• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.25.1-25.12
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• 2023

Background: In Korea, little research has focused on the relationship between discrimination in the workplace and sleep health. Thus, this study aims to investigate the association between such discriminatory experiences and insomnia, a common sleep disorder, using Korean employees' data. Methods: This study used data from the 6th Korea Working Conditions Survey. Discrimination experiences due to age, ethnic background, nationality, race, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, educational level, hometown, and employment status were investigated. The Minimal Insomnia Symptom Scale estimated insomnia symptoms. The association between discrimination experience and insomnia symptoms were analyzed using survey-weighted logistic regression analysis. Results: Based on experiences of discrimination over the past 12 months, insomnia symptoms were associated with discrimination experience due to religion (odds ratio [OR]: 3.70; 95% confidential interval [CI]: 1.58-8.69), sex (OR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.87-3.37), age (OR: 2.30; 95% CI: 1.88-2.81), hometown (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.44-2.97), employment status (OR: 1.69; 95% CI: 1.37-2.10), and educational level (OR: 1.67; 95% CI: 1.31-2.14). Furthermore, the prevalence of insomnia symptoms increased with the number of discrimination experiences. Conclusions: In this study, discrimination experiences due to religion, sex, age, hometown, employment status, and educational level were significantly associated with insomnia symptoms. Furthermore, as the number of discrimination experiences increased, so did the prevalence of insomnia. Preventing workplace discrimination may improve workers' sleep health.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.56
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• pp.169-196
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• 2017

Korean unwed mothers and their families often experience discriminatory and unfair treatment in their everyday lives. However, there has been little research examining discrimination against unwed mothers and its effects on these women's lives. Therefore, further studies are needed to identify and assess types and degree of discrimination against unwed mothers. This study aims to investigate and develop a reliable and valid measurement scale of experiences of discrimination for Korean unwed mothers. For developing the scale, the researchers constructed a concept and sub factors, and the pre-scale of 75 items of discrimination experiences of unwed mothers by conducting a literature review and focus groups interviews, Validity and reliability of the scale were tested by carrying out an item quality analysis, a exploratory factor analysis, a correlation analysis, a criterion validity test and a reliability analysis, The scale of 21 items was constructed with three dimensions. This study is significant that it provides the scale of discrimination for Korea unwed mothers with high reliability and validity to identify and verify types and degree of discrimination experiences of unwed mothers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.301-307
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• 2016

Objectives: This study investigated the association between perceived ethnic discrimination and depressive symptoms among biethnic adolescents in South Korea. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 4141 biethnic adolescents using data from the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families. Perceived ethnic discrimination was measured using the question "Have you ever been discriminated against or ignored because either of your parents is not a Korean?" with an assessment of depressive symptoms over the past 12 months. Logistic regression was applied to examine potential associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and depressive symptoms. Results: Among 4141 biethnic adolescents, 558 (13.5%) reported having experienced ethnic discrimination. The most common discriminatory perpetrators were friends (n=241, 5.8%), followed by strangers (n=67, 1.6%). Depressive symptoms were related to experience of ethnic discrimination (odds ratio [OR], 3.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.89 to 4.98) after adjusting for potential confounders. In an analysis focusing on the perpetrators of discrimination, depressive symptoms were found to be associated with perceived ethnic discrimination from friends (OR, 3.95; 95% CI, 2.75 to 5.68), teachers (OR, 4.53; 95% CI, 2.16 to 9.51), family members and relatives (OR, 3.89; 95% CI, 1.59 to 9.48), neighbors (OR, 2.48; 95% CI, 1.14 to 5.38), and strangers (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.30 to 4.79). Furthermore, the OR for depressive symptoms among those exposed to 1, 2, or 3 or more discriminatory perpetrators were 3.61 (95% CI, 2.49 to 5.24), 3.61 (95% CI, 1.68 to 7.74), and 6.69 (95% CI, 2.94 to 15.22), respectively. Conclusions: According to our findings, friends were the most common perpetrators of discrimination and the experience of ethnic discrimination was associated with depressive symptoms among biethnic adolescents in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2003

Background and Objectives : Laryngeal cancer discrimination using voice signals is a non-invasive method that can carry out the examination rapidly and simply without giving discomfort to the patients. n appropriate analysis parameters and classifiers are developed, this method can be used effectively in various applications including telemedicine. This study examines voice analysis parameters used for laryngeal disease discrimination to help discriminate laryngeal diseases by voice signal analysis. The study also estimates the laryngeal cancer discrimination activity of the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) classifier based on the statistical modelling of voice analysis parameters. Materials and Methods : The Multi-dimensional voice program (MDVP) parameters, which have been widely used for the analysis of laryngeal cancer voice, sometimes fail to analyze the voice of a laryngeal cancer patient whose cycle is seriously damaged. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a new method that enables an analysis of high reliability for the voice signals that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP. To conduct the experiments of laryngeal cancer discrimination, the authors used three types of voices collected at the Department of Otorhinorlaryngology, Pusan National University Hospital. 50 normal males voice data, 50 voices of males with benign laryngeal diseases and 105 voices of males laryngeal cancer. In addition, the experiment also included 11 voices data of males with laryngeal cancer that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP, Only monosyllabic vowel /a/ was used as voice data. Since there were only 11 voices of laryngeal cancer patients that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP, those voices were used only for discrimination. This study examined the linear predictive cepstral coefficients (LPCC) and the met-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) that are the two major cepstrum analysis methods in the area of acoustic recognition. Results : The results showed that this met frequency scaling process was effective in acoustic recognition but not useful for laryngeal cancer discrimination. Accordingly, the linear frequency cepstral coefficients (LFCC) that excluded the met frequency scaling from the MFCC was introduced. The LFCC showed more excellent discrimination activity rather than the MFCC in predictability of laryngeal cancer. Conclusion : In conclusion, the parameters applied in this study could discriminate accurately even the terminal laryngeal cancer whose periodicity is disturbed. Also it is thought that future studies on various classification algorithms and parameters representing pathophysiology of vocal cords will make it possible to discriminate benign laryngeal diseases as well, in addition to laryngeal cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 1994

This experiment was conducted to investigate the discrimination of cigarette brands and the similarity between Korea and America cigarette brands by near infrared spectra. Statistical tools such as principal component analysis (PCA) and mahalanobis distance(M.D) were used. The discrimination rate of the Korea and the America cigarette brands, determined by position number which was calculated with PCA and M.D, was 94% and 87%, respectively. The spectra of the 10 America cigarette brands were selected by averaging 5 sample spectra for each brand and another 5 spectra for each brand were investigated to use as the sample spectra. Comparing the sample spectra with the selected spectra by M.D using 410-1090 nm, 1110-1850 nm and 1970-2490 nm wavelength, the discrimination rate which was determined by the closest M.D between the sample and the selected spectra was 100% when each spectra was investigated on the same time. But the discrimination rate decreased 50% when the sample and the selected spectra were investigated on the different time. Excluding 1970-2490 nm wavelength, the discrimination rate increased up to 90% when the sample and the selected spectra were investigated on the different time. Comparing the spectra of Korea cigarette brands with those of America cigarette brands by M.D using only 410-1090 nm and 1110-1850 nm wavelength, the spectra of Expo(G) was similar to Winston, Vantage(U.L) and Benson & hedges(M.), the spectra of Hanaro(D) was similar to Carrel, Winston(L), Vantage(U.L), \Vantage and Carrel(L), the spectra of Hanaro(L) was similar to Winston(L) , Carton, Vantage and Carmel(L) and the spectra of Pinetree was similar to Kent, Kool, Kent(G.L), Merit and Benson & hedges(L), respectively. Key Words : NIRS, cigarette brands discrimination

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.99-107
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• 2015

This study purposed to analyze difference in experience of life in Korea among adolescents whose immigrant backgrounds were different (Korean-born children of multicultural families and foreign-born immigrant children) using the data of the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families (adolescent children aged between 9 and 24). According to the results of analysis, first, multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'difficulty in using the Korean language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing),' 'school dropout,' and 'school violence' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. Second, with regard to social discrimination (friends, teachers, relatives, neighbors, and unknown people), multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'discrimination by teachers,' 'discrimination by relatives,' 'discrimination by neighbors,' and 'discrimination by unknown people' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. By analyzing these differences, this study suggested directions for differentiated support policies and specific strategies for adjustment to life in Korea by multicultural family adolescents with different backgrounds.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.469-475
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to compare the elements of anti-discrimination laws on disability in major OECD countries. This study used the analysis framework for the elements of the anti-discrimination law on disability presented in the national report of Chopin et al.,(2018). In addition, It was analyzed including the Anti-Discrimination Act on Disability, the General Anti-Discrimination Act including Disability, the Equality Act in the UK, and the Human Rights Act in Canada. The research results were as follows. In Austria, Belgium, France and Sweden, it were found that the countrys satisfied all of the provisions of the Act on 'Direct discrimination', 'Indirect discrimination', 'Harassment', 'Legal standing to act on behalf of victims', 'Legal standing to act in support of victims' and 'Prohibition of victimisation'. In particular, in Korea, 'Legal standing to act on behalf of victims' and 'Legal standing to act in support of victims' were not included. However, it was a country that satisfied the provisions of the Act on 'Direct discrimination', 'Indirect discrimination', 'Harassment' and 'Prohibition of victimisation'. Finally, this study suggested legal and institutional supplementation.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.293-300
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aims to propose a method for fast geographical origin discrimination between domestic and imported rice using a visible/near-infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral imaging technique. Methods: Hyperspectral reflectance images of South Korean and Chinese rice samples were obtained in the range of 400 nm to 1000 nm. Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were developed and applied to the acquired images to determine the geographical origin of the rice samples. Results: The optimal pixel dimensions and spectral pretreatment conditions for the hyperspectral images were identified to improve the discrimination accuracy. The results revealed that the highest accuracy was achieved when the hyperspectral image's pixel dimension was $3.0mm{\times}3.0mm$. Furthermore, the geographical origin discrimination models achieved a discrimination accuracy of over 99.99% upon application of a first-order derivative, second-order derivative, maximum normalization, or baseline pretreatment. Conclusions: The results demonstrated that the VNIR hyperspectral imaging technique can be used to discriminate geographical origins of rice.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 1998

Spectroscopic analysis of soybean kernels were made in the wavelength range of 400 to 1100 nm to find effective discrimination factors which are required for developing an opitical soybean sorter. Soybean samples used for the test were the sound and five classes of the defective kernels such as the immature, discolored(brown and violet), damaged by insect and diseased. Effective discrimination factors to classify the soybean kernels into the sound and the defective were found to be $R_{640}$, $R_{580}$/ $R_{990}$, $R_{600}$- $R_{820}$ and ( $R_{590}$- $R_{820}$)/ $R_{990}$. with classification error of less than 4%. Mahalanobis distance was used as a criterion to select significant wavelengths involved in the discrimination factors.s.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.16-27
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• 2018

Purposes: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between discrimination experience and quality of life among non-regular workers in hospitals. Methodology: The data was collected from 292 employees of 7 university hospitals using a standardized questionnaire. In research methodology, the data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation, multiple regression analysis. Findings: In case of non-regular workers, inequality of distribution, position unfairness, employment instability, number of discrimination experiences were found to have a negative(-) effect on quality of life. Religion, income in general characteristics had a significant positive(+) effect on quality of life. And the discrimination of non-regular woman workers was higher and the quality of life was lower than that of men. Practical Implications: These results showed that hospitals needed active efforts to create non-regular woman-friendly work environment. In addition, active religious activities gave emotional stability and positive effect to no-regular workers.