• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.219-235
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• 2019

Scheduled inspections of common crossings are one of the main cost drivers of railway maintenance. Prognostics and health management (PHM) approach and modern monitoring means offer many possibilities in the optimization of inspections and maintenance. The present paper deals with data driven prognosis of the common crossing remaining useful life (RUL) that is based on an inertial monitoring system. The problem of scheduled inspections system for common crossings is outlined and analysed. The proposed analysis of inertial signals with the maximal overlap discrete wavelet packet transform (MODWPT) and Shannon entropy (SE) estimates enable to extract the spectral features. The relevant features for the acceleration components are selected with application of Lasso (Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regularization. The features are fused with time domain information about the longitudinal position of wheels impact and train velocities by multivariate regression. The fused structural health (SH) indicator has a significant correlation to the lifetime of crossing. The RUL prognosis is performed on the linear degradation stochastic model with recursive Bayesian update. Prognosis testing metrics show the promising results for common crossing inspection scheduling improvement.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.5
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• pp.579-589
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• 2019

Numerous experimental studies have been conducted on reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in shear with externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (EBFRP). The objectives of this work are to study the behavioral trends of shear strengthened EBFRP RC beams after updating the existing database. The previously published databases have been updated, enriched and cross checked for completeness, redundancy and consistency. The updated database now contains data on 698 EBFRP beams and covers the time span from 1992 to 2018. The collected database then refined applying certain filters and used to investigate and capture better interactions among various influencing parameters affecting the shear strength of EBFRP beams. These parameters include the type and properties of FRP, fiber orientation as well as the strengthening scheme, the shear and the longitudinal steel reinforcement ratios, the shear span ratio, and the geometry of the member. The refined database is used to test the prediction accuracy of the existing design models. Considerable scatters are found in the results of all tested prediction models and in many occasions the predictions are unsafe. To better understand the shear behavior of the EBFRP RC beams and then enhance the prediction models, it was concluded that focused experimental programs should be carried out.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.119-127
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• 2019

When a structural wall is subjected to multi-directional ground motion, torsion-induced cracks degrade the stiffness of the wall. The effect of torsion should not be neglected. As a main lateral load resisting member, reinforced concrete (RC) structural wall has been widely studied under the combined action of bending and shear. Unfortunately, its seismic behavior under a combined action of torsion, bending and shear is rarely studied. In this study, torsional performances of the RC structural walls under the combined action is assessed from a comprehensive parametrical study. Finite element (FE) models are built and calibrated by comparing with the available experimental data. The study is then carried out to find out the critical design parameter affecting the torsional stiffness of RC structural walls, including the axial load ratio, aspect ratio, leg-thickness ratio, eccentricity of lateral force, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and transverse reinforcement ratio. Besides, to facilitate the application in practice, an empirical equation is developed to estimate the torsional stiffness of RC rectangular structural walls conveniently, which is found to agree well with the numerical results of the developed FE models.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.37-52
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• 2018

With the increasing severity of the shortage of highly-skilled IT personnel, more and more attention is being paid to the professional career path and systematic career management of IT employees. Although some studies have been conducted to describe the current status of IT personnel, limited attempts have been made to analyze the career paths or career patterns of IT professionals from a longitudinal perspective. In this context, this study explored the job career patterns of IT professionals in Korea and examined their relationship with subjective and objective career success. To identify job career patterns over time, detailed information about jobs and positions were used and an optimal matching analysis (OMA) was conducted to calculate the dissimilarity matrix between employees' career sequences, while a cluster analysis was used to categorize the meaningful groups based on this dissimilarity data. This analysis revealed that career patterns among Korean IT personnel are more varied than previously thought. These career types have a significant relationship with individual profiles, such as age, education, industry and company size, and account for significant variations in the three main career success variables, i.e. quality of life, assessment of software quality, and wage level. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to refining the Korean career path so as to retain IT personnel, and raise the need to improve the low quality of life and poor SW work environment of IT personnel.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-41
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate whether employment status is associated with the experience of unmet care needs. Methods: This study utilized the Korea Health Panel data from 2012 to 2016. A total of 4,083 workers were selected as baseline subjects in 2012 and were followed for four years. This study used the GLIMMIX procedure under the marginal model while adjusting for covariates. Results: A total of 12.4% of 4,083 people said they had failed at least once to have a treatment or checkup despite the needs. Those more likely to experience unmet care needs were women and people of lower income level, with worse health conditions and chronic disease. Precarious workers, the self-employed, and the unemployed were more likely to experience unmet care needs caused by economic burden than permanent workers (Odds Ratio: 2.14, 2.07, 2.74, respectively). Conclusions: This disparity means that precarious workers and the unemployed are more likely to face barriers in obtaining needed health services. Given their insecure employment status, meeting their needs for health care is an important consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.115-122
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• 2021

Oral cancer surgery typically consists of resection of lesion, neck dissection and reconstruction, and it has an impact on the position of hyoid bone. Therefore, morphological change of airway can occur since the geometric parameter of airway is correlated with the hyoid bone. Airflow is affected by geometry of the airway. In this study, flow characteristics were compared between pre- and post-surgery models by both particle image velocimetry (PIV) and numerical simulation. 3D model of upper airway was reconstructed based on CT data. Velocity is accelerated by the reduced channel area, and vortex and recirculation region are observed in pre- and post-surgery models. For the post-surgery model, high pressure distribution is developed by significantly decreased hydraulic diameter, and the longitudinal flow stream is also interrupted.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2022

Background: This study was designed to examine regional proportions for people who experienced unmet health care needs due to reduced mobility or unhealthiness and factors associated with experience of unmet health care needs by them. Methods: A total of 11,620 people were retrieved from the Korea Health Panel data (2014-2018). Regional proportions for people who experienced unmet health care needs due to reduced mobility or unhealthiness were estimated using cross-sectional weights and the factors associated with them were analyzed using generalized estimating equation. Results: The number of people who experienced unmet health care needs due to reduced mobility or unhealthiness was estimated as 278,083 in 2018. Women, the aged (65+), below elementary school, single as marital status, low income, bad self-rated health, people with disabilities, and long-term insurance beneficiaries were statistically significantly associated with experience of unmet health care needs due to reduced mobility or unhealthiness. Conclusion: Given high and dispersed demand for visiting health care, government need to expand the infrastructure and finance to facilitate visiting health care.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2022

Introduction: Previous studies on occupational health focussed predominately on the occurrence of occupational diseases. Relatively few studies have measured how employment is associated with the use of healthcare services. This study investigates the association between employment and the extent and range of healthcare use, such as medical expenditures, of women in South Korea. Methods: We analyze data of the Korean Health Panel, an ongoing longitudinal national representative survey, from 2008 to 2017, to identify the status of economic activity of women by year and age group. We estimate the association between female employment status and medical expenditures by using random effect panel Tobit models. Furthermore, we investigate the association between employment status and the range of healthcare services in biomedicine and traditional Korean medicine (KM) by conducting conditional fixed-effects logistic regression analyses. Results: For women aged between 25 and 65 in 2017, the majority of them were employed or self-employed. (The proportion of employment of self-employment equals 64.80%). In addition, working women spent 11.6% less on healthcare than nonworking women, and self-employment lowered the healthcare expenditure by 13.1%. Neither work nor the type of work is related to the types and range of healthcare service use. Being employed or self-employed is negatively associated with women's expenditure on healthcare. Conclusions: The findings show that employment is associated with less spending on healthcare. They imply that employment has a positive impact on women's health.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2020

Purpose - This study analyzes the intertemporal patterns in personnel decisions made between a supervisor and a subordinate to understand potential supervisor bias in the decisions. A correlation between the current and the most recent personnel decisions made for a subordinate by a current supervisor captures certain relationship-embedded and time-invariant factors in effect. The characteristics speak to the nature of a supervisor bias arising from a relationship, or favoritism. Design/methodology/approach - This study manually collects the executive profile data from annual reports of key Samsung Group affiliates and compile a longitudinal sample of 3,675 executive-years. It mainly explores the logistic regression analysis. Findings - The study finds that a supervisor' previous promotion award to a subordinate does not improve but decreases the likelihood of promotions in ensuing years, suggesting the containment of favoritism; and that the time since the last promotion award to a subordinate by the current supervisor increases the likelihood of both promotions and dismissals of the subordinate. Research implications or Originality - The findings are generally consistent with the theory suggesting that incentive schemes that align interests between an individual and an organization will contain the form of a supervisor bias.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.235-242
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• 2022

Purpose: To investigate associations of perceived stress level, serum cortisol level, and telomere length of community-dwelling adults in Korea. Methods: Data of a total of 135 community-dwelling adults aged over 40 years living in D metropolitan city from December 2020 to March 2021 were collected. Perceived stress level over the past month were measured using the Perceived Stress Score. Serum cortisol level was analyzed using a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Telomere length was determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The statistical package SPSS 23.0 was used to perform Chi-square test, independent t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis. Results: There was no association between perceived stress and serum cortisol level (r = .07, p= .402). Serum cortisol level was not significantly associated with telomere length either (r = -.15, p= .081). However, the higher the perceived stress level, the shorter the telomere length (r= -.29, p= .001). Conclusion: These results suggest that perceived stress might induce physiological stress, which might partially affect gene biology. Further longitudinal research is needed to investigate the effect of perceived stress on telomere length. Intervention for relieving stress should be included in stabilizing the genetic environment of adults.