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Qualitative Research on Korean Baby-Boomer Generation Middle-Aged Women's Attitude Toward Their Lives - Based on Middle-Class Seoul Residents - (한국의 베이비부머세대 중년여성이 삶에서 추구하는 가치에 대한 질적연구 - 서울 거주 중산층을 중심으로 -)

  • Lee, Ji Hyun;Kim, Sun Woo
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.127-156
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    • 2012
  • A lot of interest in the baby-boomer generation, those who were born after World War II, has emerged since their retirement has been accelerated. The retirement of baby-boomers has caused many health, public welfare, social policy and family relationship problems. However, their increased purchasing power has made them more attractive consumers than any other generation, and they have become a fascinating niche market in the depressed economy. This research selected middle-class women of the baby-boomer generation who have had powerful effects on society and have emerged as an attractive niche market, and attempted to understand their lives intensively. Based on research activities, the purpose of this research is to identify baby-boomer generation middle-aged women's life values. Qualitative research methodology was used to achieve research objectives, and this research aimed to suggest marketing implications to connected industries based on the research results. The research objectives are as follows. 1. understanding the lives of baby-boomer middle-class women who have powerful effects on socio-economic phenomena 2. identifying the life values of baby-boomer middle-class women 3. generating marketing implications based on an understanding of baby-boomer middle-class women's lives and life values This research conducted FGIs(focus group interviews), one of the qualitative research methodologies, to figure out baby-boomer middle-class women's life values intensively and selected 10 women living in Seoul for data collection. The qualitative data of collected FGIs were analyzed with spiral data analysis methodology proposed by Creswell(2007). The most effective factors to influence these middle-class women's lives powerfully were 'time' and 'independence'. Their consciousness of the importance of using time affects their life pattern generally, and their independence also impacts greatly on the way they exploit time and on their diverse relationships. They maximized their self-realization and showed long-term partnership with their surrounding circumstances because of those effective factors. Baby-boomer middle-class women's self-realization was divided into two areas. One was their outside activities and another was perfect management of their physical appearance and home interior. Like the results of this research, their need for social entrance will be reinforced more strongly since their internal and external activities aim for the achievement of self-realization. In addition, this research suggests that baby-boomer middle-class women's activities are connected with their management of their physical appearance and home interior decorations, and that such management is caused not only by a simple interest in fashion and beauty but also a profound desire for self-realization. On account of their consciousness, which is different from other generations, Korean baby-boomer middle-class women are able to maintain positive partnerships with their surrounding circumstances; however, they also show ambivalent emotions to retain effective partnerships. To overcome those stressful situations, they make greater efforts to keep up their health and youth, and also engage in diverse activities to maintain their mental health. Finally, they generate positive attitudes toward their economic situation and extra time to develop self-realization and pursue happy, youthful and healthy lives. Based on those results, this study suggests the following implications. First, industries targeting the baby-boomer generation should develop innovative products and services which help the baby-boomer generation maximize their efficiency of time since time is one of the most important factors powerfully impacting the baby-boomer generation. They will engage in various activities to fill up their extra time and consume helpful products and services. Second, such industries should supply the baby-boomer generation with opportunities which propose new ways of self-realization since this generation shows a great desire for self-realization because of their self-efficacy. With customized strategies of satisfying their needs, the baby-boomer generation would discover opportunities to utilize their abilities, relationships and aesthetic senses, and industries would develop a niche market. Third, market segmentations which target the baby-boomer generation's desire to maintain their physical appearance and home interior should be executed since such activities are the main strategies to develop this generation's self-realization. The baby-boomer generation's desire to study those areas would be expanded, and those education systems should produce innovative products and services targeting the baby-boomer generation. This implication also offers to government officials new policies related with the baby-boomer generation. This exploratory study utilized qualitative research methodology to understand baby-boomer middle-class women's lives, and proposed propositions and limitations for further researches. As for the limitations, first, it is hard to generalize the research results so that they may apply to all areas and economic classes of the baby-boomer generation since this research selected only 10 women living in Seoul for the data collection process. To overcome this limitation, extended data collections of subjects from diverse regions and economic classes should be designed. Second, quantitative research should be conducted to supplement the findings with validities. Third, this research focused on only general ideas of the baby-boomer generation's lives since the range of this study was focused on their overall lives. Therefore, intensive research related to specific areas of their lives should be conducted.

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The Patient Recognition, Acceptability and Evaluation of Feasibility for Day Surgery (종합병원 일부 입원환자의 당일수술에 대한 태도와 당일수술 적용 가능성 평가)

  • Beak, Young-Ran;Lee, Kyeong-Soo;Kim, Seok-Beom;Kang, Pock-Soo;Kang, Young-Ah
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.33 no.3
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    • pp.334-342
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    • 2000
  • Objectives . This study was conducted in order to investigate the degree of recognition, acceptability, and altitude towards day surgery of patients who were hospitalized with diseases that were candidates for day surgery; in order to analyze the average length of stay for treatment of the ailments; and to analyze the percentage of patients who could be discharged on the same day after the surgery ,using the post-anesthesia discharge scoring system. Methods : Data was collected between February 1 and March 31, 1999 from 353 patients who received surgery for cataract, adenoid hypertrophy, inguinal hernia, strabismus, ptosis, cholelithiasis, hemorrhoid, or anal fistula, at a general hospital in Daegu city. The patients were interviewed and surveyed by a post-anesthesia discharge scoring system(PADS) in order to collect data on patient condition such as vital signs, activity and mental status, pain, nausea and vomiting, surgical bleeding, intake and output after the surgery. Results : Among the 353 patients, 52.7% were after of the day surgery and 52.7% were interested in day surgery. Of the respondents, 43.1% said 'my ailment was not serious and the surgery was simple' and 30.4% said 'according to my condition rest at home was desirable' as the reasons for wanting day surgery Alternatively, 56.5% of those declining day surgery said the 'uncertainty of staying home' was the reason. The greatest concern in discharging within 24 hours after surgery was a post-op emergency situation. On the other hand, the shortened hospitalization was the largest advantage of day surgery with 39.1% responding this way, followed by the savings in hospitalization costs (25.8%) and emotional stability (13.7%). The majority of those surveyed (47.6%) believed that discharge should be determined within 1-2 days after the surgery. The average hospital stay was 3.1 days for dischargeable ailments. Pain (45.6%), nausea and vomiting (10.5%), and headache (7.9%) were the common symptoms following surgery. The percentage of patients who were able to be discharged within 24 hours after surgery revealed 95.2% were dischargeable after approximately 3 hours, 99.2% dischargeable after 12 hours, and 100% dischargeable after 24 hours. Conclusions : According to the PADS score, the cataract extract and strabismus correction patients were eligible for day surgery and the further evaluation concerning the reason for delayed recovery of the other diseases is needed.

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Analysis of the Annual Earnings used as the Sire Evaluation Criteria in Home-produced Thoroughbred Racehorses (국내산 더러브렛 경주마의 씨수말 평가 기준으로 이용되는 연간수득상금 분석)

  • Lee, Do-Hyeong;Kong, Hong-Sik;Lee, Hak-Kyo;Park, Kyung-Do;Cho, Byung-Wook;Choy, Yun-Ho;Jeon, Byeong-Soon;Cho, Kwang-Hyun;Sin, Young-Soo
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.53 no.4
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    • pp.319-324
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    • 2011
  • This study was conducted to analyze demerits of the sire evaluation system using annual earnings and to examine relationship between annual earnings and finish time in home-produced thoroughbred racehorses. The average number of progenies and number of starts per sire were 34 heads and 221 times, respectively. On the other hand, the number of progenies with the average age of 2 years and the number of starts were 9 heads and 25 times, respectively. The earnings of the horses with the age of 2 years accounted for 8.3% of annual earnings. The simple correlation coefficient between the number of progenies and the number of starts in annual earnings were 0.922 and 0.934, respectively. The correlation coefficient between the number of progenies and the number of starts was very high (0.985). The number of progenies and starts of sires for the first year of test career were very low (6 heads and 17 times), and there was very close relationship between number of progenies and annual earnings by the year of test career. The number of progenies was over 40 heads during the first 4 years of test career, and as the number of progenies increased the average earning index increased. The average earning index of sires with less than 30 progenies was lower than 1.00. When the number of progenies was less than 10, the average earning index was in the range of 0.06~0.13, indicating that the number of progenies affects much for determining the ranking of sires. The correlation coefficient between breeding value for finish time and annual earnings per start was very high (-0.524~-0.633) compared with other traits.

Research Framework for International Franchising (국제프랜차이징 연구요소 및 연구방향)

  • Kim, Ju-Young;Lim, Young-Kyun;Shim, Jae-Duck
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.61-118
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

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A Study on Traditional Costume of China's Minorities(II) - Centering Around Yunnan Province Minorities - (중국소수민족(中國少數民族)의 민족복식(民族服飾)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究)(II) - 운남성(雲南省)의 소수민족(少數民族)을 중심(中心)으로 -)

  • Kim, Young-Sin;Hong, Jung-Min
    • Journal of Fashion Business
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.65-80
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    • 1999
  • In this study, the researcher studied the historical background and the traditional culture about dress and ornament of Yunnan Province of China. The Results of the study are as follows. 1. In the Past, Derung's dress was very simple due to the influence of various factors, such as geography and history. Men wore shorts and covered diagonally a piece of cloth from left shoulders to right armpits and tied up the two ends on chests. Women covered crisscross two pieces of cloth from both shoulders to knee. 2. Achang people's dress and adornment has its own unique characteristic. Generally, men wear Jackets with buttons down the front and black trousers. Unmarried men like to wear white turbans, while most of married men usually wear dark blue ones. Women usually wear tight-sleeve blouses with buttons down the front and skirts. Unmarried women wear the hair in braids coil them on the top of their heads. They wear short blouses and trousers. Married women wear their hair Into buns and like to entwine black or blue cloth into high trubans. They wear short blouses and knee-length straight skirts. Achang knife enjoys high reputation and has a long history and an exquisite workmanship. All the men like to wear it. 3. The dress and adornment of the Lahu nationality has both the characteristic of farming culture and the style of nomadic culture of early times. Men usually wear short shirts with round necks and buttons down the front, loose-legged trousers, turbans or dark blue cloth caps Women's dress and adornment can be categorized into two styles. One is black cloth gown with buttons diagonally on the right front and waist-length slits on both sides. The edges of fronts and cuffs are edged with Silver ornaments and lace. They also wear trousers. The other is short blouse with round neck and short opening on th right front, straight skirt and colourful leggings with embroidered patterns. 4. The Hani people, men and women, old and young, like black colour and are fond of wearing black clothes. Men usually wear shirts with buttons down the front and trousers, entwining their heads with black or white cloth. The elderly people wear calottes. Women wear cloth blouses, skirts and trousers or shorts. Slight differences exist in the clothing and adornments according to region, branch and age 5. Blang people's dyeing technique with an exquisite method has a long history. Men wear dark blue long sleeve shirts with round necks and buttons down the front or arranged diagonally on the front and loose-legged trousers. Elderly men wear big turbans wdress and adornment varies greatly in different regions. 6. The Lisu people culture of dress and adornment has some unique characteristics. The styles and colours of their dress and adornment differ slightly from place to place. In the Nujiang area, Women wear black velvet Jackets over blouses with buttons arranged diagonally on the right front and long pleated ramie skirts. Men usually wear wraparound ramie gowns, with center vent, made of fabrics alternated with white and black cross stripes. They also wear cloth waistbands and trohile youngsters keep their hair short. Women's users. In the Lushui area, the dress and adornment is similar to that in the Nujing region, but women wear aprons and trousers instead of skirts. 7. The Nu people dress and adornment is simple but elegant Women are proficient in ramie-weaving. Men usually wear gowns With overlapping necks, knee-length trousers and leggings. They like to wear their hair long and entwine dark blue or white turbans. Women wear black and red vests over blouses with buttons arranged diagonally on the right front and ankle-length skirts. They also wear their hair long, make it into braids, and entwine dark blue or colourful cloth turbans. 8. Pumi men usually wear ramie shirts With buttons arranged diagonally on the right front, loose trousers and white sheepskin vests. Some also wear overcoats made of "pulu". Women's dress and adornment varies in different areas. In the Lanping and Weixi regions, women wear white short blouses with buttons arranged diagonally on the front and dark brown embroidered vests. They also wear trousers and blue or black cloth turbans. In the Ninglang and Yongsheng regions, women wear hemmed blouses With buttons arranged diagonally on the right front and drape sheepskin capes. They also wear white pleated skirts and use broad colourful cloth as their waistbands.

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Clinical review of Typhoid Fever Patients (장티브스에 관한 임상적 관찰)

  • 최정신
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.60-71
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    • 1976
  • The author reviewed the medical records of 96 typhoid fever patients who were diagnosed, admitted, and treated at Sea grave Memorial Hospital from January 1 , 1973 through August 31, 1975. Diagnosis was determined by clinical observation, aerology and bacteriology, eighty patients were treated medically, the remaining 16 patients required surgical intervention. The following results were obtained: 1) The age distribution of the patients revealed that 33.3% wert between 10 and 19 years old 21.9% were between 20 and 29, and 19.8% were between 30 and 39. The majority of patients were from these more active age groups. Male to female sex ratio was 1.3 : 1 2) Seasonal distribution was observed. Most illness occurred in the summer and autumn month 5. 3) 84. 3%of the patients came from farm families. 4) Duration between onset and admission averaged 16.0 days. The group without compilations was admitted after an average of 15. 1 days; The group with complications was ad-matted after an average of 19.4 days. 5) Methods of treatment before admission were as follows: 10.4% at medical clinics, 61, 5% at pharmacies (antibiotics 47.9%, other. drugs 13.5%), 7.3% by herb medications, 20.8% had no treatment. 6) Main clinical symptoms were as follows: fever 93.8%, headache 47.9%, abdominal pain 47.9%, chills 38.5%, cough 36.5%, general weakness 26.0%, nausea e vomiting 24.0% and generalized pain 21.9%. 7) Temperature of patients on admission: 22.9% were 39f or more, 67.6% were between 37℃ and 38℃, and 9.4% were 37℃ or less. 8) Occurrence of intensional bleeding after onset of disease averaged 9.3 days; perforation occurred at an average of 19. 1 days. 9) Interval between onset of major complication and surgical intervention averaged 2.8 days. 10) Among the 68 patients who underwent the bacteriological test the positive rate was 44.1% (30). The positive ,ales to, each separate culture method were as follows: 20.4% in the blood culture, 40.4% in the stool culture and 6.7% in the urine culture. Among these bacteriological positive patients 15 patients had a negative results or less than 160 titer of vidal reaction. 11) The initial vidal test of the total group showed a counts of 160 titer or more in 60.4% and less than 160 titer in 39.6%, 12) W. B. C. Counts in the uncomplicated group indicated that 32.5% were 6,000/㎣ or less, 47.5% were between 6,000 and 10,000, arid 20.0% were 10,000/㎣ or more. In the complicated group, 37.6% were 6,000/㎣ or less, 25,0% were 6,000-10,000/㎣ and 37.6% were 10,000/㎣ or more. 13) Duration of hospital stay of the patients averaged 6.4 days in the uncomplicated group and 12.7 days in the complicated group. 14) Subdiaphragmatic free air simple X-ray was found in 91.7% of the perforated cases. 15) Duration of antibiotic therapy until an febrile state was attained averaged 4.8 days in the uncomplicated group and 6.5 days in the complicated group. 16) Operative procedures were as follows: one layer simple closure of their perforation with or without debasement in 56.3%, drainage only in 6.3%, small bowel resection with primary anastomosis in 18.8% , externalization in 6.3%, cholecystectomy in 6.3%, The clinical findings of this study suggest the following recommendations. According to Top's report; 1% of typhoid fever patients treated with chlorarnphenicol and 2% of patients treated with other drugs become chronic carriers. Therefore, importance should be given to the strict control of these carriers. Immunization, improvement of sanitation and living standards are all needed for the prevention and treatment of disease, but a more serious problem is a lack of knowledge on the part of patients and their families. Thus it is most urgent to enlighten the citizens about the transmission and hygiene related to contagious disease. Legal restriction of sale of antibiotics at drug stores without a physician's prescription is an urgent matter for public health administrators. An even more important nursing responsibility is the reemphasis on health education both in the clinical setting and in the home.

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Accelerometer-based Gesture Recognition for Robot Interface (로봇 인터페이스 활용을 위한 가속도 센서 기반 제스처 인식)

  • Jang, Min-Su;Cho, Yong-Suk;Kim, Jae-Hong;Sohn, Joo-Chan
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.53-69
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    • 2011
  • Vision and voice-based technologies are commonly utilized for human-robot interaction. But it is widely recognized that the performance of vision and voice-based interaction systems is deteriorated by a large margin in the real-world situations due to environmental and user variances. Human users need to be very cooperative to get reasonable performance, which significantly limits the usability of the vision and voice-based human-robot interaction technologies. As a result, touch screens are still the major medium of human-robot interaction for the real-world applications. To empower the usability of robots for various services, alternative interaction technologies should be developed to complement the problems of vision and voice-based technologies. In this paper, we propose the use of accelerometer-based gesture interface as one of the alternative technologies, because accelerometers are effective in detecting the movements of human body, while their performance is not limited by environmental contexts such as lighting conditions or camera's field-of-view. Moreover, accelerometers are widely available nowadays in many mobile devices. We tackle the problem of classifying acceleration signal patterns of 26 English alphabets, which is one of the essential repertoires for the realization of education services based on robots. Recognizing 26 English handwriting patterns based on accelerometers is a very difficult task to take over because of its large scale of pattern classes and the complexity of each pattern. The most difficult problem that has been undertaken which is similar to our problem was recognizing acceleration signal patterns of 10 handwritten digits. Most previous studies dealt with pattern sets of 8~10 simple and easily distinguishable gestures that are useful for controlling home appliances, computer applications, robots etc. Good features are essential for the success of pattern recognition. To promote the discriminative power upon complex English alphabet patterns, we extracted 'motion trajectories' out of input acceleration signal and used them as the main feature. Investigative experiments showed that classifiers based on trajectory performed 3%~5% better than those with raw features e.g. acceleration signal itself or statistical figures. To minimize the distortion of trajectories, we applied a simple but effective set of smoothing filters and band-pass filters. It is well known that acceleration patterns for the same gesture is very different among different performers. To tackle the problem, online incremental learning is applied for our system to make it adaptive to the users' distinctive motion properties. Our system is based on instance-based learning (IBL) where each training sample is memorized as a reference pattern. Brute-force incremental learning in IBL continuously accumulates reference patterns, which is a problem because it not only slows down the classification but also downgrades the recall performance. Regarding the latter phenomenon, we observed a tendency that as the number of reference patterns grows, some reference patterns contribute more to the false positive classification. Thus, we devised an algorithm for optimizing the reference pattern set based on the positive and negative contribution of each reference pattern. The algorithm is performed periodically to remove reference patterns that have a very low positive contribution or a high negative contribution. Experiments were performed on 6500 gesture patterns collected from 50 adults of 30~50 years old. Each alphabet was performed 5 times per participant using $Nintendo{(R)}$ $Wii^{TM}$ remote. Acceleration signal was sampled in 100hz on 3 axes. Mean recall rate for all the alphabets was 95.48%. Some alphabets recorded very low recall rate and exhibited very high pairwise confusion rate. Major confusion pairs are D(88%) and P(74%), I(81%) and U(75%), N(88%) and W(100%). Though W was recalled perfectly, it contributed much to the false positive classification of N. By comparison with major previous results from VTT (96% for 8 control gestures), CMU (97% for 10 control gestures) and Samsung Electronics(97% for 10 digits and a control gesture), we could find that the performance of our system is superior regarding the number of pattern classes and the complexity of patterns. Using our gesture interaction system, we conducted 2 case studies of robot-based edutainment services. The services were implemented on various robot platforms and mobile devices including $iPhone^{TM}$. The participating children exhibited improved concentration and active reaction on the service with our gesture interface. To prove the effectiveness of our gesture interface, a test was taken by the children after experiencing an English teaching service. The test result showed that those who played with the gesture interface-based robot content marked 10% better score than those with conventional teaching. We conclude that the accelerometer-based gesture interface is a promising technology for flourishing real-world robot-based services and content by complementing the limits of today's conventional interfaces e.g. touch screen, vision and voice.

A Study on the Mobile Medical Service Program -Based on the Community Diagnosis of a Remote Farm Area- (순회진료사업(巡回診療事業)의 문제점(問題点)과 개선방향(改善方向) (일부(一部) 무의지역에 대(對)한 지역사진단(地域社診斷)을 중심(中心)으로))

  • Park, Hung-Bae;Choi, Dong-Wook
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.86-97
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    • 1978
  • The mobile medical service has been operated for many years by a number of medical schools and hospitals as a most convenient means of medical service delivery to the people residing in such area where the geographical and socioeconomic conditions are not good enough to enjoy modern medical care. Despite of official appraisal showing off simply with numbers of outpatients treated and medical persons participated, however, as well recognized, the capability (in respect of budget, equipment and time) of those mobile medical teams is so limitted that it often discourages the recipients as well as medical participants themselves. In the midst of rising need to secure medical service of good quality to all parts of the country, and of developing concept of primary health care system, authors evaluated the effectiveness of and problems associated with mobile medical servies program through the community diagnosis of a village (Opo-myun, Kwangju-gun) to obtain the information which may be halpful for future improvement. 1. Owing to the nationwide Sae-Maul movement powerfully practiced during last several years, living environment of farm villages generally and remarkably improved including houses, water supply and wastes disposal etc. Neverthless, due to limitations in budget time and lack of knowledge (probably the most important), these improvements tend to keep up appearances only and are far from the goal which may being practical benefit in promoting the health of the community. 2. As a result of intensive population policy led by the government since 1962, there has been considerable advances in understanding and the rate of practicing family planning through out the villages and yet, one should see many things, especially education, to be done. Fifty eight per cent of mothers have not received prenatal check and the care for most (72%) delivery was offered by laymen at home. 3. Approximately seven per cent of the population was reported to have chronic illness but since only a few (practically none) of the people has had physical check up by doctors, the actual prevalence of chronic diseases may reach many times of the reported. The same fact was observed also in prevalence of tuberculosis; the patients registered at local health center totaled 31 comprising only 0.51% while the numbers in two neighboring villages (designated as demonstration area of tuberculosis control and mass examination was done recently) were 3.5 and 4.0% respectively. Prevalence rate of all dieseses and injuries expereinced during one month (July, 1977) was 15.8%. Only one tenth of those patients received treatment by physicians and one fifth was not treated at all. The situation was worse as for the chronic patients; 84% of all cases either have never been treated or discontinued therapy, and the main reasons were known to be financial difficulty and ignorance or indifference. 4. Among the patients treated by our mobile clinic, one third was chronic cases and 45% of all patients, by the opinion of doctors attended, were those who may be treated by specially trained nurses or other paramedics (objects of primary care). Besides, 20% of the cases required professional managements of level beyond the mobile team's capability and in this sense one may conclude that the effectiveness (performance) of present mobile medical team is quite limitted. According to above findings, the authors would like to suggest following for mobile medical service and overall medicare program for the people living in remote country side. 1. Establishment of primary health care system secured with effective communication and evacuation (between villages and local medical center) measures. 2. Nationwide enforcement of medical insurance system. 3. Simple outpatient care which now constitutes the main part of the most mobile medical services should largely be yielded up to primary health care unit of the village and the mobile team itself should be assigned on new and more urgent missions such as mass screening health examination of the villagers, health education with modern and effective audiovisual aids, professional training and consultant services for the primary health care organization.

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A Study on the Factors Affecting Subjective Health Index of the Aged in Daejon Area (일부지역 노인들의 주관적 건강수준에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구)

  • 민경진;김근조;차춘근
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.1-26
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    • 2001
  • This research is aimed to define how the depression, performing ability of IADL and muscular-skeletal pain of the Aged, according to their residential circumstance, sex and age, can affect the subjective health index and how all these are related and associated with. For the period of June 1 to July 31, 2000, in order to study and define how the depression, performing ability of IADL and muscular-skeletal pain are related to the subjective health index of the Aged, we have conducted an enquete through a direct interview with 693 persons over age sixty-five (65) in Daejon and in other adjacent areas, divided into three different residential types “The Aged living at home”, “The Aged living at welfare facilities” and “The Aged living alone”. We have studied all the data and information obtained through this enquete and have analyzed χ²-test, t-test, ANOVA, analysis of simple correlation, analysis of factor. by SPSS10.0/PC+. The results were as follows: Generally, the four (4) factors depression, IADL performing ability, muscular-skeletal pain and the subjective health index of the Aged, are a lot influenced by and related to their residential circumstance, their sex and their age. With regard to the depression of the Aged by their sex, it was analyzed that, on an average, the female-Aged gains 48.3 point which reflects comparatively the higher points and the female-Aged is more depressed. In analyzing depression of the Aged by their age, it appears that the Aged between eighty (80) to eight-four (84) years of age, gains 49.2 point which is the highest points and simultaneously we could realize that depression follows age, - the more the age gets, the more the depression is increased. In analyzing depression of the Aged by their residential type, it shows that “the Aged living alone” gains 50.9 point and is most depressed. With regard to the IADL performance of the Aged by their sex, it was analyzed that, on an average, the female-Aged gains 23.8 point, which shows the performance of the female-Aged is less independent. In addition, it was also found that the IADL performing ability is becoming less and less independent following their age increasing. In analyzing IADL performance by their residential type, it appears that “the Aged living at welfare facilities” gains the lowest 21.5 point and is least independent. We conclude that some assistances from others are required for the Aged living at welfare facilities in their performing IADL. With regard to the muscular-skeletal pain of the Aged by their sex, it was analyzed that, on an average, the female-Aged gains 3.0 point and the female-Aged suffers from this pain more severely. In analyzing this pain by their residential type, it was found that, on an average, the 3.0 point goes for “the Aged living alone”, which explains the Aged living alone is having the most serious pain. With regard to the subjective heath index of the all Aged participated in this research, the analysis indicates 8.8 point and this is considered as a general standard (7-10 point). In analyzing this index by their sex, the female-Aged gains 8.6 point only and it explains a lot of female-Aged consider they are not really healthy. In analyzing this index by their residential type, “the Aged living at welfare facilities” and “the Aged living alone” gain the comparatively lower point, -respectively 8.4 point for the Aged living at welfare facilities and 8.8 point for the Aged living alone. The Aged of these two residential types express they are obviously in a bad condition of health, which makes us think a lot. With regard to the factors affecting the subjective health index of the Aged, it was analyzed that this index can significantly be influenced by their depression, their pain, their age and by how much they are satisfied with their current living conditions, and also analyzed that the correlative relation certainly exists between the depression and pain, and the subjective health index, - that is, the more the depression and pain are serious, the lower the subjective health index indicates. As for the IADL, it appears that the IADL's relation with this index is not that significant and even not important.

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The Comparison of Susceptibility Changes in 1.5T and3.0T MRIs due to TE Change in Functional MRI (뇌 기능영상에서의 TE값의 변화에 따른 1.5T와 3.0T MRI의 자화율 변화 비교)

  • Kim, Tae;Choe, Bo-Young;Kim, Euy-Neyng;Suh, Tae-Suk;Lee, Heung-Kyu;Shinn, Kyung-Sub
    • Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.154-158
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    • 1999
  • Purpose : The purpose of this study was to find the optimum TE value for enhancing $T_2^{*}$ weighting effect and minimizing the SNR degradation and to compare the BOLD effects according to the changes of TE in 1.5T and 3.0T MRI systems. Materials and Methods : Healthy normal volunteers (eight males and two females with 24-38 years old) participated in this study. Each volunteer was asked to perform a simple finger-tapping task (sequential opposition of thumb to each of the other four fingers) with right hand with a mean frequency of about 2Hz. The stimulus was initially off for 3 images and was then alternatively switched on and off for 2 cycles of 6 images. Images were acquired on the 1.5T and 3.0T MRI with the FLASH (fast low angle shot) pulse sequence (TR : 100ms, FA : $20^{\circ}$, FOV : 230mm) that was used with 26, 36, 46, 56, 66, 76ms of TE times in 1.5T and 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, 66ms of TE in 3.0T MRI system. After the completion of scan, MR images were transferred into a PC and processed with a home-made analysis program based on the correlation coefficient method with the threshold value of 0.45. To search for the optimum TE value in fMRI, the difference between the activation and the rest by the susceptibility change for each TE was used in 1.5T and 3.0T respectively. In addition, the functional $T_2^{*}$ map was calculated to quantify susceptibility change. Results : The calculated optimum TE for fMRI was $61.89{\pm}2.68$ at 1.5T and $47.64{\pm}13.34$ at 3.0T. The maximum percentage of signal intensity change due to the susceptibility effect inactivation region was 3.36% at TE 66ms in 1.5T 10.05% at TE 46ms in 3.0T, respectively. The signal intensity change of 3.0T was about 3 times bigger than of 1.5T. The calculated optimum TE value was consistent with TE values which were obtained from the maximum signal change for each TE. Conclusion : In this study, the 3.0T MRI was clearly more sensitive, about three times bigger than the 1.5T in detecting the susceptibility due to the deoxyhemoglobin level change in the functional MR imaging. So the 3.0T fMRI I ore useful than 1.5T.

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