• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.420-436
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• 1996

The goal of this study is to explore different risk factors for smoking and look at the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding smoking among schoolchildren, in order to reduce teenage smoking. To achieve this goal a self-administered questionaire regarding smoking was provided to schoolchildren in the 7th and 8th grades in one junior high school in Jerusalem. The schoolchildren were exposed to 10-12 hours of a smoking prevention intervention program. The questionaire focused primarily on the personal characteristics, social environment, knowledge, attitudes, practices, and behavioral intentions of the children. Crosstabs were performed on each variable to determine if significant associations exist among the different variables. The statistical computer, package, SPSS PC, was used to manipulate the data along with Chi-square test. The findings were as follows : About 11% of the children aged 12-14 have ever smoked or are smoking currently, and about 24.0% of those who ever smoked started smoking at the age of 10. Boys smoke more(p<.01), poorer students(by self-perception of school performance) smoke more, and those who had peers who were smokers were more likely to smoke(p<.05). The percentage of the children who reported that either father or mother smoked was about 30%, but no statistical association was found between parental smoking and children's smoking, although trends were noted in the expected direction, i.e. more smokers among children of smokers. Only 1.1% of the children intended to smoke in the future, and 98.0% of the children indicated that they can or they might be able to withstand social pressure. Seventy percent of the children demonstrated medium to high knowledge about smoking, Males, 8th graders, better students, and those without friends who smoke had higher social pressure showed more negative attitudes(p<.01). Those with non-smoking siblings showed more negative behavioral intentions regarding smoking(p<.01), and better students showed more negative behavioral intentions. Those who had higher knowledge scores showed more negative attitudes towards smoking, but not significantly so. Those who had very negative behavioral intentions showed highly significant negative attitudes towards smoking(p<.01).

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.611-622
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• 2000

To investigate the exchange rates of mercury(Hg) across soil-air boundary, we undertook the measurements of Hg flux using gradient technique from a major waste reclamation site, Nan-Ji-Do. Based on these measurement data, we attempted to provide insights into various aspects of Hg exchange in a strongly polluted soil environment. According to our analysis, the study site turned out to be not only a major emission source area but also a major sink area. When these data were compared on hourly basis over a full day scale, large fluxes of emission and deposition centered on daytime periods relative to nighttime periods. However, when comparison of frequency with which emission or deposition occurs was made, there emerged a very contrasting pattern. While emission was dominant during nighttime periods, deposition was most favored during daytime periods. When similar comparison was made as a function of wind direction, it was noticed that there may be a major Hg source at easterly direction to bring out significant deposition of Hg in the study area. To account for the environmental conditions controlling the vertical direction of Hg exchange, we compared environmental conditions for both the whole data group and those observed from the wind direction of strong deposition events. Results of this analysis indicated that the concentrations of pollutant species varied sensitively enough to reflect the environmental conditions for each direction of exchange. When correlation analysis was applied to our data, results indicated that windspeed and ozone concentrations best reflected changes in the magnitudes of emission/deposition fluxes. The results of factor analysis also indicated the possibility that Hg emission of study area is temperature-driven process, while that of deposition is affected by a mixed effects of various factors including temperature, ozone, and non-methane HCs. If the computed emission rate is extrapolated to the whole study area we estimate that annual emission of Hg from the study area can amount to approximately 6kg.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.3
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• pp.35-58
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• 2002

This research attempted to investigate the real state of adolescent smoking and drinking, and to study how stress influences on smoking and drinking of high school students. This data was collected from 837 first and second grade students in a vocational high school in Go-yang city, Gyeonggi province. Data analysis consisted of frequency, percentage, Chi-square, T-test, step-wise regression analysis, using SPSSWIN. The results of analysis were as follows: First, 51.7% of the students have never smoked, while 48.3% have experienced smoking. Most students started smoking in the second year of the middle school, though 17.6% of the smokers already started in the elementary school. The strongest motive of initial smoking was curiosity, next the inducement of friends, and 10.9% of them smoked to get rid of stress. Their favorite place for smoking was in the order of the entertainment centers, schools, and private academies. They personally purchased cigarettes mostly at the store. Most of them smoked less than 5 cigarettes a day, but 3.7% smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day, usually with friends rather than alone. Second, the ratio of drinking was relatively high 78.1%, and their initial drinking experience was most frequent at the third year of the middle school. The initial motive of drinking was mostly curiosity and the inducement of friends, but 10.7% of them started drinking to reduce stress and anxiety. The places for buying alcohol and drinking were bars or restaurants. The ratio of habitual drinking was 45.1%, and the ratio of irregular drinking was 53.3%. 1.8% of the drinking students enjoyed drinking everyday. The amount of drinking varied from half a bottle to two bottles of Soju, and the drinking problem was serious to see that 11% of them drank more than two bottles at a time. Because 84.4% drank in groups with friends, a thorough and systematic supervision and education of the peer group drinking is essential. Third, as for the relationship between personal matters and smoking, it was found that there was a positive relation between smoking and sex, but there was no correlation between smoking and school years. Adolescent smoking was also related with scholastic achievement, the number of friends, and the existence of parents. Fourth, as for the relationship between personal matters and drinking, it was found that there was no correlation between drinking and sex, but there was a positive relation between drinking and school years. Fifth, the average index of stress was students themselves(2.58), school life(2.53), family life(2.19), friends(2.00), and the total index of stress was 2.33. Sixth, there appeared a marginal negative correlation between stress and 'drinking and smoking' in Pearson coefficient of correlation r to see the influence of stress on smoking and drinking. The difference of the average index of stress according to smoking and drinking bears meaningful difference for all students, smokers and non-smokers, drinkers and abstainers in students themselves, school life, family life, friends, and total stress. Smoking has an effect on family life most, school life next, and drinking has an effect on school life most, family life next, with the explanation power of 11% and 9% respectively, in a regression analysis to analyze the factors influencing on smoking and drinking among the factors of stress.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.122-129
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• 2001

Purpose : After Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is known to be a fatal disease, efforts and studies are made to determine the cause, treatment method and method of preventing infection. However, no treatment method is present and vaccine development has not been made. Therefore, the most effective treatment method is prevention, and almost 100% prevention is possible when correct preventive measures are taken. We suggest effective prevention education by comparing knowledge and attitude of those unmarried men who had sexual encounters with prostitutes (high risk group) and those with no sexual encounters with prostitutes (low risk group). Methods : From January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2000, a survey was done in 516 unmarried soldiers and college students. With the collected data, chi-square test was used to compare and analyze the demographic characteristic, knowledge on AIDS, and attitude on AIDS between the high risk group and low risk group. One-way ANOVA test was used to compare and analyze the scores on knowledge between these two groups. Results : Among 516 unmarried men, 256 men (49.6%) fell into the high risk group and 260 men (50.4%) into the low risk group. Both groups showed that they heard of AIDS during their middle school years. The main route of obtaining knowledge on AIDS was through TV programs with 124 men(48.4%) in the high risk group and 167 men (64.2%) in the low risk group (P=0.002). Among 20 items, the average score on knowledge was $13.9{\pm}1.9$ in the high risk group and $14.1{\pm}1.8$ in the low risk group with no statistical difference between these two groups (P=0.191). Two items showed statistical significance in the low risk group compared with the high risk group; these were the item of AIDS being transmitted through transfusion (P=0.014) and through mosquitoes (P=0.009). As for attitude, statistical significance was present in the item stating that AIDS patients should be isolated in the high risk group compared with the low risk group (P=0.029). Conclusions : The present study showed that both the high risk group and low risk group obtained knowledge on AIDS through TV. No statistical difference was present between the two groups other than the high risk group showed statistically high results in two items on knowledge and one item on attitude. Thus, these results showed that exposure to AIDS can be lowered with better knowledge and the attitude of those with a low risk of infection was more positive.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.113-125
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• 2007

To know the differences in ionic compositions in rain and snow as well as snow influence on the chemical characteristics of winter precipitation, precipitation samples were collected by the wet-only automatic precipitation sample, in winter(November-February) in the Iksan located in the northwest of Chonbuk from 1995 to 2000. The samples were analyzed for concentrations of water-soluble ion species, in addition to pH and electrical conductivity. The mean pH of winter precipitation was 4.72. According to the type of winter precipitation, the mean pH of rain was 4.67 and lower than 5.05 in snow. The frequencies of pH below 5.0 in rain were about 73%, while those in snow were about 30%. Snow contained 3 times higher concentrations of sea salt ion components originated from seawater than did rain in winter, mainly $Cl^-,\;Na^+$, and $Mg^{2+}$. Neglecting sea salt ion components, $nss-SO_4^{2-}$ and $NO_3^-$ were important anions and $NH_4^+$ and $nss-Ca^{2+}$ were important cations in both of rain and snow. Concentrations of $nss-SO_4^{2-}$ was 1.3 times higher in rain than in snow, while those of $nss-Ca^{2+}$ and $NO_3^-$ were 1.5 and 1.3 times higher in snow, respectively. The mean equivalent concentration ratio of $nss-SO_4^{2-}/NO_3^-$ in winter precipitation were 2.4, which implied that the relative contribution of sulfuric and nitric acids to the precipitation acidity was 71% and 29%, respectively. The ratio in rain was 2.7 and higher than 1.5 in snow. These results suggest that the difference of $NO_3^-$ in rain and snow could be due to the more effective scavenging of $HNO_3$ vapor than particulate sulfate or nitrate by snow. The lower ratio in snow than rain is consistent with the measurement results of foreign other investigators and with scavenging theory of atmospheric aerosols. Although substantial $nss-SO_4^{2-}$ and $NO_3^-$ were observed in both of rain and snow, the corresponding presence of $NH_4^+,\;nss-Ca^{2+},\;nss-K^+$ suggested the significant neutralization of rain and snow. Differences in chemical composition of non-sea salt ions and neutralizing rapacity of $NH_4^+,\;nss-Ca^{2+}$, and $nss-K^+$ between rain and snow could explain the acidity difference of rain and snow. Snow affected that winter precipitation could be less acidic due to its higher neutralizing rapacity.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.1186-1193
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• 2006

Purpose : Enterovirus infection is a type of viral infection that occurs relatively frequently in children during summer. It has clinical symptoms of non-specific fever, aseptic encephalomeningitis, gastrointestinal diseases, skin rash and, hand-foot-mouth disease. However, it can also occcaisionally, result in fatal symptoms like myocarditis, epicardial inflammation, transverse myelitis, quadriplegia and etc. There have been epidemic enterovirus studies, but not in the Chungnam area. Therefore, we undertook this study in order to comprehend the cause viruses in this area. Methods: We enlisted 157 children hospitalized with enteroviral infections at Soonchunhyang University hospital in Cheonan between May and August 2005. Cerebrospinal fluids or feces were collected during the acute phase after hospitalization, and observed the cytopathic effects caused by enterovirus and using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results : The number of children hospitalized due to possible enteroviral infection during the period of study was 157. The number of children who tested positive with the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction totalled 32 cases (20.4 percent). Among the children with entroviral diseases, 20 were male and 12 were female, thus the sex ratio of male to female was 1.67:1. Their clinical symptoms included fever most frequently (93.7 percent), was followed by headaches (90.0 percent), meningeal irritation signs (65.0 percent), and abdominal pain (30.0 percent). As for the type of isolated enterovirus, there were 17 cases of echovirus 18 and 6 cases of coxsackievirus B5. Furthermore, there were 2 cases of echovirus 9, 1 case of coxsackievirus A6 and coxsackievirus B3, respectively. But 5 cases were not determined by genotype. Conclusion : Echovirus 18 is circulating in Korea. We reported on identified enteroviruses, including echovirus 18, using RT-PCR in the Chungnam area during the summer of 2005.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1690-1698
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• 2012

As alcohol use is one of the most important risk factors for injuries, this study was intended to clarify and evaluate any relationship between drinking patterns and the incidence rates/specific characteristics of injuries in adult populations, using a widely accepted tool, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (chronic alcohol drinking behaviors measurement, hereinafter the AUDIT) developed by the World Health Organization to help to assess the behaviors in a more accurate and reliable manner. This study used the data collected from the 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), in which 7,511 of 7,893 adult participants aged ${\geq}19$ years answered the questions about injuries, and excluding 104 non-respondents, 6,258 of participants in the questionnaire survey of drinking patterns were finally analyzed. The incidence rates and specific characteristics of injuries as classified by the AUDIT categories (i.e., body regions, types and mechanisms) were assessed and estimated in terms of their relative risk using t-test, ANOVA, and logistic regression. SPSS 19.0 statistical package software was employed for statistical analyses. These analyses indicate that the incidence rates of overall injuries were significantly higher in male respondents than in female respondents. The risks of alcohol use related injuries were 8.3 times higher in male respondents than in female ones. Regarding educational background, high school graduates showed the highest rates in the AUDIT with significant difference from the other groups. The married group and the group of respondents having monthly income estimated at KRW 2.01 to 3 million also showed the highest rates in the AUDIT compared to the other groups, indicating statistically significant difference. Significantly increased in problematic drinkers and those with alcohol dependence, the incidence rate of injuries body regions was 0.0371 in the head/neck, and with respect to the AUDIT and the mechanisms of external causes of injuries, transport accidents ranked first, followed by slippage, others, crash and fall. In regard to the classified types of injuries, it was statistically significant in others (e.g., laceration, contusion, addiction, or penetrating wound). In conclusion, the mechanisms of external causes of injuries as well as injuries attributed to alcohol use are very important, and a strategy is required to reduce such the injuries in the manner of decreasing the frequency of drinking after motivation by professional counsellors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1082-1090
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• 2009

Peak expiratory flow rate(PEF) is a very important diagnostic parameter obtained from the forced vital capacity(FVC) test. The expiratory flow rate increases during the short initial time period and may cause measurement error in PEF particularly due to non-ideal dynamic characteristic of the transducer. The present study evaluated the initial rise slope($S_r$) on the flow rate signal to compensate the transducer output data. The 26 standard signals recommended by the American Thoracic Society(ATS) were generated and flown through the velocity-type respiratory air flow transducer with simultaneously acquiring the transducer output signal. Most PEF and the corresponding output($N_{PEF}$) were well fitted into a quadratic equation with a high enough correlation coefficient of 0.9997. But only two(ATS#2 and 26) signals resulted significant deviation of $N_{PEF}$ with relative errors>10%. The relationship between the relative error in $N_{PEF}$ and $S_r$ was found to be linear, based on which $N_{PEF}$ data were compensated. As a result, the 99% confidence interval of PEF error was turned out to be approximately 2.5%, which was less than a quarter of the upper limit of 10% recommended by ATS. Therefore, the present compensation technique was proved to be very accurate, complying the international standards of ATS, which would be useful to calibrate respiratory air flow transducers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2012

Well-being is a reflection of current sociocultural trends that focus on the quality of life based on economic growth. Furthermore, organic food is believed to help people maintain good health and therefore leads to increased consumption of organic foods. Therefore, consumer interest in organic food is increasing, causing its market to grow, and this trend will be maintained in the future. The abuse of agricultural pesticides, gene manipulation, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy has caused consumers to worry about food safety. The well-being trend has also contributed to consumers' growing interest inorganic food and organic agricultural products. A consumer's choice offood is a complex processes affected by various factors. In particular, organic food is considered an individualistic merit good, considering the consumers' preferences related to certification policies. Therefore, various factors such as personal characteristics and sense of value could affect consumers' decisions. This research focused on an analysis of the factors influencing consumers' purchasing intention for organic food on the basis of an increase in organic food consumption. The research method was based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Factors such as consumer characteristics regarding food consumption, purchasing frequency, and other factors affecting purchasing intention were presented. The hypothesis was set using advanced research and stated that it is easier to forecast purchasing intentions by combining the theory of planned behavior and personal characteristics of consumer. The results show that two dimensions, attitude and perceived behavioral control, have statistically significant influence on the purchasing intention. It can be said that a positive attitude toward organic foods in particular increases the possibility of purchasing intention. In addition, consumers who consume more organic food products are more likely to have positive attitudes, and, in the past, purchasing frequency has positively influenced purchasing intention of organic foods. Consumers' negative feelings about the non-purchase of organic foods also showed a negative influence on purchasing intentions. In other words, even though consumers feel uncomfortable when not consuming organic food products, they do not try to purchase such products because of this feeling of discomfort. Furthermore, the subjective norm and the behavioral control of food-related involvement do not have a statistically significant influence on the purchasing intention or attitudes. This research verified the influence of factors related to purchasing intention. This study has several limitations: (1) even though consumers' responses can change based on the type of food, the types of food were not classified in this study; (2) future studies are necessary to analyze the attitudes of consumers on the basis of their purchasing experiences with organic foods.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-153
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• 2009

There is a growing concern about potential harmful effect of second-hand or environmental tobacco smoking. As a result, smoking bans in workplace become more prevalent worldwide. In Korea, workplace smoking ban policy become more restrictive in 2003 when National health enhancing law was amended. The new law requires all office buildings larger than 3,000 square meters (multi-purpose buildings larger than 2,000 square meters) should be smoke free. Therefore, a lot of indoor office became non smoking area. Previous studies in other counties often found contradicting answers for the effects of workplace smoking ban on smoking behavior. In addition, there was no study in Korea yet that examines the causal impacts of smoking ban on smoking behavior. The situation in Korea might be different from other countries. Using 2001 and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition surveys which are representative for population in Korea we try to examine the impacts of law change on current smoker and cigarettes smoked per day. The amended law impacted the whole country at the same time and there was a declining trend in smoking rate even before the legislation update. So, the challenge here is to tease out the true impact only. We compare indoor working occupations which are constrained by the law change with outdoor working occupations which are less impacted. Since the data has been collected before (2001) and after (2005) the law change for treated (indoor working occupations) and control (outdoor working occupations) groups we will use difference in difference method. We restrict our sample to working age (between 20 and 65) since these are the relevant population by the workplace smoking ban policy. We also restrict the sample to indoor occupations (executive or administrative and administrative support) and outdoor occupations (sales and low skilled worker) after dropping unemployed and someone working for military since it is not clear whether these occupations are treated group or control group. This classification was supported when we examined the answers for workplace smoking ban policy existing only in 2005 survey. Sixty eight percent of indoor occupations reported having an office smoking ban policy compared to forty percent of outdoor occupation answering workplace smoking ban policy. The estimated impacts on current smoker are 4.1 percentage point decline and cigarettes per day show statistically significant decline of 2.5 cigarettes per day. Taking into account consumption of average sixteen cigarettes per day among smokers it is sixteen percent decline in smoking rate which is substantial. We tested robustness using the same sample across two surveys and also using tobit model. Our results are robust against both concerns. It is possible that our measure of treated and control group have measurement error which will lead to attenuation bias. However, we are finding statistically significant impacts which might be a lower bound of the true estimates. The magnitude of our finding is not much different from previous finding of significant impacts. For cigarettes per day previous estimates varied from 1.37 to 3.9 and for current smoker it showed between 1%p and 7.8%p.