• Title/Summary/Keyword: Life-crisis

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Metagenomic Analysis of the Fecal Microbiomes of Wild Asian Elephants Reveals Microflora and Enzymes that Mainly Digest Hemicellulose

  • Zhang, Chengbo;Xu, Bo;Lu, Tao;Huang, Zunxi
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.29 no.8
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    • pp.1255-1265
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    • 2019
  • To investigate the diversity of gastrointestinal microflora and lignocellulose-degrading enzymes in wild Asian elephants, three of these animals living in the same group were selected for study from the Wild Elephant Valley in the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve of Yunnan Province, China. Fresh fecal samples from the three wild Asian elephants were analyzed by metagenomic sequencing to study the diversity of their gastrointestinal microbes and cellulolytic enzymes. There were a high abundance of Firmicutes and a higher abundance of hemicellulose-degrading hydrolases than cellulose-degrading hydrolases in the wild Asian elephants. Furthermore, there were a high abundance and a rich diversity of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) obtained from the gene set annotation of the three samples, with the majority of them showing low identity with the CAZy database entry. About half of the CAZymes had no species source at the phylum or genus level. These indicated that the wild Asian elephants might possess greater ability to digest hemicellulose than cellulose to provide energy, and moreover, the gastrointestinal tracts of these pachyderms might be a potential source of novel efficient lignocellulose-degrading enzymes. Therefore, the exploitation and utilization of these enzyme resources could help us to alleviate the current energy crisis and ensure food security.

COVID-19 Impact on the Quality of Life of Teachers: A Cross-Sectional Study

  • Rabacal, Judith S.;Oducado, Ryan Michael F.;Tamdang, Khen A.
    • Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.478-492
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    • 2020
  • The COVID-19 global health crisis has affected the mental and psychological health and well-being of the people around the world. However, little is known about the impact of COVID-19 among Filipino teachers. This study was conducted to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life (QoL) of professional teachers in the Philippines. A descriptive cross-sectional study was used involving 139 licensed professional teachers. The COVID-19 Impact on Quality of Life (COV19-QoL) was the primary measure used in this study. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way ANOVA were the statistical tools employed to analyze the data. Results indicated a moderate COVID-19 impact on the QoL of the teachers. There was a significant difference in the impact of COVID-19 on QoL by degree program. However, the impact of COVID-19 on QoL did not significantly differ by age, sex, marital status, employment status, monthly salary, presence of a COVID-19 case near their residence, personal knowledge of someone who was infected or died of COVID-19, presence of a medical condition, and perceived threat. The psychological well-being and QoL of teachers must be recognized and teachers must be provided with support as they continue to adapt to the impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to the growing literature on the impact of the pandemic.

A phenomenological study on the meaning of presence of elderly participants in an exercise-music program

  • Kim, Kyungsun;Jeong, Hyeoncheol
    • Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.295-301
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    • 2020
  • Objective: The reason why it is important to look at the benefits of exercise-music experience perceived by the elderly is that the satisfaction of life in old age is a meaningful reflection of the subjective perception of the life of the elderly. This is because it must be understood as the center. Design: A qualitative study. Methods: Participants are senior citizens attending senior citizens' college located in Eumseong city. Those who have taken an exercise-music song program for at least one semester served as the participants. Individual interviews were conducted by selecting 10 people through purposeful sampling. The collected data were analyzed by applying Colaizzi's method among phenomenological methods. The exercise-music program was conducted for 12 weeks, for a total of 50 minutes for each time (10 minutes for introduction, 35 minutes for music, 5 minutes for finishing). Results: As a result of the study, the experience of the exercise-music program was derived into 6 categories and 13 subjects. These 6 main categories are 'Changes from the developmental crisis', 'Freedom from the confines of others', 'Positive emotions found through songs', 'Feeling of peer and fellowship relationships', 'Changes in self-awareness', It appeared as a 'Change in the way of life'. Conclusions: In conclusion, the experience of the exercise-music program brought about a positive changes in life of doing one's best by improving confidence and confirming presence. Therefore, this study suggests activation of senior college programs to find a sense of presence for each level by using exercise-music programs with good accessibility.

Life-sports Revitalize Plan for after COVID-19 (포스트 코로나 시대 생활체육 활성화 방안)

  • Jang, Jun-min;Kim, Taehong
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2021.10a
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    • pp.170-171
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    • 2021
  • Experts predict that even after the COVID-19 virus is completely over, it will be difficult to return to the pre-COVID state. As the non-face-to-face trend continued due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, sports activities were contracted and the amount of exercise of the people decreased. Demand for non-face-to-face services is increasing as the use of multi-use facilities is gradually restricted due to the higher level of social distancing. This study examines the actual conditions of participation in life sports and considers ways to revitalize sports for life suitable for the post-corona.

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Chang-rae Lee and Diasporic Romance (이창래의 디아스포라 로맨스)

  • Kim, Jungha
    • American Studies
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.1-22
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    • 2019
  • This paper suggests a genealogy of romance in Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and The Surrendered. A flexible textual performance and literary strategy spanning issues of beauty and love, romance in Lee registers the writer's distinctive diasporic negotiation with sites of departure and arrival, in particular with traumatic histories of the m/other country. Native Speaker resolves the crisis of public immigrant love within the compromise in the domestic melodrama. As Lee turns to the scenes of historical trauma in the twentieth century transpacific, romance becomes a key strategy through which his aestheticized framing and deframing of comfort woman is performed and the Korean War finds odd comfort in the aesthetic energy of perverse care in Italy. Through the dehistoricizing movement outside of the historical into the realm of myth and nostalgia, Lee's diasporic romance breaks away from mandates of representation and works within the excess of mistranslation.

Integration of Pastoral Counseling and Reality Therapy for Middle-aged Christian (중년기 기독교인을 위한 목회상담과 현실치료의통합)

  • Kim, Hyun Suk;Kim, Hyun Jin
    • The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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    • v.8 no.6
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    • pp.479-486
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    • 2022
  • Midlife is a critical time when people look back on their life and evaluate it from current state. In middle age, there is a satisfaction with achievement and a sense of crisis between reality and expectation. Research on pastoral counseling in the middle age to minimize problems and conflicts that occur in the transition period of crisis or opportunity is meaningful. Based on biblical principles, pastoral counseling should be able to help the client's needs and development tasks to be reproduced into a meaningful life on the basic premise of a realistic meeting with God. Therefore, through a literature review, the developmental views of Jung, Ericsson, Levinson, and the pioneers of middle-aged research, were examined. From this realistic point of view, the integration of pastoral counseling and reality therapy is considered to be very useful by allowing the harmony of internal dialogue and behavior to start together through the feasible realistic behavior and responsibility of one's choice. Insights on oneself and specific counseling methods of realistic therapy will present a new type of counseling through integration with pastoral counseling. Therefore after examining the theoretical background and characteristics of reality therapy, we intend to help overcome the middle-aged crisis through the meeting pastoral counseling and reality therapy.

The experience of stress, coping, and social support of students and parents after the economic crisis: The indigenous psychology approach (IMF시대 이후 초, 중, 고, 대학생과 부모의 스트레스 경험과 대처양식 및 사회적 지원: 토착심리학적 접근)

  • Young-Shin Park;Uichol Kim;Myo-Sung Kim
    • Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.105-135
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study is to examine the experience of stress, coping and social support among students and their parents after Korea recovered from the recent economic crisis. A total of 634 students(primary school=135, junior high school=118, senior high school=168, and university=213) and 842 parents (fathers=421, mothers= 421), for a total of 1,476 participants, completed an open-ended questionnaire developed by the present researchers. For students, the most painful experience was related to problems in academic life, followed by problems in relationship. For father, the most painful experience was financial problems and for mothers, it was conflicts in the family. In stress situations, self-regulation was the most frequently adopted coping style by both students and adults. The second most frequently reported coping style was avoidance. In terms of social support, students reported receiving most support from friends, and the importance of friends became greater for the older students. Parents reported receiving most social support from their spouse. As for the type of social support, around half of students and parents reported receiving emotional support. Emotional support was viewed as being very important in reducing the stress experience related to academic life, problems in relationships, family conflict, and financial difficulties. The results of the present study will be compared to similar studies conducted before and during the economic crisis and the implications of these studies, as well as the importance of the indigenous Korean psychology, will be discussed.

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The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Lifestyle Health Determinants Among Older Adults Living in the Mediterranean Region: The Multinational MEDIS Study (2005-2015)

  • Foscolou, Alexandra;Tyrovolas, Stefanos;Soulis, George;Mariolis, Anargiros;Piscopo, Suzanne;Valacchi, Giuseppe;Anastasiou, Foteini;Lionis, Christos;Zeimbekis, Akis;Tur, Josep-Antoni;Bountziouka, Vassiliki;Tyrovola, Dimitra;Gotsis, Efthimios;Metallinos, George;Matalas, Antonia-Leda;Polychronopoulos, Evangelos;Sidossis, Labros;Panagiotakos, Demosthenes B.
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.50 no.1
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    • pp.1-9
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    • 2017
  • Objectives: By the end of the 2000s, the economic situation in many European countries started to deteriorate, generating financial uncertainty, social insecurity and worse health status. The aim of the present study was to investigate how the recent financial crisis has affected the lifestyle health determinants and behaviours of older adults living in the Mediterranean islands. Methods: From 2005 to 2015, a population-based, multi-stage convenience sampling method was used to voluntarily enrol 2749 older adults (50% men) from 20 Mediterranean islands and the rural area of the Mani peninsula. Lifestyle status was evaluated as the cumulative score of four components (range, 0 to 6), that is, smoking habits, diet quality (MedDietScore), depression status (Geriatric Depression Scale) and physical activity. Results: Older Mediterranean people enrolled in the study from 2009 onwards showed social isolation and increased smoking, were more prone to depressive symptoms, and adopted less healthy dietary habits, as compared to their counterparts participating earlier in the study (p<0.05), irrespective of age, gender, several clinical characteristics, or socioeconomic status of the participants (an almost 50% adjusted increase in the lifestyle score from before 2009 to after 2009, p<0.001). Conclusions: A shift towards less healthy behaviours was noticeable after the economic crisis had commenced. Public health interventions should focus on older adults, particularly of lower socioeconomic levels, in order to effectively reduce the burden of cardiometabolic disease at the population level.

A Comparative Study on Welfare-Dictatorship Exchange in the East Germany and the North Korea (복지와 독재의 교환에 관한 동독과 북한의 비교연구)

  • Hwang, Gyu Seong
    • 한국사회정책
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.113-139
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    • 2016
  • This article tries to compare exchange relations between welfare and dictatorship in the East Germany and the North Korea. Unlike capitalist welfare aiming at correcting market results socialist welfare has been proposed to satisfy people's basic needs, but it had operated as instrument of dictatorship. Relation between welfare and dictatorship could be distinguished as hard exchange and soft one in line with social construction of welfare. Welfare-dictatorship relation in East Germany had developed from its formation(1949-1970s), crisis(1980s) and dissolution(1989-1990). There had established hard exchange relation in which the legitimacy of dominance had debted to welfare as social rights. While crisis of the exchange relation had been modest in a form of insufficient supply of consumption goods, it was one of the elements of collapse of dictatorship, leading to the unification with West Germany. The journey of the exchange relation in North Korea can be characterized by its formation(1948-1980), crisis(1990s-2000s), and transformation(2010s). Unlike East Germany, welfare was socially constructed as gift form the ruler to the ruled, which made the combination of welfare and dictatorship loosely coupled. Although economic crisis was severe compared to East German one the rulers have succeeded maintaining dictatorial dominance by creating dual exchange relation. They separated core group and subordinated one supporting the former at the expense of the latter. They blocked out most of the people from soft exchange relation making bad use of muddling-through life style dependent on market activities. This strategy led to a 'dictatorship neutral welfare extinction'. Taking the high degree of institutionalization of newly establishing welfare-dictatorship relation into account, lives of most people are hardly expected to be improved by gift by their rulers even if North Korean economy will recover in the future.

The Study on the Application Plan of democratic citizenship education for Christian Education in the era of Climate Crisis (기후 위기 시대에 기독교 교육을 위한 민주시민교육의 적용방안)

  • Jang-Heum Ok
    • Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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    • v.74
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    • pp.7-31
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    • 2023
  • The climate crisis threatens Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity. In particular, it can be said that the cause of the global crisis began with human greed. An educational alternative is needed to change the Christian worldview that causes greed. The purpose of this study is to find ways to apply democratic citizenship education to Christian education as an alternative to overcome the climate crisis. The contents of the study to achieve the purpose were first the essence of Christian citizenship education was examined by dividing it into citizenship education, democratic citizenship education, and Christian citizenship education. Second, The model of democratic citizenship education was established by defining its goals, content, methods, and directions within the context of Christian citizenship education. Third, the application plan of Christian education for democratic citizenship education was classified into 7 categories and proposed; environmental education to overcome the climate crisis, ethical education to restore the public role of the church, education to form God's character, education to realize the village education community, education that promotes Christ's peace and Christ education that fosters consideration for multicultural individuals, and literacy education to prevent the negative impacts of digital media culture. Next, the plan to apply democratic citizenship education to Christian education is, first, to reduce human greed and restore God's creation order through environmental education that can overcome the climate crisis. Second, through ethics education to restore the church's public nature, it is necessary to restore the church's role for the church's moral empathy and publicity. Third, through the education that forms the God's character, it is necessary to form a mature character of faith in which personality and faith are harmonious and balanced. Fourth, schools, villages, and churches form a community through education that realizes a village education community so that the members of the village can obtain educational results. Fifth, through education that aims for the peace of the God Christians should be able to live as Christian democratic citizens who achieve peace in the kingdom of God. Sixth, through education that considers multicultural people, faith education that helps them overcome discrimination, exclusion, and hatred toward multicultural people with the love of Jesus Christ and seek a life of coexistence. Seventh, through literacy education that prevents the harmful effects of digital media culture, personal ability to read and write in media should ultimately be improved to the ability to practice socially.