost the same vague concept as hysteria.