• The Journal of KAIRB
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.17-31
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aims to develop preliminary items for measuring the perceived service quality of clinical trials among participants and to verify content validity. Methods: This study was designed as a methodological study. A conceptual framework was established based on Brady and Cronin's hierarchical model, and preliminary items were prepared through translation-back-translation, a review of existing instruments, and in-depth interviews with clinical trial participants and clinical research coordinators. The final items were completed through content validity testing by experts and a review of items by clinical trial participants for the prepared preliminary items. Results: Through this study, a set of 58 items across four domains (quality of interaction with researchers, the physical environment, performance procedures, and performance results) and 9 components (information·education·communication, trust, respect for participant preferences, securing facilities and space, accessibility, comfortability, informed consent, coordination of care, subjective understanding of clinical trials) on the service quality of clinical trials were completed. The scale content validity index of all preliminary items was 0.96, meeting the recommended standards. The individual-item content validity index also meets the recommended criteria for most items, excluding four items. Conclusion: This study holds significance in developing items to measure the quality of clinical trial execution from the perspective of participants. By verifying the reliability and validity of these items through subsequent research, it is expected that they can be utilized as a valuable instrument to devise strategies for improving the quality of clinical trials.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.159-192
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to validate the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), a tool for measuring reactive-proactive aggression, in the context of South Korea. A thorough translation was conducted in collaboration with the original author. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), rating scale model (Rasch), differential item functioning (DIF), and convergent validity were performed on a sample of 510 South Korean individuals. The results revealed a two-factor structure of reactive and proactive aggression after removing one item showing dual loading. Rating scale analysis based on the Rasch model indicated the appropriateness of the 3-point Likert scale, with all items meeting fit criteria. Although the separation index and separation reliability of proactive aggression was marginally lower, the overall discrimination between participants and items was satisfactory. Examination of participant-item distribution indicated a suitable alignment between reactive aggression and participant ability levels, whereas proactive aggression exhibited slightly elevated item difficulty. Furthermore, three items were found to function differently based on gender. A moderate but statistically significant positive correlation was found between the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11-R (Korean version) and RPQ from the results of the convergent validity evaluation. Overall, this study employed rigorous statistical methods to validate the suitability of the RPQ for use in Korea, taking cultural nuances into account, and introduced the concepts of reactive and proactive aggression to the Korean general population.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.531-550
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• 2023

Purpose: The unique nature of life-and-death healthcare services sets them apart from other service industries. While many studies exist on the relationship between healthcare services and customer satisfaction, most of them focus on mildly ill patients, ignoring the differences between critically ill and non-seriously ill patients. This study discusses the actual quality of healthcare services for patients who are facing life-threatening illnesses and are on life support, as well as their right to protection and dignity. Methods: The survey conducted to 149 patients with the four major illnesses: cancer, heart disease, brain disease and rare and incurable disease, those who have experiences with senior general hospitals. Results: The basic statistics of this study are adequate to represent the four major critical illnesses, and the reliability and validity of this study's hypotheses, which were measured by multiple items, were analyzed, and the internal consistency was judged to be high. In addition, it was found that the convergent validity was good and the discriminant validity was also secured. When examining the goodness of fit of the hypotheses, the SRMR, which is the standardized root mean square of residuals that measures the difference between the covariance matrix of the data variables and the theoretical covariance matrix structure of the model, met the optimal criteria. Conclusion: The academic implications of this study are differentiated from other studies by moving away from evaluating the quality of healthcare services for mildly ill patients and focusing on the rights and dignity of patients with life-threatening illnesses in four senior general hospitals. In terms of academic implications, this study enriches the depth of related studies by demonstrating the right to protection and dignity as a factor of patient-centeredness based on physical environment quality, interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are presented as sub-factors of healthcare quality. We found that the three quality factors classified by Brady and Cronin (2001) are optimized for healthcare quality assessment and management, and that the results of patients' interaction quality assessment can be used to provide a comprehensive quality rating for hospitals. Health and human rights are inextricably linked, so assessing the degree to which rights and dignity are protected can be a superior and more comprehensive measurement tool than traditional health level measures for healthcare organizations. Practical implications: Improving the quality of the physical environment and the quality of outcomes is an important challenge for hospital managers who attract patients with life and death conditions, but given the scale and economics of time, money, and human inputs, improving the quality of interactions and defining them as performance indicators in hospital quality management is an efficient way to create maximum value in the short term.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• 제52권1호
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• pp.8-14
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• 2009

This study was conducted to assess the effects of diet food containing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf, and herb on weight and body fat. Participants in this study were selected based on the following criteria: BMI over $25kg/m^2$, body fat percentage higher than 25%, abdominal obesity level of 0.85 measured by body composition measurement unit (ZEUS 9.9 PLUS, Korea) total 24 female and male university students over 20 of age were assigned to two different groups: control group and diet group and the study was carried out for 30 days. When we measured what the tester's body weight and height, we used an automatic measure machin which is called IMI-1000 from Immanuel company and when we measured what the hip and wist circumference, we used a tape measure. When we measured body mss index (BMI), body Int, body mass, lean mass, waist/hip ratio (WHB), obesity index, we used a ZEUS9.9 PLUS-Korea which is based on bioelectrical impedance analysis, The food intake was checked by means of diet record method to be input into CAN program in order to analyze nutrient intake. Our findings indicated that the diet group, as compared to the control group, lost weight of approximately 2.5 kg and showed statistically significant difference. In addition the level of body Int, muscle, abdominal obesity, obesity, waist and bottom measurement all showed significant decrease after study period. However, there was no big difference in body fat percentage because both body fat level and muscle level dropped together, Putting all these together, diet food in this study containing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf powder, and herbs powder including nettle, eucalyptus was found to be effective in significant reduction of weight and body fat and obesity-related body indicators. Also, it is considered that this diet food has potential to prevent and improve effectively obesity from abnormal fat accumulation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.27-35
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• 2002

Background: A perioperative myocardial infarction(PMI) is one of the major complications after CABG. Among diagnostic methods of PMI, CK-MB activity assays have been increasingly replaced by CK-MB mass assays, which have more sensitive, simple measurement. Also, new cardiac-specific and -sensitive marker, cardiac troponin I(cTnl), has been shown to be a marker of myocardial infarction. We report our evaluation of clinical significance of CK-MB mass and cTnl as a marker of PMI after CABG. Material and Method: We studied 32 patients who underwent CABG at Kangdong Sacred Hospital between April 2000 and April 2001. Postoperative serum CK-MB activity level, serum CK-MB mass, cTnl, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and clinical data were recorded prospectively The diagnosis of PMI was defined as positive 2 among 3 or all of the following , by a new Q wave on the electrocardiogram, by serum CK-MB activity higher than 200 lU/L within 72 hours after operation, and by new regional wall motion abnormality on the echocardiogram. Result: After CABG, 3 patients had sustained a PMI according to current diagnostic criteria. As serum CK-MB activity time course, a level of CK-MB activity 12 hours after CABG had very linear correlated significance with serum CK-MB mass 24hours(R=0.946) and cTnl 48 hours(R=0.933) after CABG(p=0.000). As we used a receiver operating characteristics curve(ROC curve) for a diagnostic cutoff value in patients with PMI, serum CK-MB mass levels higher than 30.05 ug/L 24 hours after CABG detected the presence of PMI with an area under the ROC curve of 1.0, a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value of 100%, and a negative predictive value of 100%. Also serum cTnl levels higher than 17.15 ug/L 48 hours after CABG detected the presence of PMI with an area under the ROC curve of 0.98, a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 96.6%, a positive preclictive value of 75%, and a negative predictive value of 100% Conclusion: We concluded that both the measurement of CK-MB mass and cTnl are the easier, accurate methods as a diagnostic marker of PMT after CABG, also as a proposal of diagnostic cutoff value enables to an early detection of PMI. However, a 1arger number of patient will be needed because of statistic limitation that a small number of participating patients, a small number of PMI.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• 제40권5호
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• pp.19-32
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively measure the view target and the view area through the selection of landscape control point by selecting Jimyeong-dong Dong-gu and Yeongyeong-dong Buk-gu Daegu, which are planned as the large scale housing complex development area, as the target places. It is very meaningful that from the simulation based on this measurement, the improvement methods are attempted to be suggested at the project level. The results of this study are as follows. First, the total number of viewing targets derived from the literature analysis for the selection of the viewing targets was 24, and finally derived main viewing targets were 4 places. Second, the total number of selection criteria of the derived landscape control point was 15, and these were re-categorized as prospect, accessibility and publicness according to the common property. The preliminary LCPs were selected by measuring the publicness and accessibility, and because of the said measurement, a total of 43 preliminary LCPs were selected. The final LCPs were selected by estimating the prospect of the selected preliminary LCPs, and as a result of estimation, a total of 29 final LCPs were selected. Finally, the total number of evaluation indicators derived from literature analysis was 26. Because of the valuation by the landscape control point, it was found that the 2 view areas were the I grade, 3 areas were II grade and 3 areas were the V grade, the lowest grade among 29 view areas. From the analysis on problems for the improvement methods, 4 improvement-indicators including the diversity of land mosaic were selected for the view area-1 without considering the development project drawing. In addition, for the view area-2 with considering the development project drawing, the landscape as the scenery forests was well formed, and the arrangement of architectures for the security of view corridor was right angle arrangement, and their floor number was 10.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.151-165
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• 2017

This study investigates the effect of revenue recognition by percentage of completion method on financial analysts' earnings forecasting information in order industry. Specifically, we examines how the analysts' earnings forecast errors and biases differ according to whether or not to report the unbilled revenue account balance and the level of unbilled revenue account balance. The sample consists of 453 firm-years listed in Korea Stock Exchange during the period from 2010 to 2014 since the information on unbilled revenue accounts can be obtained after the adoption of K-IFRS. The results are as follows. First, we find that the firms with unbilled revenue account balances have lower analysts' earnings forecast accuracy than the firms who do not report unbilled revue account balances. In addition, we find that the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts decreases as the amount of unbilled revenue increases. Unbilled revenue account balances occur when the revenue recognition of the contractor is faster than the client. There is a possibility that managerial discretionary judgment and estimation may intervene when the contractor calculates the progress rate. The difference between the actual progress of the construction and the progress recognized by the company lowers the predictive value of financial statements. Our results suggest that the analysts' earnings forecasts may be more difficult for the firms that report unbilled revenue balances as applying the revenue recognition method based on the progress criteria. Second, we find that the firms reporting unbilled revenue account balances tend to have higher the optimistic biases in analysts' earnings forecast than the firms who do not report unbilled revenue account balances. And we find that the analysts' earnings forecast biases are increases as the amount of unbilled revenue increases. This study suggests an effort to reduce the arbitrary adjustment and estimation in the measurement of the progress as well as the introduction of the progress measurement method which can reflect the actual progress. Investors are encouraged to invest and analyze the characteristics of the order-based industry accounting standards. In addition, the results of this study empower the accounting transparency enhancement plan for order industry proposed by the policy authorities.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.73-91
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• 2013

Advertising market has been facing new challenges due to dramatic change in advertising channels and the advent of innovative media such as mobile devices. Recent research related to mobile devices is mainly focused on the fact that mobile devices could identify users'physical location in real-time, and this sheds light on how location-based technology is utilized to achieve competitive advantage in advertising market. With the introduction of smartphone, the functionality of smartphone has become much more diverse and context awareness is one of the areas that require further study. This work analyses the influence of context awareness value resulted from the transformation of advertising channel in mobile communication market, and our research result reflects recent trend in advertising market environment which is not considered in previous studies. Many constructs has intensively been studied in the context of advertising channel in traditional marketing environment, and entertainment, irritation and information are considered to be the most widely accepted variables that has positive relationship with advertising value. Also, in smartphone advertisement, four main dimensions of context awareness value are recognized: identification, activity, timing and location. In this study, we assume that these four constructs has positive relationship with context awareness value. Finally, we propose that advertising value and context awareness value positively influence smartphone advertising attitude. Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural model is used in our theoretical research model to test proposed hypotheses. A well designed survey is conducted for college students in Korea, and reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of constructs and measurement indicators are carefully evaluated and the results show that reliability and validity are confirmed according to predefined statistical criteria. Goodness-of-fit of our research model is also supported. In summary, the results collectively suggest good measurement properties for the proposed research model. The research outcomes are as follows. First, information has positive impact on advertising value while entertainment and irritation have no significant impact. Information, entertainment and irritation together account for 38.8% of advertising value. Second, along with the change in advertising market due to the advent of smartphone, activity, timing and location have positive impact on context awareness value while identification has no significant impact. In addition, identification, activity, location and time together account for 46.3% of context awareness value. Third, advertising value and context awareness value both positively influence smartphone advertising attitude, and these two constructs explain 31.7% of the variability of smartphone advertising attitude. The theoretical implication of our research is as follows. First, the influence of entertainment and irritation is reduced which are known to be crucial factors according to previous studies related to advertising value, while the influence of information is increased. It indicates that smartphone users are not likely interested in entertaining effect of smartphone advertisement, and are insensitive to the inconvenience due to smartphone advertisement. Second, in today' ubiquitous computing environment, it is effective to provide differentiated advertising service by utilizing smartphone users'context awareness values such as identification, activity, timing and location in order to achieve competitive business advantage in advertising market. For practical implications, enterprises should provide valuable and useful information that might attract smartphone users by adopting differentiation strategy as smartphone users are sensitive to the information provided via smartphone. Also enterprises not only provide useful information but also recognize and utilize smarphone users' unique characteristics and behaviors by increasing context awareness values. In summary, our result implies that smartphone advertisement should be optimized by considering the needed information of smartphone users in order to maximize advertisement effect.

• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.229-236
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• 2020

Purpose: This study examined the utility of preliminary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements in the ultrasound-guided L4 selective nerve root block. Materials and Methods: As a retrospective study, 71 patients, who met the criteria for outpatient visits from March 2016 to December 2017, were included. From March 2016 to February 2017, 31 patients who underwent an L4 nerve root block without MRI were classified as group A, and 40 patients who underwent an L4 nerve root block through MRI measurements from March 2017 to December 2017 were classified as group B. Group A was injected under ultrasound-guidance through the pararadicular approach without a pre-interventional MRI evaluation, and group B was injected under ultrasound-guidance according to the preliminary MRI measurements. The results were assessed using the numeric rating scale scores before, three hours, and two, six, and 12 weeks after the procedure. Results: At three hours after the procedure, the proportion of patients better than good results were 51.6% in group A and 67.5% in group B. At two weeks after the procedure, the proportion of patients with better than good results were 48.4% and 70.0% in groups A and B, respectively; 58.1% and 62.5% of patient of groups A and B, respectively, showed better than good results after six weeks. In 12 weeks after the procedure, the results of group A and B were 67.7% and 62.5%, respectively. At three hours and two weeks after the procedure, group B showed significant symptom improvement than group A (p<0.05). The procedures were repeated 2.8 and 1.7 times in groups A and B, respectively, between two and six weeks for satisfactory pain relief (p<0.05). Conclusion: A pre-interventional MRI evaluation might improve pain relief within the initial two weeks after ultrasound-guided L4 selective nerve root block by improving the success rate of the procedure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• 제75권1호
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• pp.1-18
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• 1986

This study was initiated to estimate productivity of Quercus variabilis stand. However the practical objective of this study was to provide some information to establish the basis of selecting the suitable site for Quercus variabilis. The productivity measured in terms of DBH, height, basal area and stem volume was hypothesized, respectively, to be a function of a group of factors. This study considered 32 factors, 20 of which were related to the forest environmental factors such as tree age, latitude, percent slope, etc. and the rest of which were related to soil factors such as soil moisture, total nitrogen, available $P_2O_5$, etc. The data on 4 productivity measurements of Quercus variabilis growth and related factors cited were collected from 99 sample plots in Kyeongbook and chungbook provinces. Some factors considered were, in nature, discrete variables and the others continuous variables. Each kind of factor was classified into 3 or 4 categories and total numbers of such categories were eventually amounted to 110. Then each category was treated as an independent variable. This is amounted to saying that individual variable was treated a dummy variable and assigned a value 1 or 0. However the first category of each factor was deleted from the normal equation for statistical consideration. First of all, each of 4 productivity measurements of Quercus variabilis growth was regressed and, at the same time, those 110 categories. Secondly, the partial correlation coefficients were measured between each pair of 4 productivity measurements and 32 individual foctors. Finally, the relative scores were estimated in order to derive the category ranges. The result of these statistical analyses could be summarized as follows: 1) Growth measurement in terms of height seems to be a more significant criterion for estimation of productivity of Quercus variabilis. 2) Productivity of forest on stocked land may better be estimated in terms of forest environmental factors, on the other hand, that of unstocked land may be estimated in terms of physio-chemical factors of soil. 3) The factors that a strongly positive relation to all growth factors of tree are age group, effective soil, soil moisture, etc. This implies that these factors might effectively be used for criteria for selecting the suitable site for Quercus variabilis. 4) Parent rock, latitude, total nitrogen, age group, effective soil depth, soil moisture, organic matter, etc., had more significant category range for tree growth. Therefore, the suitable site for Quercus variabilis may be selected, based on this information. In conclusion, the above results obtained by the multivariable analysis can be not only the important criteria for estimating the growth of Quercus variabilis but also the useful guidance for selecting the suitable sites and performing the rational of Quercus variabilis forest.