• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.639-647
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• 2002

Purpose: Sexuality is important for the quality of life in old men, but this issue has been less explored due to social prejudice. Therefore, this study was carried out to describe a correlation between sex life and depression perceived by old men. Method: The subjects were 370 old men who were aged over 60 and lived in a city and three provinces. Instruments used in this study were Perception of Sex life Scale 01 items) and Depression Scale (20 items). The data was collected from December 2001 to February 2002 by written responses of the subjects to the questionnaire as well as one-to-one interview by research assistants for subjects. Statistical analysis for the data was done using SPSS and the level of significance was tested at 95% of confidence interval. Result: 1) Mean age of the subjects was $69.35{\pm}5.70$. A total of 253 subjects (68.6%) had spouse, and 191 of the subjects (52.3%) had sexual intercourse as frequently as 3 times per month. The average score for perception of sex life was $21.25{\pm}5.06$, out of the total score of 44, and that of depression was $35.08{\pm}9.29$ out of the total score of 80. 2) Perception of sex life was statistically significant by age, education, disease, medication, living arrangement, marital status, presence of girlfriend, pattern of inter-coitus, pocket money age of last coitus, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 3) Depression was statistically significant by age, education, disease. medication, living arrangement, marital status, satisfaction for marriage life, pattern of inter-coitus, feeling for change of sex life, pocket money, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 4) The correlation between perception of sex life and depression was negative, showing that depression tended to decrease as perception of sex life increases. Conclusion: It is concluded that depression in old men is closely related to their sex life. Positive sex life may have an important effect on the quality of life in old men.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to identity the death anxiety of elderly people living alone, and the factors that affect their death anxiety. The subjects did not have an impaired cognitive function, and were from one Chungcheongnamdo 2 district in the elderly University. The subjects were 187 elderly people over the age of 65 living alone in the district. The character, communication, and data was collected from February, 2014 to 2 May, 2015 and analyzed using the SPSS 18 program. The death anxiety whole point of elderly people living alone was 2.94 (${\pm}0.32$); it was 3.06 (${\pm}0.32$) points according to the sub-region 'death process anxiety', 2.88 (${\pm}0.51$) points according to 'after-death anxiety', and 2.75 (${\pm}0.43$) points according to 'presence loss anxiety'. The factors affecting the death anxiety were economic status, depression, and spiritual wellbeing. Economic status (${\beta}=-.36$, p= .000) had the largest effect with an overall explanatory power of 20.3%. Therefore, for the death anxiety of elderly people living alone, life needs to be strengthened through social security systems with intervention programs to improve the quality of depression and spiritual wellbeing.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2009

Due to its well-known function in parturition and milk ejection, oxytocin (OT) has been considered as a 'female neurohypophyseal hormone'. Recent studies, however, clearly indicate that OT has some local roles in male reproduction via both central and peripheral routes. In experimental rodents, OT is released within distinct brain regions in response to social stimuli, and the brain OT receptor (OTR) mediated actions were strongly involved in the regulation of a variety of male behaviors such as mating-associated behaviors. In particular, OT and/or OTR knockout mice provide important clues about the molecular regulatory mechanism of the socio-sexual behaviors. Several lines of evidence also show that OT is synthesized within rodents testis, epididymis and prostate, and the presence of OTRs in these organs. In rodent testes, OT might have a role in the modulation of steroidogenesis via stimulation of the conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by 5alpha-reductase. Similar effects of OT on this androgen conversion were observed in epididymis and prostate suggesting the OT's modulatory role, such as contractility induction, in these androgen-dependent organs. In this context, further investigations on the OT's role in male CNS and reproductive organs are likely to provide better understanding on the complex socio-sexual behaviors and a platform for development of therapeutics to treat some psychological and/or andrological problems.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers' wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. Contrary to public perception that foreign ownership is positively associated with higher wages, previous studies show mixed results. Since most of the previous studies used industry or firm level average wages, they can not control for the impact of individual characteristics on wages. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1) One-step estimation with industry-state level of inward foreign direct investments by using individual level data, and (2) Two-step industry characteristic regression approach. The higher presence of foreign firms is associated with higher local wages after workers' observable characteristics are controlled for in the first approach. This effect, however, disappears once workers' industry affiliations and regions are controlled for in cross-section analysis. In a panel data analysis, I did not find any statistically significant positive association between inward FDI activities and industry wage premiums within industry. Further, inward FDI activities appeared to be negatively associated with worker's industry wage premium for workers with more than high school education.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.80
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• pp.115-142
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• 2016

This study aims to reveal the content of and logic behind a recent negative public sentiment toward female idols with the example of a debate over songstress IU's fourth album that was released late last year. While previous studies on fandom have focused on the identification process towards entertainers and making community, a recent phenomenon of "anti-fandom" or "malicious comments" implies that more research is needed on negative emotions such as hostility or schadenfreude (feelings of pleasure from others' misfortunes). Schadenfreude is a social sentiment that originated in modern liberalism, which features contradictions between public equality and private ownership, and that has been intensified in neoliberalism, which features a maximization of this contradiction centering on a meritocracy. Celebrities in Korea often become the targets of schadenfreude, which is associated with the suspicion that they gain popularity not from their abilities but from "just being popular." It should also be noted that this kind of schadenfreude operates differently between male and female entertainers. Specifically, the acquisition of money and fame by modern women whose presence used to be located in the private possessions of males is considered to be due to their unjustified use of sexuality. This is also the background of the recent online misogyny culture in Korea. In this context, IU, who had been successful at building a differentiated image of "sister-like idol artist," became a valid target. Although accusing IU of utilizing pedophilia reflects a stalemate that a current politics of sexual violence faces, it rather damages the name of an individual than attracts public attention to the structural causes of childsexualabuse. This is why I see the way that pedophilia was used in the debate over IU as a schadenfreude. Consequently, the term pedophilia here contributes to an expansion of the entertainment economy that is sustained by rises and falls of the celebrities' stock prices.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.231-238
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• 2017

Rapid industrial development has led to a serious problem of pollution in the industrial sector. With the increasing social need for environmental protection, research on air pollution prevention equipment for reducing pollutants in industrial processes is actively being undertaken. The deterioration of existent, installed facilities, their increased emission rates, and the strengthening of the effluent quality standards make complying with permissible emission standards difficult. In fact, installing new electric precipitators or complementing existent facilities is inevitable. The expansion and complementation of the installed electrical precipitators have led to improvements in dust collection efficiency, shorter working times, and lower costs. Because of its easy installation and simple manufacturing process, the production method with the discharge electrode of an electric precipitator is widely used. The following conclusions were reached by classifying discharge electrodes into four types based on the production method and mutually comparing them by their dust collection efficiency. None of the four types used in this study were damaged by impact. However, we were able to confirm some strain from the compression sites of both type A and type B. Both type B and type C are expected to have greater dust collection efficiencies than the other models due to their large vibration transmissibility. Moreover, the high vibrational energy is expected to cause rapping damage during its operation. Particularly, in the case of type B, some of the strain was found at the end of the compression site. The coupling schemes of both type C and type D are out of vibration transmissibility. On the other hand, the ability to maintain straightness and solidity of the side is regarded as outstanding and stable. Type D has outstanding on-site workability, considering the presence of locking, structural stability, and work conditions. From these experiments, we determined that type C is the most ideal connection method of discharge electrode, considering its construction period of renovation. Type C is inferior to type D with regard to on-site workability. However, type C has outstanding dedusting transmission with regard to the straightness, solidity maintenance, and vibration of shearing stress.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.41-66
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• 2007

The e-marketplace is a virtual marketplace where buyers and sellers meet in order to conduct transactions through the intermediation of market-makers. For the success of an e-marketplace, it is crucial for the market-maker to induce both buyers and sellers to make active transactions in it. However, their participation is frequently deterred by potential risk factors caused mainly by the inherent, structural complexity of the e-marketplace. Therefore, it is a critical challenge for the market-maker to identify and manage the transactional risk perceived by both the buyers and sellers. In this paper, we investigate the sources of buyers' and sellers' perceived risks and their mitigating factors in the e-marketplace. Specifically, we derive an analysis framework based on the economic theory of agency relationship. The framework includes four sources of the risks(perceived information asymmetry, fears of seller opportunism, fears of buyer opportunism, and concerns about market-maker's role incompleteness) and five mitigators of the risks(website informativeness, trust in market-maker, trust in seller, product diagnosticity, and social presence). Then, we empirically verify the framework through a case study on four successful e-marketplaces, and provide implications and strategies for the market-maker to effectively manage the transactional risks.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 2011

Atherosclerosis and post-angiography restenosis are associated with intimal thickening and concomitant vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation. Obovatol, a major biphenolic component isolated from the Magnolia obovata leaf, is known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities. The goal of the present study was to enhance the inhibitory effects of obovatol to improve its potential as a preventive or therapeutic agent in atherosclerosis and restenosis. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB-induced proliferation of rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) was examined in the presence or absence of a newly synthesized obovatol derivative, OD78. The observed anti-proliferative effect of OD78 was further investigated by cell counting and [$^3H$]-thymidine incorporation assays. Treatment with 1-4 ${\mu}M$ OD78 dose-dependently inhibited the proliferation and DNA synthesis of 25 ng/ml PDGF-BB-stimulated RASMCs. Accordingly, OD78 blocked PDGF-BB-induced progression from the $G_0/G_1$ to S phase of the cell cycle in synchronized cells. OD78 decreased the expression levels of CDK4, cyclin E, and cyclin D1 proteins, as well as the phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein and proliferating cell nuclear antigen; however, it did not change the CDK2 expression level. In addition, OD78 inhibited downregulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CKI) $p27^{kip1}$. However, OD78 did not affect the CKI $p21^{cip1}$ or phosphorylation of early PDGF signaling pathway. These results suggest that OD78 may inhibit PDGF-BB-induced RASMC proliferation by perturbing cell cycle progression, potentially through $p27^{kip1}$ pathway activation. Consequently, OD78 may be developed as a potential anti-proliferative agent for the treatment of atherosclerosis and angioplasty restenosis.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.523-532
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• 2017

A field survey studying intestinal parasites in humans and microbial pathogen contamination at environment was performed in a Laotian rural village to identify potential risks for disease outbreaks. A parasitological investigation was conducted in Ban Lak Sip village, Luang Prabang, Lao PDR involving fecal samples from 305 inhabitants as well as water samples taken from 3 sites of the local stream. Water analysis indicated the presence of several enteric pathogens, i.e., Aeromonas spp., Vibrio spp., E. coli H7, E. coli O157: H7, verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC), Shigella spp., and enteric adenovirus. The level of microbial pathogens contamination was associated with human activity, with greater levels of contamination found at the downstream site compared to the site at the village and upstream, respectively. Regarding intestinal parasites, the prevalence of helminth and protozoan infections were 68.9% and 27.2%, respectively. Eight helminth taxa were identified in fecal samples, i.e., 2 tapeworm species (Taenia sp. and Hymenolepis diminuta), 1 trematode (Opisthorchis sp.), and 5 nematodes (Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Strongyloides stercoralis, trichostrongylids, and hookworms). Six species of intestinal protists were identified, i.e., Blastocystis hominis, Cyclospora spp., Endolimax nana, Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar, Entamoeba coli, and Giardia lamblia. Questionnaires and interviews were also conducted to determine risk factors of infection. These analyses together with a prevailing infection level suggested that most of villagers were exposed to parasites in a similar degree due to limited socio-economic differences and sharing of similar practices. Limited access to effective public health facilities is also a significant contributing factor.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.326-333
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• 2010

A total of 105 nontyphoid Salmonella isolated from infants in Seoul from 2003 to 2009 was investigated for their serotype, antimicrobial resistance, characterization of integron, and the patterns of Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Eighteen serotypes were detected in 105 isolates, and the two most common serotypes were S. Enteritidis (47.6%) and Montevideo (15.2%). Among the Salmonella serovars, a high level of antimicrobial resistance was found to ampicilin (60%), tetracycline (46.7%), streptomycin (35.2%) and nalidixic acid (28.6%). In the multi-drug resistance patterns, the predominant patterns were only nalidixic acid (15.7%), ampicillin-ampicillin/sulbactam-tetracycline (14.5%), and ampicillin-streptomycin-chloramphenicol-tetracycline (10.8%). PCR and DNA sequencing analysis revealed the presence of class 1 integron in 20 isolates (19%). Of the class 1 integron positive isolates 20% harboured the integron-associated gene cassettes : aadA2, blaP1, dfr17-aadA5, dfrA12-aadA2, and aadA7. PFGE was carried out to examine the genetic relatedness among S. Enteritidis isolates. Except for three strains, fifty strains were divided by three pulsotypes.