• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7555-7560
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• 2013

Background: Beedi rollers are exposed to unburnt tobacco dust through cutaneous and pharyngeal route and it is extremely harmful to the body since it is carcinogenic in nature and can cause cancer during long exposure. This indicates that occupational exposure to tobacco imposes considerable genotoxicity among beedi workers. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 27 beedi workers and age and sex matched controls were enrolled for clinical, cytogenetics and molecular analysis. Clinical features were recorded. The workers were in the age group of 28-67 years and were workers exposure from 8-60 years. Blood samples were collected from workers and control subjects and lymphocyte cultures were carried out by using standard technique, slides were prepared and 50 metaphases were scored for each sample to find the chromosomal abnormalities. For molecular analysis the genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood, to screen the variations in gene, the exon 1 of CYP1A1 gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then screened with Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. Results: A statistically significant increase was observed in the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations in exposed groups when compared to the respective controls and variations observed in Exon 1 of CYP1A1(Cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily A, polypeptide 1) gene. Conclusions: This study shows that, the toxicants present in the beedi that enter into human body causes disturbance to normal state and behavior of the chromosomes which results in reshuffling of hereditary material causing chromosomal aberrations and genomic variations.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.593-603
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• 2019

Purpose: Previous studies have highlighted that the nutritional behaviors among South Korean workers are far from ideal. This study examined the organizational influences affecting the eating practices of office workers in South Korea. Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 22 office workers at 12 companies in South Korea. The interviewer inquired about the employees' daily routines on food and beverage intake. The various factors that influence their food choices in their work environments were also explored. The interviews were transcribed and then analyzed using a content analysis. Results: A framework analysis revealed 7 key recurring themes, and these were grouped under three levels: team-, company-, and corporate group-levels. First, team dinners are core social events for all the workers and they tend to include high-caloric food and alcoholic beverages. The frequency of team meals and the food associated with them depend on various team characteristics such as gender composition, the nature of a team's work and the team leaders' emphasis on group meals. Second, the company's policies and practices regarding budget allocation for team meals and subsidies for cafeteria meals affect the workers' food intake practices. In addition, the physical environment of the worksite cafeterias can influence the choices of foods. Third, various corporate group policies that were not designed to target food intake had additional positive effects on the workers' eating behaviors. Conclusion: This study provides important insights into the broader organizational influences on the food consumption of employees in their workplace. These insights can be used to design and implement more effective intervention strategies for improving the nutritional behaviors of office workers.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.37
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• pp.145-170
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• 2008

This qualitative study explores social workers' phenomenological experiences with battered women, including their struggles and needs for building and maintaining an empathic identification with their battered women clients. Twelve interviews were conducted with social workers who have provided services in the domestic violence field over the last two years. They identified their clients prejudices and unfamiliarity with counseling and social work profession in Korea as related to battered women clients' initial resistance to social workers' empathic engagement. The nature of victimization between intimate partners (i.e., emotional bounds, continuing risks of victimization) requires workers' enormous energy to maintain their need for an empathic identification with their clients. Social workers emphasized the importance of clinical supervision and supportive networks that enable them to maintain their professional energy and commitment as an empathic helper.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9307-9312
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• 2014

Background: Hope is an important coping resource for cancer patients. Types and sources of hope and hope-inspiring strategies are not well investigated among Iranian cancer patients. The aims of present study were therefore to investigate the nature of hope and some demographic predictors of hope among Iranian cancer patients. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was undertaken among 200 cancer patients admitted to an educational center affiliated to Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Participants were selected using a convenience sampling method. The Herth Hope Index and other validated questionnaires were used to investigate level of hope and types and sources of hope, as well as hope-inspiring strategies. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results: The overall score for hope was 31 from total scores ranging between 12 and 48. Some 94% of patients mentioned 'return to normal life' and 'complete healing of disease by drugs and physicians' as their main hopes. The most important sources of hope reported by patients include spiritual resources, family members, healthcare workers, and medicines and treatments available for the disease. Relationship with God, praying/blessing, controlling the signs and symptoms of the disease, and family/health care workers' support were the main hope-inspiring strategies. Patients who had a history of metastasis, or who were older, illiterate, divorced/widowed and lived with their children reported lower levels of hope. On the other hand, employed patients and those with good support from their families had higher levels of hope. Conclusions: The study findings showed moderate to high levels of hope among Iranian cancer patients. Accordingly, the role of spiritual/religion, family members and health care workers should be considered in developing care plans for these patients.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.57-68
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• 2018

Purpose - The development of technologies lead the volume of sale on online market increase but an off-line shopping center is still a core component in the omni-channel strategy. It is generally thought that high-level retailtainment on brick and mortar store affects purchase intentions positively, but some previous studies dispute that and have reported that retailtainment does not affect purchase intentions. So we have studied the additional factors' effect - the nature of purchase and utility - with retailtainment. Research design, data, and methodology - There are 8 treatment groups which were assigned by the method of retailtainment (high vs. low), nature of purchase (essential vs. non-essential), and utility (acquisition vs. transaction). A total of 240 subjects (office workers = 163, 68%; undergraduates = 77, 32%; average age = 30s; female = 39%) were divided into groups and exposed to one of the eight scenarios. Participant's purchase intention was the dependent, and ANOVA and L-matrix were used to analyze for main and interactive effects between factors. Results - First, the main effect and interactive effect between retailtainment and the nature of purchase are significant. We also found that the contrast between essential and non-essential at low-level retailtainment is higher than that of high-level retailtainment. Second, in the case of retailtainment and utility, transaction utility under high-level retailtainment affects purchase intentions positively. Third, between the nature of the purchase and utility, the main effect of the nature of purchase and the interactive effect is significant, but the main effect of utility is not significant. In the case of non-essential goods, the purchase intention was high when transaction utility was provided but in the case of essential goods, acquisition utility increased purchase intentions. Finally, when transaction utility is given, purchase intentions of essential goods increase under low retailtainment, and the purchase intentions of non-essential goods increase under high retailtainment. Conclusions - When customers buy essential goods, discounts decrease purchase intentions. During the season for bargain sales, purchase intentions increase when retailtainment of essential goods is low, and retailtainment of non-essential goods is high.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2017

A huge number of chemicals are produced and used in the world, and some of them can have negative effects on the reproductive health of workers. To date, most chemicals and work environments have not been studied for their potential to have damaging effects on the workers' reproductive system. Because of the lack of information, many workers may not be aware that such problems can be related to occupational exposures. Newly industrialized countries such as Republic of Korea have rapidly amassed chemicals and other toxicants that pose health hazards, especially to the reproductive systems of workers. This literature review provides an overview of peer-reviewed literature regarding the teratogenic impact and need for safe handling of chemicals. Literature searches were performed using PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. Search strategies were narrowed based on author expertise and 100 articles were chosen for detailed analysis. A total of 47 articles met prespecified inclusion criteria. The majority of papers contained studies that were descriptive in nature with respect to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and keywords: "reproductive and heath or hazard and/or workplace or workers or occupations." In the absence of complete information about the safe occupational handling of chemicals in Republic of Korea (other than a material safety data sheet), this review serves as a valuable reference for identifying and remedying potential gaps in relevant regulations. The review also proposes other public health actions including hazard surveillance and primary prevention activities such as reduction, substitution, ventilation, as well as protective equipment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2020

Objectives: Methyl bromide is a highly toxic substance that can cause systemic poisoning, neurotoxicity, pulmonary edema. Methyl bromide is a widespread fumigation agent used for import and export quarantine, but there is little data on exposure assessment of workers participating in such fumigation. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the exposure level of methyl bromide among workers and the concentration distribution of methyl bromide in the workplace during fumigation. Methods: For this study, one wood tent and one container fumigation area in Pusan, and one wood tent fumigation area in Incheon were investigated over three months from June 2001. Results: Methyl bromide exposure levels for container fumigation workers were from undetected to 1.86 ppm and from undetected to 2.28 ppm for tent fumigation workers as an 8 hr TWA. After opening the container door, the methyl bromide concentration in the container decreased rapidly over time, but the concentration remained over 1 ppm even after about one hour. The concentrations around the tent during its removal were highly affected by wind, but were detected in a range from undetected to 11.97 ppm. Conclusions: This study confirmed that both container and tent fumigation caused workers to exceed the exposure limit of 1 ppm as an 8 hour TWA. In particular, it could be confirmed that a situation exists in which the worker may be exposed to high concentrations of methyl bromide when opening the container or removing the tent due to the nature of the work. Therefore, it is very important to improve working methods and to wear appropriate personal protective equipment.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.41-62
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• 2019

In this intangible good-oriented, modern service economy era, we have to first understand the characteristics of the healthcare service in order to enhance the competitiveness of the healthcare industry and achieve continuous growth. In addition, service nature and characteristics should be reinforced so that connections can be made to the organizational job performance. To achieve the aforementioned results, this study analyzes the direct effects service nature and characteristics have on job performance in the healthcare industry and investigates the indirect effects with individual personality as the moderating effect. While conducting this study, a total of 340 healthcare workers were surveyed. Survey data from a total of 315 workers were used for analysis during empirical investigation of the research hypothesis. According to the analysis, it was proven that interactivity and horizontality among service nature and characteristics have a positive (+) effect on job effectiveness. This means that customer needs can be identified at customer touchpoints to quickly and accurately provide customers with the products and services they want, while horizontality among service nature and characteristics have a positive (+) effect on job effectiveness. This means that customer needs can be identified at customer touchpoints to quickly and accurately provide customers with the products and services they want, while horizontal communication enhance from department to department and from colleague to colleague within the organization can be linked to job performance. Also, with regards to the relationship shared between the customer or the patient, the job performance of healthcare workers may also improve if they provide customers with their desired service as an expert at the same level. In a rapidly changing healthcare environment, if the healthcare service nature and characteristics are put into practical use, it will be possible to propel the growth of hospitals and sustain it while investigating the moderating effects of individual personality, a partial moderating effect was observed for self-esteem and growth desire. As the study on service nature and characteristics came about only just recently, there is a needs for futher research. The study focuses on the healthcare service industry and hopefully, it will serve as a base study that can be applied to different service industries as well.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.133-152
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the wages of workers in the logistics industry and to identify the current status of employment and wages in the logistics industry. Based on this, it sought to find analytical factors on the wages of workers in the logistics industry and explain their impact on the wage gap. The analysis data were interpreted as cross-sectional data from the National Statistical Office over the past decade and the analysis data were set to three types. The results of the analysis could be explained that three factors understood as wage discrimination factors that do not directly affect productivity generally have a significant impact on wage gap among workers in the logistics industry. Air and water transport industries received high salaries due to factors in the industry. The very low-paid sector for that was the land transport industry, and the courier industry as a detailed sector. Due to the nature of job factors, technicians and assistants received lower wages than other jobs. Due to the nature of the company's size factors, companies with 51 or more employees received higher wages than companies with 50 or less employees. In testing the effectiveness of multiple sources of ANOVA, the common 'industry × enterprise size' variable was explained to have a significant effect on gaps in wages for workers in the logistics industry. In addition, the comparison of the influence of the main effects of the three factors put into the analysis model shows that the industry has the most influence.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2019

Background: Emergency workers such as firefighters are cataloged within the most demanding and injurious professions globally. Considering the health and safety implications in firefighting, a lot of research needs to be conducted to examine how firefighters' task characteristics and their work demand influence the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). This study therefore examines how the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and the development of WMSDs. Methods: Convenient sampling was employed to select 320 firefighters in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression. Results: The findings revealed that work demand and task characteristics have significant positive effects on WMSDs. Again, the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and WMSDs. Conclusion: Since the study shows that task characteristics influences the relationship between work demand and WMSDs, it is vital for managers to constantly modify the nature of tasks performed by and work demand of emergency workers to minimize the development of WMSDs and other industrial health complications.