• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.239-263
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• 2013

This research was carried out in order to develop and validate the Korean Version of Working Relationship Scale for Mentally Disabled Persons, which measures the working relationship between a mentally disabled person and his or her case manager. The first step taken to develop this scale was to construct sample items for the Working Relationship Scale using literature research and three focus group interviews of mentally disabled persons who use local mental health services. Secondly, mentally disabled people were surveyed with these sample items and two professors from the department of social work who specialize in mental health social work and two licensed mental health social workers working in the community mental health field reviewed these sample items to select and compile a final version of the scale. Lastly, the scale's reliability and validity was verified through an empirical study of 569 mentally disabled persons who surveyed the final selection of items. An explanatory factor analysis showed that the sample items can be grouped into three factors. Factor 1 is 'Professional Contribution Factor,' which is related to the professional practice of the case manager; Factor 2 is 'Negative Working Relationship Factor'; and Factor 3 is 'Emotional Bond Factor,' which measures the intimacy between the case manager and the mentally disabled person. A confirmatory analysis of the three-factor format that was discovered in the explanatory factor analysis was carried out with the rest of the randomly divided data, which showed that the model demonstrated a goodness-of-fit. The convergence validity between similar concepts appeared to be appropriate as well. Based on these results, the Korean Version of Working Relationship Scale for Mentally Disabled Persons consisting of a final 33 items is developed and proposed and its implications in social work are discussed.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.646-656
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• 2003

Purpose: The Purpose of this study was to investigate how elders in rural communities maintain their sexual life. Methods: Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 20 participants who were 65 years old or older, and either were married couples or were continuing the sexual relationship though widowed. Data were analyzed based on Strauss and Corbin's (1990) Grounded Theory Methodology. Results: The core category of experiences of the elderly's sexual life was identified with 'changeable sexual life at husband's mercy'. This process could be divided into 3 stages, which were the stage of recognition of sex difference and obstacle in sexual life, the stage of observation of partner's attitude and the stage of husband's lead in sexual life. Conclusions: This study found that sexuality was an important aspect for the elderly although their sexual interests and activities declined along with aging. In addition, the husband's sexual and economic capabilities and sexual difference were very important factors in the elderly's sexual life. It is suggested to consider sexuality as a normal aspect of life for the elderly when nurses plan for their care.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.179-202
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• 2006

The objective of this study is to identify the impacts of communication reinforcement on performance of learning in Web-PBL. Communication reinforcement is defined as the combination of information sharing and co-construction. As factors facilitating communication reinforcement, we propose learner's characteristics, task characteristics, and group characteristics. Learner's characteristics are collaboration-orientation, openness, holistic approach, and online community-orientation which reflects e-learning environment. Collaboration-oriented tasks as group projects were developed and given to groups with 5-6 members. The group characteristics are categorized into 'horizontal' and 'vertical', according to the patterns of communication between a group leader and members. To verify empirically the proposed research model, an experimental design was performed to learners who took on-line and off-line courses with group projects. We found important results as follows; First, field dependence has positive impacts on information sharing, and online community-orientation has positive impacts on co-construction. These results correspond with prior studies on relationship between field dependence and collaborative learning. Second, collaboration-oriented task directly impacts on information sharing, and indirectly affects co-construction, This result implicates that information sharing is pre-requisite of co-construction. Third, 'horizontal' was identified as a factor giving positive effects on information sharing and co-construction. This result implies that horizontal communication is very important to facilitate communication reinforcement.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.438-447
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• 2010

Purpose: The study examined factors related to the meaning in life in elderly in one city. Methods: The sample consisted of 217 subjects all of which were over 60 years of age and were recruited from two community senior centers from December 2008 to February 2009. Data collection instruments were the Meaning in Life Scale, Social Support Index, CES-D, and RULS questionnaire. SPSS/WIN 17.0 was used for descriptive analysis, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and correlation coefficient. Results: The mean of the score from the Meaning in Life was 50.04 (range 10~70). There were significant differences in subjects' perception of meaning in life according to age, level of education, religion, having a spouse, satisfaction with relationship with children, and frequency of visits to a community senior center. Meaning in life was significantly correlated with family support, depression, and loneliness, which were significant predictors (21.5%) of meaning in life. Conclusion: To improve meaning in life of the elderly who visited a community senior center, nurses may pay attention to depression, loneliness, and family support.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.148-173
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• 2000

This thesis is a kind of case report on the managerial difficulties and strategies to overcome them for the rural hospitals in Korea. We examined environmental situations and SWOT(Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) of the hospitals, and suggested some strategies to improve the hospital business through analysing secondary data and brief survey to staffs and patients at 3 case hospitals. Among the strategies were included establishment of their identity as community hospitals, positioning towards high-touch services rather than high-tech services to improve their competence. For this positioning, patient satisfaction should be emphasized to make rapport with the residents in the community, and a few service areas should be selected and strengthened. Emergency care and geriatric health services are recommended to be covered strongly, because rural hospitals are usually the one and only hospital in the region and rural communities have aged population structure. In addition to these, networking is necessary among rural hospitals nationwide and with local clinics and tertiary hospitals near urban areas. And also, complementary role division with community health post should be developed to lessen the competitive relationship between public and private sectors. To support these strategies, fresh organizational culture should be built up to make hospital staff creative and enthusiastic on their job. Finally, inducement of governmental assistance will be necessary to make the environment advantageous to the rural hospitals.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.251-255
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• 2007

Self-thinning was measured in Salix communities on Bam Island in Seoul at various age stages. $D^2H$ was used to estimate tree biomass, where D is stem diameter at breast height or 10 cm height for plants with height <1.5 m, and H is height. A log-log plot of density versus $D^2H$ and correlation analysis indicated a significant relationship between density and biomass with equation 'log $D^2H$ = -1.27 log N + 7.06'. This indicates that self-thinning affects biomass in the Salix community with -1.27 as the thinning coefficient. If we assume a thinning exponent -3/2, then the allometric coefficient of the equation, log w = a log $D^2H$ + b, is 1.18. This is much higher than that for any other species studied in Korea. There were statistically significant relationships between age and density and between age and basal area and these relationships suggest guidelines for transplantation of willows and for the assessment of Salix community restoration projects in riverine wetlands based on standard density, basal area, and age. The results of this study may also increase understanding of succession processes in Salix community restoration in riverine wetlands.

• Mycobiology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.235-248
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• 2021

This study aimed to understand whether the geo-ecological segregation of native plant species affects the root-associated fungal community. Rhizoplane (RP) and rhizosphere (RS) fungal microbiota of Sedum takesimense native to three geographically segregated coastal regions (volcanic ocean islands) were analyzed using culture-independent methods: 568,507 quality sequences, 1399 operational taxonomic units, five phyla, and 181 genera were obtained. Across all regions, significant differences in the phyla distribution and ratio were confirmed. The Chao's richness value was greater for RS than for RP, and this variance coincided with the number of genera. In contrast, the dominance of specific genera in the RS (Simpson value) was lower than the RP at all sites. The taxonomic identity of most fungal species (95%) closely interacting with the common host plant was different. Meanwhile, a considerable number of RP only residing fungal genera were thought to have close interdependency on their host halophyte. Among these, Metarhizium was the sole genus common to all sites. These suggest that the relationship between potential symbiotic fungi and their host halophyte species evolved with a regional dependency, in the same halophyte species, and of the same natural habitat (volcanic islands); further, the fungal community differenced in distinct geographical regions. Importantly, geographical segregation should be accounted for in national culture collections, based on taxonomical uniqueness.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.49-63
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• 2020

Purpose - This study aims to assess six aspects of resident satisfaction (satisfaction with room, home, social interaction, meals service, staff care, and resident involvement) and to identify the most influential aspect of satisfaction upon word-of-mouth (WOM) intention in a continuing care retirement community (CCRC). Design/methodology/approach - A total of 293 paper survey questionnaires with a cover letter and postage paid envelopes were mailed to the CCRC residents. To test reliability and validity of the multidimensional resident satisfaction, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. Then, the structural equation modeling technique (SEM) was applied to test causal relationship between resident satisfaction and WOM intention. Multiple regression was used to identify the most influential aspect of resident satisfaction on WOM intention in the CCRC. Findings - The results of EFA and CFA on the 157 responses received out of the total 293 surveys indicated that six dimensions of resident satisfaction were statistically distinct. Among the six dimensions, satisfaction with resident involvement, social interaction, and staff care significantly influenced their WOM intention. Furthermore, the most influential aspect of satisfaction upon WOM intention was resident involvement. Research implications or Originality - This study empirically tested the six dimensions of CCRC resident satisfaction, and identified resident involvement as the most influential factor upon WOM intention in a CCRC where WOM intentions plays a crucial role during the selection process of prospective residents.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.692-699
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• 2022

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is considered one of the most harmful diseases of pepper plants. Recently, research on plant disease control through the rhizosphere microbiome has been actively conducted. In this study, the relationship with disease occurrence between the neighboring plant confirmed by analyzing the physicochemical properties of the rhizosphere soil and changes in the microbial community. The results confirmed that the microbial community changes significantly depending on the organic matters, P₂O₅, and clay in the soil. Despite significant differences in microbial communities according to soil composition, Actinobacteriota at the phylum level was higher in healthy plant rhizosphere (mean of relative abundance, D: 8.05 ± 1.13; H: 10.06 ± 1.59). These results suggest that Actinobacteriota may be associated with bacterial wilt disease. In this study, we present basic information for constructing of healthy soil in the future by presenting the major microbial groups that can suppress bacterial wilt.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.68-77
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• 2023

The effect of soil damage on the physicochemical characteristics and activity of the soil microbial community is not well known. This study investigates this relationship by analyzing 11 soil samples collected from various points of soil damage across Gyeonggi-do. Soil damage resulted from forest fires, landslides, and development areas, with their impacts most severe on the topsoil layer (0-30 cm). Dehydrogenase and β-glucosidase activities were notably higher at locations damaged by forest fires compared to other sites. While enzyme activities in soils influenced by landslides and development areas were relatively low, sites with a pollution history exhibited elevated dehydrogenase activity, likely due to past microbial response to the pollution. Additionally, an assessment of carbon substrate usability by soil microorganisms indicated higher substrate availability in areas impacted by forest fires, contrasting with lower availability in landslide and development sites. Statistical analysis revealed a positive correlation between organic content of sand and clay and microbial activity. These findings provide valuable insights into soil damage and associated restoration research, as well as management strategies.