• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.75-80
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• 2021

Purpose: Appendicitis is the most frequent urgency in pediatric age; the aim of this study was to investigate the association of quarantine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic and the incidence of pediatric appendicitis in a specific macro area. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of consecutive patients who underwent surgical exploration for acute appendicitis in the period March-April since 2014. This specific quarantine period was divided into two phases as indicated by National government. Patient data, demographics, characteristics and outcomes were studied and evaluated comparing patients treated during quarantine especially phase 1 vs. phase 2 (March-April 2020). Results: After reviewing medical charts following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 155 patients were studied; focusing on the final outcome, it is possible to show a decreased amount of appendicitis during phase 1 and a progressive increase during phase 2; respect to previous years, there was a statistical increase in severity of appendicitis during quarantine (gangrenous vs. phlegmonous appendicitis). Conclusion: During this specific quarantine there was a reduction in appendicitis and a progressive increase during phase 2. These results offer new perspective among disease incidences during lockdown.

• 한국지구과학회지
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.283-302
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• 2022

2020년 1월 23일 이후 중국에서 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(COVID-19)으로 인한 봉쇄 조치가 전국으로 확대되고 있었다. 그러나, 한국에서는 2020년 2월 1-2일에 PM₁₀ 질량농도 일평균 최대 88-98 ㎍ m^-3의 고농도 연무가 발생하였다. 이 기간에 동아시아 지역은 850 hPa 기온 아노말리가 양(+), 동서류 아노말리는 음(-)으로 온난하고 정체적인 기단의 영향을 받고 있었다. 동아시아 지역의 인위적 배출량 감소에 따른 한국의 PM₁₀ 장거리 수송의 영향을 분석하기 위하여 WRF-Chem을 활용하였다. WRF-Chem에 인위적 배출량을 변화 없이 적용한 BASE와 인위적 배출량을 50%로 감소시켜 적용한 CTL의 PM₁₀을 한국의 지상 측정값과 민감도 분석을 수행하였다. CTL에서 PM₁₀의 IOA는 0.71로 BASE의 0.67보다 높게 나타났다. 이것은 중국의 COVID-19 봉쇄 조치로 인해 인위적 배출량이 감소한 것으로 분석된다. 또한, 한국 이외의 지역 배출량을 0으로 설정한 BASE_ZEOK와 CTL_ZEOK를 모의하여 BASE와 CTL에서의 장거리 수송 기여도의 변동을 분석하였다. CTL은 BASE와 비교하여 배출량이 50%로 감소하였지만 PM₁₀ 장거리 수송 기여도는 10-20% 감소한 것으로 나타났다. 동아시아 지역의 배출량 감소에 따라 풍하측 한국의 PM₁₀ 장거리 수송 기여도 변동이 선형적으로 반응하지 않는 것은 종관 기상 변동이 영향을 주는 것으로 보인다. 2월 1-2일 한국의 고농도 PM₁₀ 연무 사례에 대한 CTL에서 PM₁₀ 에어로졸 성분의 장거리 수송 기여도는 기타 무기물이 80-90%로 가장 높았고, 질산염은 30-60%, 황산염은 0-20%, 암모늄은 30-60%를 나타내고 있었다. 중국의 봉쇄 조치로 인하여 교통 및 물류 수송이 감소하면서 2차 에어로졸이 감소한 것으로 보인다.

• Architectural research
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.105-111
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• 2022

During pandemic period, college students lost lots of such academic opportunities as extra-curriculum social activities, contact classes, and friendly socializing in university campus area, etc. Previous many studies have shown that physical environment has certain relevance on the well-being of human-beings. Recent public statistics on mental health had shown an increase in psychological distress and a decrease in college students and people's well-being during the lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there were little evidence on what the college students in dormitory suffered from COVID-19 incident in relation with their physical environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and psychological well-being of dormitory students in university campus. In order to explore the impact of physical environment on students' psychological well-being, survey instrumentation consisted of 25 indices were employed to measure the level of awareness to each index. A Chi-square analysis on individual characteristics of 200 students found that number of students living in single dwelling unit was statistically significant to maintain their psychological well-being, except for number of students living in each dwelling unit (χ² =128.92, p= .004). Pearson correlation analysis also found that there exists statistically significant relationship between psychological well-being of students and environmental factors. Further, stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most prime predictor for psychological well-being of students residing in dorm was "use of furniture" (β= .281), implying careful design, lay-out and easy-access to interior furniture by facility planner. The study also demonstrated that as the level of positive perception of physical environmental features rose, overall psychological well-being of students also responded positively at specified rate. Finally, the findings reinforce a solid evidence that carefully well-coordinated physical environments play an important role in maintaining emotional stability of college students in dorm even in pandemic period.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권12호
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• pp.115-121
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate the effects of restrictions in economic activity on the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines. This research employs daily time-series data of confirmed new COVID-19 cases, Apple mobility trends (i.e., use of public transport to destinations, volume of people driving, and amount of walking to destinations) and Google community mobility (i.e., visits to transit stations, visits to workplaces, and staying-at-home) indicators covering the period February 17 to September 11, 2020. The analysis starts by establishing the correlation pattern of new confirmed COVID-19 daily infections to each independent variable. The results show negative linear correlation of the number of new COVID-19 daily infections with less visit to transit station, increase stay-at-home, less use of public transport, and less amount of walking to destinations. Interestingly, the number of new COVID-19 daily infections indicates some form of positive linear correlation with visits to workplaces and volume of people driving. Moreover, employing robust least square regression via the method of MM-estimation, major findings reveal that across mobility measures, staying-at-home has the highest impact on reducing the spread of COVID-19, followed by visiting transit stations less, less use of public transport, less amount of walking, and less workplace visits.

• 한국정보시스템학회지:정보시스템연구
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.239-261
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• 2022

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore and compare changes in tourist opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak has caused changes in all areas of our lives, the conditions related to confinement during a lockdown have led to changes in tourists' habits and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach To analyze opinion changes about tourist attractions, this study performed topic modeling by summarizing topics into five dimensions: management, scenery, price, suggestion, and safety; then, based on the topic modeling results, sentiment analysis and emotion analysis were conducted to explore the change of tourists' opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings According to the results, this study confirmed the pandemic's positive effect on tourists' opinions about attractions after the COVID 19 outbreak. Presumably due to the absence of lines and crowed. Moreover, the dimension 'Safety' started to appear in US tourists' attractions reviews only in the period after the outbreak and during the mass vaccination. These results mean that tourists started to care more about safety due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.327-335
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange's (KDE) response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the precautions taken by Kuwaiti authorities to protect their citizens and other residents. To achieve this objective, daily data from four different indexes published by the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) for the period between 24 February and 30 June 2020, as well as daily data on the number of people infected with COVID-19, the daily number of recovered people, the daily number of deaths, lockdown days, and days the country was under curfew. The findings show a significant positive association between the daily recovery of persons infected by COVID-19 and all indexes published by the KSE except for the Boursa Kuwait Main Market 50, where the association was positive but insignificant. A negative and significant association was also found between the closure of the country and each of the four indexes. Although the curfew imposed by the Kuwaiti authorities at an early stage of the pandemic appeared to have a negative effect on the four indexes, the level of association was statistically significant only in the cases of the Main Market index and Boursa Kuwait Main Market 50 index.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.141-147
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• 2022

Background: On the basis of its role for the development of occupational health research, information, good practices, the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) launched the present survey to collect information on public health and prevention policies put in place by the governments of the countries in the world to contain the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online questionnaire focused on COVID-19 data, public health policies, prevention measures, support measures for economy, work, and education, personal protective equipment, intensive care units, contact tracing, return to work, and the role of ICOH against COVID-19. The questionnaire was administered to 113 ICOH National Secretaries and senior OSH experts. Collected data refer to the period ranging from the beginning of the pandemic in each country to June 30, 2020. Results: A total of 73 questionnaires from 73 countries around the world were considered valid, with a 64.6% response rate. Most of the respondents (71.2%) reported that the state of emergency was declared in their country, and 86.1% reported lockdown measures. Most of the respondents (66.7%) affirmed that the use of face masks was compulsory in their country. As for containment measures, 97.2% indicated that mass gatherings (meetings) were limited. Regarding workplace closing, the most affected sector was entertainment (90.1%). Conclusion: The results of this survey are useful to gain a global view on COVID-19 policy responses at country level.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.30-44
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• 2022

This research aims to identify and reveal the meaning of memes about COVID-19, and explain changes in meme content in regard to the information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia published by the mass media and online media. The data is sourced from memes that are shared on social media, especially WhatsApp groups in the period of January to June 2020. To reveal the meaning of memes, a semiotic analysis of Roland Barthes' model is used. Qualitative analysis is used to reveal the relationship between memes and the information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia. The results of the study show that meme content has shifted according to three stages of information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia published by the mass media and online media. When COVID-19 was not yet confirmed in Indonesia, meme content contained mostly humor that was not educative, moreover it seemed to underestimate the coronavirus. Meme content which is mostly humorous and pornographic occurred when COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia and during the lockdown policy. At last, as the government has begun to distribute social assistance, the meme content looks more critical. The results of this research emphasize the urgency of the mass media as a source of public information during the COVID-19 pandemic, become a reference for the community in making memes as a forum for expressing feelings and social criticism, and serve as a reference for the government to act and make the right decisions related to the pandemic that is endemic in their country.

• 한국수자원학회논문집
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.1255-1263
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• 2021

안개는 대체수자원이 될 수 있으나 교통사고 위험을 높이고 공항 운영에 제약을 가하는 사회적 영향이 큰 기상현상이다. 본 연구에서는 1 km 미만 가시거리(시정)로 정의되는 안개 발생을 기상자료로 예측하는 지역 기계학습모형을 개발하고 그 예측력을 평가하였다. 전라북도 지역의 10개 기상청 지상관측소의 2017-2019년 시정 및 기상관측자료로 앙상블 분류기법인 Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), Light Gradient Boosting(LGB), Random Forests (RF)를 학습시켜 지역 안개 모형을 개발하였고 독립적인 2020년 자료로 모형의 사용성을 평가하였다. 그 결과, 학습·검증기간(2017-2019)에는 True Skill Score를 기준으로 가장 높은 예측력을 보인 방법은 LGB 기법이었지만 다른 두 모형에 비해 False Alarm Ratio가 컸다. RF 모형과 XGB 방법 역시 기존 연구에 상응하는 예측성능을 보이는 것으로 확인되었다. 2020년 자료를 입력해 안개 발생을 모의했을 때 세 모형의 예측성능은 2017-2019년 기간보다 떨어졌지만 모두 관측 안개일수의 공간분포와 일관되는 안개 위험을 예측했다. 세 기계학습모형은 안개위험이 상대적으로 높은 지역을 추출하는 기법으로 사용이 가능할 것으로 보인다.