• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.315-325
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• 2022

Background: Firefighters are required to carry self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), which increases the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. This study assessed the newly recruited firefighters' internal forces and potential musculoskeletal disorders when carrying SCBA. The effects of SCBA strap lengths were also evaluated. Methods: Kinematic parameters of twelve male subjects running in a control condition with no SCBA equipped and three varying-strapped SCBAs were measured using 3D inertial motion capture. Subsequently, motion data and predicted ground reaction force were inputted for subject-specific musculoskeletal modeling to estimate joint and muscle forces. Results: The knee was exposed to the highest internal force when carrying SCBA, followed by the rectus femoris and hip, while the shoulder had the lowest force compared to the no-SCBA condition. Our model also revealed that adjusting SCBA straps length was an efficient strategy to influence the force that occurred at the lumbar spine, hip, and knee regions. Grey relation analysis indicated that the deviation of the center of mass, step length, and knee flexion-extension angle could be used as the predictor of musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: The finding suggested that the training of the newly recruits focuses on the coordinated movement of muscle and joints in the lower limb. The strap lengths around 98-105 cm were also recommended. The findings are expected to provide injury interventions to enhance the occupational health and safety of the newly recruited firefighters.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demand and supply of advanced practice nurses and suggest alternative benefit strategies in the Korean national health insurance. Methods: A revised demand & supply model was used to estimate the excess supply of APNs, and policy making process and key actors in the Korean health insurance were considered to develop a political approach to the APN issue. Results: The social demand for APNs is currently estimated to be less than 50% of its supply and the APN education program fell into difficulties in recruits. No reimbursement mechanism for APN's services in the national health insurance has given no economic incentive to hospital managers who have monopsony power in nursing labor market, which has caused the demand shortage of APNs in hospital industry. Payment for APN's services recognized as one of the most significant strategies to booster the social demand for APN's services should be carefully designed and implemented in the national health insurance. In line with this, key actors in health insurance policy decision-making include government, national assembly, labor unions, NGOs, civic groups, medical associations, and academia. Conclusion: The basic researches for APN's activities and cost-effectiveness analysis in clinical settings are required to support the strategies aforementioned. Constructing a policy network among key actors is able to make the payment strategy feasible, which will increase the socal demand for APNs.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2017

Recently meet the growing needs of customers and has increased, the need for training of customer contact staff in order to improve and increase customer satisfaction. These service training is because it improves the service capabilities of contact for customer-facing employees to respond to customers as well as to improve customer satisfaction. This study is placed in the field after the service training aimed at Customer contact staff joined in 2013~2016 in the first half of these new recruits training education working in the Seoul Metro customers respond to customers in customer contact and practical services it will proceed to the empirical study of how this affects the satisfaction and loyalty to the organization for the job than to find a better improvement in the educational program.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1031-1037
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• 2004

The interaction of chemoattractant receptors and $G{\alpha}_{16}$ was studied to provide the molecular basis to elucidate the interaction of chemoattractant receptors with $G{\alpha}_{16}$ subunit, thereby possibly contributing to finding novel targets for designing new type of G protein antagonists with anti-inflammatory effects. Experiments were performed to characterize the $G{\alpha}_{16}$ subunit domains responsible for efficient coupling to chemoattractant receptors. Thus, a series of chimeric $G{\alpha}_{11}G{\alpha}_{16}$ and $G{\alpha}_{16}G{\alpha}_{11}$ cDNA constructs were expressed, and the ability of chimeric proteins to mediate C5a, IL-8, and fMLP-induced release of inositol phosphate in transfected Cos-7 cells was tested. The results showed that short stretches of residues 154 to residue 167 and from residue 174 to residue 195 of $G{\alpha}_{16}$ contribute to efficient coupling to the C5a receptor. On the other hand, a stretch of amino acid residues 220-240 of $G{\alpha}_{16}$ that is necessary for interacting with C5a receptor did not play any role in the interaction with IL-8 receptor. However, a stretch from residue 155 to residue 195 of $G{\alpha}_{16}$ was found to be crucial for efficient coupling to IL-8 receptor in concert with C-terminal 30 amino acid residues of this ${\alpha}$ subunit. Coupling profiles of a variety of chimeras, composed of $G{\alpha}_{11}G{\alpha}_{16}$ to fMLP receptor indicate that the C-terminal 30 amino acids are most critical for the coupling of $G{\alpha}_{16}$ to fMLP receptor. Taken together, $G{\alpha}_{16}$ subunit recruits multiple and distinctive coupling regions, depending on the type of receptors, to interact.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.549-557
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• 2016

Aphids are a large group of hemipteran pests that affect the physiology, growth, and development of plants by using piercing mouthparts to consume fluids from the host. Based an recent data, aphids modulate the microbiomes of plants and thereby affect the overall outcome of the biological interaction. However, in a few reports, aboveground aphids manipulate the metabolism of the host and facilitate infestations by rhizosphere bacteria (rhizobacteria). In this study, we evaluated whether aphids alter the plant resistance that is mediated by the bacterial community of the root system. The rhizobacteria were affected by aphid infestation of pepper, and a large population of gram-positive bacteria was detected. Notably, Paenibacillus spp. were the unique gram-positive bacteria to respond to changes induced by the aphids. Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 was used as a rhizobacterium model to assess the recruitment of bacteria to the rhizosphere by the phloem-sucking of aphids and to test the effect of P. polymyxa on the susceptibility of plants to aphids. The root exudates secreted from peppers infested with aphids increased the growth rate of P. polymyxa E681. The application of P. polymyxa E681 to pepper roots promoted the colonization of aphids within 2 days of inoculation. Collectively, our results suggest that aphid infestation modulated the root exudation, which led to the recruitment of rhizobacteria that manipulated the resistance of peppers to aphids. In this study, new information is provided on how the infestation of insects is facilitated through insect-derived modulation of plant resistance with the attraction of gram-positive rhizobacteria.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.68-94
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• 2014

SMEs in Korea are suffering from severe manpower shortage due to poor incentive system and employees' frequent change of jobs. So far, the government has made continuous efforts to solve these problems, but SMEs still have the same problem. It is critical for SMEs to maintain core employees for long term who can directly contribute to the business performance. However, Korean manpower policies for SMEs has mainly focused on hiring new recruits and attracting experienced high caliber employees to SMEs. Relatively, policies for attracting in-house employees to work for longer term were insufficient. This paper focuses on providing strategic policy options to make core employees stay in the company for longer term. For this, it identifies the concept and features of core employees and reviews the necessity of introducing the Mutual Aid Project. Also, it suggests the way to enhance the effectiveness of policy by analyzing current Mutual Aid Fund programs in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2002

The ecological background of a restoration project is complex and difficult to betermine without experimentation. A useful context for experiments is the well-studied process of natural succession, because the factors that drive or inhibit succession are also at work during reclamation (a form of primary succession) and restoration (which often resembles secondary succession). Using experimental studies on urban wasteland reclamation, we have tested for factors that stimulate or inhibit succession during early phases of woodland development in the Northeastern United states. The emphasis has been on mutualisms (seed dispersal, pollination, and mycorrhizae) and microsite limitations in the recruitment, growth, and reproduction of woody plants. Using plantings of seeds, seedlings, and clusters of reproductively mature plants on abandoned landfills, we have observed that (1) soil microsite deficiencies lead to very poor germination (<0.1$\%$) and seedling survival (<0.01$\%$) of most native species; (2) seed dispersal by birds is a significant and reliable source of woody plant recruitment; however (3) proximity effects are strong, with most (up to 95$\%$) of seed rain falling in the vicinity of planted clusters that are closest to putative seed sources; and (4) remnant natural woodlands are critical components of the recruitment process. To emphasize the last point, in one case, we found that the destruction of approximately 50$\%$ of nearby natural woodland vegetation led to a commensurate decline in seed rain. In another case, we found that the species richness of recruits was strictly limited by the species composition of nearby source plant communities, with no evidence of community enrichment by long distance dispersal over 5 years. We conclude from these results that the size and proximity of remnant natural populations are critical considerations when planning reclamation and restoration programs that rely on natural successional processes.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 1998

Stress or march fractures among military personnel, especially recruits, has been appreciated for many years. According to the classical references, the second metatarsal was one of the first sites identified as a focus for march fractures and radiological evidence of fracture appeared as late as several weeks. The purpose of this study was to document the clinical feature of march fractures in Korean infantry soldiers. From 1997 to 1998, at one infantry medical company of OO infantry corps in Korea, 15 (19cases) patients with march fracture were detected among infantry soldiers. There were some different finding in the fracture site and its clinical features from the previous foreign reports. 1. There were pain and local swelling in all cases as clinical manifestation. By physical examination, direct point tenderness on the location of the fractured metatarsal shaft was characteristic. 2. On roentgenographic examination, cortical fissuring or break was seen one week after onset of symptoms and external callus was seen from two weeks or at the least four weeks. Oblique view was more useful than AP view in the diagnosis of march fractures. 3. The third metatarsal was the most frequently involved site(7 cases, 48%). and the second metatarsal was Jess frequent(3 cases, 20%). This difference of frequent site with previous reports might be attributed to the relatively long shaft of the third metatarsal, but should be analyzed in further study. 4. The incidence of the development of march fracture was 1 per 104 infantry soldiers.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Clinical Electrophysiology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.7-12
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• 2010

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of hip adduction using a ball on the activation of the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and the vastus lateralis (VL) during dynamic semisquat exercises. Methods : Twenty seven participants performed three repetitions of a double-leg semisquat and squeeze semisquat (semisquat with hip adduction using a ball) at $60^{\circ}$ knee flexion. The activation of the VMO and the VL was recorded at dominant leg during both semisquat exercises using surface electromyography (MP 100). EMG data were normalized to the maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) of the quadriceps produced during seated, isometric knee extension. Results : Results of paired t-test analyses revealed that there were no differences between activity of the VMO and the VL in both double-leg semisquat and squeeze semisquat. The activity of the VMO was significantly increased in squeeze semisquat whereas there was no difference in activity of the VL between double-leg semisquat and squeeze semisquat. Conclusion : Combining hip adduction using a ball with semisquat at $60^{\circ}$ knee flexion preferentially increases the activity of the VMO. We can conclude that semisquat at $60^{\circ}$ knee flexion with hip adduction using a ball selectively recruits the VMO. Rehabilitation for quadricep imbalance should consider these findings when selecting exercises which could preferentially activate the VMO.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2002

Background: The possibility that G-CSF recruits leukemic cells from the G0 to S phase, which may lead to a greater susceptibility to cytotoxic drugs, such as ara-C, has been presented in Harada's study. Methods: In this study, we referred to the protocol of Harada et al 1 to try G-CSF combined marrow-ablative chemotherapy and autologous PBSCT, for the treatment of AML patients in CR1 status. Between January 1997 and March 1998, six AML patients (3: children, 3: adults) in CR1 status were autografted and followed up to 3 years. Results: The major regimen related toxicity was composed of mucositis and diarrhea without death. The time of ANC recovery to 500/L and 1,000/L was 11~48 and 16~81 days, respectively. The mean time of platelet recovery to 20,000/L and 50,000/L was 21~233 and 35~370 days, respectively. The platelet recovery time to 50,000/L was markedly prolonged for more than 100 days in four patients (66.7%). Moreover, four patients (66.7%) experienced a relapse of leukemia after transplantation, with a mean interval of 147.5 days after PBSCT. Two patients were in CR status for 53 and 51 months after PBSCT, respectively. Conclusion: The G-CSF combined marrow-ablative chemotherapy and autologous PBSCT resulted in a markedly delayed platelet recovery and no advantages for decreasing the relapse rate of AML. But, further studies will be warranted.