• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.211-220
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the job performance of dental coordinators and their perception of their job to lay the groundwork for utilizing dental personnels more efficiently. The subjects in this study were dental coordinators who worked at selected dental hospitals and clinics in Seoul, Gyeonggi province and Incheon. A survey was conducted to gather data from May 1 to August 8, 2005 and answer sheets from 108 respondents were analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. As for the length of service, 43.5 percent of the dental coordinators investigated had worked at dental institutes for five years or more, which was followed by less than two years(19.5%) and three years to less than five years(19.4%). Concerning the length of service as dental coordinators, 39.8 percent had served for less than two years, and 19.4 percent had worked for two years to less than three years and for five years or more respectively. Regarding the name of position, 38 percent were called team leaders, and 30.6 percent were called coordinators. As to duties, the largest group of them that stood at 30.6 percent were in charge of receiving, and in regard to department, the largest group, 57.4 percent, belonged to the treatment backup department. 2. Concerning education, the greatest number of them, 45.4 percent, had received education at private institutes, and 73.1 percent found it necessary for dental coordinators to take an authorized qualification test. 43.5 percent, the largest group, looked upon the central government as the best organization to authorize their qualifications and 70.8 percent believed that what they learned enabled them to perform their job successfully. As to the necessity of follow-up education as a means to improve job performance, 96.3 percent consented to it. As for the reason, 63.9 percent considered that necessary to enhance their own ability and 22.2 percent were in want of systematic education. Regarding educational expenses, 29.6 percent were subsidized by the dental institutes where they had worked and 25.9 percent had totally been responsible for that. Regarding a required course, medical service and marketing was most widely pointed out(66.7%), followed by theory and practice(65.7%) and introduction to dentistry(57.4%). As to what sort of education they wanted to receive more, dental service and marketing was selected the most, followed by practical health insurance(35.2%). 3. In regard to what type of job they performed as dental coordinators, 88.9 percent were in charge of appointment in the field of customer service, and 87.9 percent paid attention to having good manners as service providers in the area of self-management. In the field of hospital affairs, 81.3 percent were in charge of receiving. 4. As to their awareness of dental coordinator job, the largest group took pride in the job they performed ($3.99{\pm}0.76$), and the second largest group believed that dental coordinators made a great contribution to hospital management ($3.92{\pm}0.70$). The third largest group gave a great weight to their own job ($3.91{\pm}0.84$) in light of overall dental duties and the fourth largest group found themselves to get along with other employees regardless of position ($3.86{\pm}0.74$). The fifth largest group believed their job was of great use for promoting the oral health of patients ($3.76{\pm}0.75$), and the sixth largest group thought the future of dental coordinators was promising($3.74{\pm}0.86$). 5. In regard to their perception by age group, those who were older had a better opinion on every item of their job in general. Their age made a statistically significant difference to their view of the weight of dental coordinator job(P < 0.001) in light of overall dental duties, of being approved and trusted by managers(P < 0.01), of social awareness of dental coordinator, and of being understood and approved by other employees and dentists. Their pride in current job and their satisfaction with the name of their position were statistically significantly different according to their age as well. Besides, their age made a statistically significant difference to their opinion about whether or not there was an age limit to their occupation and about their contribution to hospital management (P < 0.05). 6. As for their perception by type of job, the dental hygienists were generally most satisfied with their job, followed by nursing aids and others. There was a statistically significant gap among their opinions about whether to make a job-related decision on their own(P < 0.001). the weight of their job in terms of overall dental duties, whether their job improved their ability, whether their job made a great contribution to enhancing the oral health of patients, whether their job was understood and approved by other employees(P < 0.01), social awareness of their job, whether they conflicted with other employees during job performance, and whether dental hospitals or clinics offered a self-development opportunity for them to take their ability to another level(P < 0.05). And their satisfaction with current pay was statistically significantly different as well.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-23
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• 2012

The conflict between major corporations and small and medium-sized businesses is being aggravated, the trickle down effect is not working properly, and, as the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the business limiting system continues to swirl, the plan proposed to protect the business domain of small and medium-sized businesses, resolve polarization between these businesses and large corporations, and protect small family run stores is the suitable business type designation system for small and medium-sized businesses. The current status of carrying out this system of selecting suitable business types among small and medium-sized businesses involves receiving applications for 234 items among the suitable business types and items from small and medium-sized businesses in manufacturing, and then selecting the items of the consultative group by analyzing and investigating the actual conditions. Suitable business type designation in the service industry will involve designation with priority on business types that are experiencing social conflict. Three major classifications of the service industry, related to the livelihood of small and medium-sized businesses, will be first designated, and subsequently this will be expanded sequentially. However, there is the concern that when designated as a suitable business type or item, this will hinder the growth motive for small to medium-sized businesses, and designation all cause decrease in consumer welfare. Also it is highly likely that it will operate as a prior regulation, cause side-effects by limiting competition systematically, and also be in violation against the main regulations of the FTA system. Moreover, it is pointed out that the system does not sufficiently reflect reverse discrimination factor against large corporations. Because conflict between small to medium sized businesses and large corporations results from the expansion of corporations to the service industry, which is unrelated to their key industry, it is necessary to introduce an advanced contract method like a master franchise or local franchise system and to develop local small to medium sized businesses through a franchise system to protect these businesses and dealers. However, this method may have an effect that contributes to stronger competitiveness of small to medium sized franchise businesses by advancing their competitiveness and operational methods a step further, but also has many negative aspects. First, as revealed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the franchise industry is contributing to the strengthening of competitiveness through the economy of scale by organizing existing individual proprietors and increasing the success rate of new businesses. It is also revealed to be a response measure by the government to stabilize the economy of ordinary people and is emphasized as a 'useful way' to revitalize the service industry and improve the competitiveness of individual proprietors, and has been involved in contributions to creating jobs and expanding the domestic market by providing various services to consumers. From this viewpoint, franchises fit the purpose of the suitable business type system and is not something that is against it. Second, designation as a suitable business type may decrease investment for overseas expansion, R&D, and food safety, as well negatively affect the expansion of overseas corporations that have entered the domestic market, due to the contraction and low morale of large domestic franchise corporations that have competitiveness internationally. Also because domestic franchise businesses are hard pressed to secure competitiveness with multinational overseas franchise corporations that are operating in Korea, the system may cause difficulty for domestic franchise businesses in securing international competitiveness and also may result in reverse discrimination against these overseas franchise corporations. Third, the designation of suitable business type and item can limit the opportunity of selection for consumers who have up to now used those products and can cause a negative effect that reduces consumer welfare. Also, because there is the possibility that the range of consumer selection may be reduced when a few small to medium size businesses monopolize the market, by causing reverse discrimination between these businesses, the role of determining the utility of products must be left ot the consumer not the government. Lastly, it is desirable that this is carried out with the supplementation of deficient parts in the future, because fair trade is already secured with the enforcement of the franchise trade law and the best trade standard of the Fair Trade Commission. Overlapping regulations by the suitable business type designation is an excessive restriction in the franchise industry. Now, it is necessary to establish in the domestic franchise industry an environment where a global franchise corporation, which spreads Korean culture around the world, is capable of growing, and the active support by the government is needed. Therefore, systems that do not consider the process or background of the growth of franchise businesses and harm these businesses for the sole reason of them being large corporations must be removed. The inhibition of growth to franchise enterprises may decrease the sales of franchise stores, in some cases even bankrupt them, as well as cause other problems. Therefore the suitable business type system should not hinder large corporations, and as both small dealers and small to medium size businesses both aim at improving competitiveness and combined growth, large corporations, small dealers and small to medium sized businesses, based on their mutual cooperation, should not include franchise corporations that continue business relations with them in this system.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.23-43
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• 2016

As a result of the growth of Internet data and the rapid development of Internet technology, "big data" analysis has gained prominence as a major approach for evaluating and mining enormous data for various purposes. Especially, in recent years, people tend to share their experiences related to their leisure activities while also reviewing others' inputs concerning their activities. Therefore, by referring to others' leisure activity-related experiences, they are able to gather information that might guarantee them better leisure activities in the future. This phenomenon has appeared throughout many aspects of leisure activities such as movies, traveling, accommodation, and dining. Apart from blogs and social networking sites, many other websites provide a wealth of information related to leisure activities. Most of these websites provide information of each product in various formats depending on different purposes and perspectives. Generally, most of the websites provide the average ratings and detailed reviews of users who actually used products/services, and these ratings and reviews can actually support the decision of potential customers in purchasing the same products/services. However, the existing websites offering information on leisure activities only provide the rating and review based on one stage of a set of evaluation criteria. Therefore, to identify the main issue for each evaluation criterion as well as the characteristics of specific elements comprising each criterion, users have to read a large number of reviews. In particular, as most of the users search for the characteristics of the detailed elements for one or more specific evaluation criteria based on their priorities, they must spend a great deal of time and effort to obtain the desired information by reading more reviews and understanding the contents of such reviews. Although some websites break down the evaluation criteria and direct the user to input their reviews according to different levels of criteria, there exist excessive amounts of input sections that make the whole process inconvenient for the users. Further, problems may arise if a user does not follow the instructions for the input sections or fill in the wrong input sections. Finally, treating the evaluation criteria breakdown as a realistic alternative is difficult, because identifying all the detailed criteria for each evaluation criterion is a challenging task. For example, if a review about a certain hotel has been written, people tend to only write one-stage reviews for various components such as accessibility, rooms, services, or food. These might be the reviews for most frequently asked questions, such as distance between the nearest subway station or condition of the bathroom, but they still lack detailed information for these questions. In addition, in case a breakdown of the evaluation criteria was provided along with various input sections, the user might only fill in the evaluation criterion for accessibility or fill in the wrong information such as information regarding rooms in the evaluation criteria for accessibility. Thus, the reliability of the segmented review will be greatly reduced. In this study, we propose an approach to overcome the limitations of the existing leisure activity information websites, namely, (1) the reliability of reviews for each evaluation criteria and (2) the difficulty of identifying the detailed contents that make up the evaluation criteria. In our proposed methodology, we first identify the review content and construct the lexicon for each evaluation criterion by using the terms that are frequently used for each criterion. Next, the sentences in the review documents containing the terms in the constructed lexicon are decomposed into review units, which are then reconstructed by using the evaluation criteria. Finally, the issues of the constructed review units by evaluation criteria are derived and the summary results are provided. Apart from the derived issues, the review units are also provided. Therefore, this approach aims to help users save on time and effort, because they will only be reading the relevant information they need for each evaluation criterion rather than go through the entire text of review. Our proposed methodology is based on the topic modeling, which is being actively used in text analysis. The review is decomposed into sentence units rather than considering the whole review as a document unit. After being decomposed into individual review units, the review units are reorganized according to each evaluation criterion and then used in the subsequent analysis. This work largely differs from the existing topic modeling-based studies. In this paper, we collected 423 reviews from hotel information websites and decomposed these reviews into 4,860 review units. We then reorganized the review units according to six different evaluation criteria. By applying these review units in our methodology, the analysis results can be introduced, and the utility of proposed methodology can be demonstrated.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.54-66
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• 1991

As a result of measuring illumination and making up a question at home visit directly by investigator who trained over twenty days period from October 4 to 24, 1990, in order to render help which illumination problem against house, society against eyes or framing of health instruction potgram by seizing natural lighting actual conditions of house and actual conditions of wearing spectacles and by investigating interrelationship, I can summarize as follows. 1) In property of investigation subject, woman 66.9%, In an age, the twenties was largest of 27.4%, the forties was 20.2%, the fifties was 18.6%, the thirties was 17.4%. In academic career, those of upper secondary school grauates was largest of 28.6%, those who possess university career was 25.9%, those who middle school career was 20.9%, decoding of Korean alphabet was 2%. 2) By a residence area, a big city was 43.3%, farming and fishing villages were 20.3%, the rest was a small town and the administrative office of town, township. In positon of house, the middle area was 43.6%, resident of suburb area was 38.0%. In form of house, a Korean-style house was 40.8%, a western-style house was 34.8%, an apartment house was 11.0%. In the a standard of living, the middle classes 77.2%, the lower classes were 15.3%. In residential house unit of area, from 21 to 30 unit of area was largest of 31.5%, from 10 to 20 unit of area was 19.9%, from 31 to 40 was 18.7%. 3) The wearing spectacles rate of study user was 44.1%. By the area, those who wearing spectacles was more than a half of 50.8% in the resident of big city area. As passing from the farm area to the city, that is being resident of big city was high wearing spectacles rate. In position of house, as being residence in central street showed high wearing spectacles rate. (central street was 51.5%, the middle area was 44.5% and the suburb area was 40.1%.) It seemed similarity difference a variable by position of house from wearing spectacles in standard of 1%. By form of house, wearing spectacles rate those who resident in apartment house was 49.5%, that rate those who resident in a western-style house was high of 49.0%, that rate those who resident in a Korean-style house was the lowest 39.0%. By social position of resident in room, in students case who study showed very high, as university students were very high of 62.3% idn wearing spectacles rate, middle and high school students 'were 50.0%, members of society were 47.6%, workers 20.3%. It seemed similarity difference from academic career in standard of 1%. By an age, the thirties was high of 54.1% in wearing spectacles rate, the twenties was 43.2%, the teenage was the lowest of 11.8%. 4) In illumination of study, over 200Lux was high of 40.1%. but below 99Lux which inappropriate illumination to see the books was 32.4%. Average by area, below 99Lux was 22.7% and over 400Lux was 50.0% in case of wooden floor. As examine by area, below 99Lux was high of 27.0% a case of wooden floor in the big city area, it was not good in illumination passing from the farm area(15.0%) to the city(19.0%). Average illlumination by area of the main living room below 99Lux was high of 37.5%, less than 200Lux was 58.5% of whole. In general, illumination of the main livingroom was inappropriate. By area, the big city was 32.5% below 99Lux, the middle and small city area were 33.8%, town and township area were 45.0%, farming and fishing area were 42.8%. By area, in the big city, illumination of study was 52.5% over 200Lux and 28.9% below 99Lux. In case of the middle and small city, study user of below 99Lux was 38.8% and over 200Lux was 46.9%. In case of the seat of town township, below 99Lux was 34.1% and over 200Lux was 39.7%. In case of farming and fishing area, illumination of study was 33.4% below 99Lux and 48.4% over 200Lux. It tends to high rate of inappropriate illumination. 5) By position of house, in case of wooden floor, less than 100Lux was 24.5% in central street. It was bad illumination than others position of house. In case of the main livingroom, less than 100Lux was 40.4% in the suburb area. It was bad iliumnation than others position of house. In case of study, less than 100Lux was 35.4% in the middle area, it was worse in illumination. In case of the main living room, is seemed similarity difference in standard of 1%. 6) By form of house, in case of wooden floor, illumination of less than 100Lux was 23.8% in a western-style house, it was bad illumination than others form of house. In case of the main livingroom, illumination of less than 100Lux was 47.4% in a Korean-style house, it was remarkably bad illumination than others form of house. In case of study, a Korean-style house was 38.8%, it was very bad illumination than others form of house. In case of the main livingroom and study, it seemed similatrity difference each as P < 0.01 and P < 0.05 in standard of 1%. 7) The wearing spectacles rate of those who use room of illumination over 400Lux was 40.7%, and that of those who use room of illumination less than 100Lux was 28.1%. It seemed similarity differecce in standard of 1%. 8) In period of wearing spectacles, 21.3% of total investigator-highest-was from before five years, 8.6% was from before three years. Among those who use of illumintion less than 99Lux, 34.0% began to wear spectacles from before two years 31.7% was from before five years, 30.3% was from before four years. It seemed similarity difference from period of wearing spectacles by illumination in standard of 1 %. 9) Among cause which sight grow worse, the first was that it was each 33.2% and 27.4% in response rate because watch TV nearly to wearing spectacles person and non-wearing person. The second was that a lot of seeing books was 25.3% in wearing spectacles person and response rate for dark illumination was 7.4% in nonwearing spectacles person. It seemed similarity difference in standard of 1%. (P < 0.01). 10) In experience which take medicine good for eyes, it was 50.1% in wearing spectacles person and 8.5% in non-wearing spectacles person. It seemed similarity difference in standard of 1%(P < 0.01). As we have seen above, inappropriate illumination can be a cause of wearing spectacles. Nevertheless, actually, is realities to indifferent against illumination of house. So it must learn knowledge about health obstacle of illumination through society instruction and school eduction against students as well as general residents. In case that natural lighting is inappropriate structural of house, we must be able to maintain appropriate illumination through artificial illumination. And so eyes which is core of human life have to be protected, related the authorities, related group, and all health medical personnel will organically cooperate with and make efforts.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.83-95
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• 2016

Strategies for parks and open spaces in the 21st century have moved from focusing on specific elements, such as quantitative growth and ecological and recreational aspects, to green infrastructure, which refers to a multi-functional network of open and green spaces offering a range of benefits. In the case of London, green infrastructure is realised as an integral part of urban infrastructure, involving physical and social infrastructure as well as practical spatial planning at the local level within statutory urban planning as part of a continuously developing green infrastructure framework with a theoretical basis. Taking this perspective, the present study looks at alterations to and developments in green infrastructure policies in the London Plan, the green grid framework as detailed in the city's strategic implementation of green infrastructure. Various trends and characteristics of the policies adopted in the London Plan and some implications are deduced, with three main results being identified. The first is a clear division of roles among the national government, Greater London Authority and borough councils, with local plans established under the guidance of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the London Plan. Green infrastructure policies in the London Plan have been applied at a high rate in the boroughs' local plans, which leads to another, linked point. Secondly, green infrastructure policies and the green grid as an implementation framework have been consistently extended and developed through consolidating the London Plan, despite the change of government. Finally, in order to achieve the London Plan, the Mayor of London implemented policies by partnership and supporting programmes for London boroughs. Recently, the Seoul Metropolitan Authority introduced a parks and green spaces development policy, but the London case remains a good example; this is because green infrastructure policies in London were not a manifesto pledge but rather have been continuously and consistently advanced regardless of party politics and thus realised as long-term planning.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.169-191
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• 2002

As the tendency of the society is centralized into consumers and services, patients are getting to ask better medical services. The consumers influenced from various social surroundings became to have some expectation of nursing service. Compared with their expectation, the quality of the services which they virtually get may be recognized and evaluated. So it is necessary to know exactly what the consumers want in nursing services. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants which can evaluate the quality of nursing services by researching into consumers' expectation and perception of the nursing services depending on the consumer-oriented attributions on the basis of the model of SERVQUAL. 1,144 of outpatients were selected as the subjects for this research. They used to continuously visit the same hospital after being hospitalized and nursed in 9 hospitals randomly selected among the second-level medical organizations in Seoul from January to February, 2001. The collected data are analyzed into the Descriptive Statistics, t-test, GLM and Multiple Regression through the SAS program. Delphi was used for the research tool and the results of the research are as follows; the determinants in evaluating the quality of nursing services consist of 5 categories such as Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy. The values of Cronbach' $\alpha$ appeared to be 0.96 in the expectation of nursing services, 0.94 in the perception of nursing services and 0.96 in the importance of nursing services. The determinants in the expectation of nursing services were ranged in the order of Assurance, Empathy, Reliability, Responsiveness and Tangibility. And those in the perception of nursing services were in the order of Assurance, Empathy, Reliability, Tangibility and Responsiveness. Those in the importance of nursing service were in the order of Empathy, Assurance, Reliability, Tangibility and Responsiveness. Finally, those in the quality of nursing service were in the order of Tangibility, Responsiveness, Empathy, Reliability and Assurance. Each expectation of nursing services appeared different depending on the subjects' age, gender, clinical department and reason for hospitalization. The hypothesis examined in this research shows that the group having higher personal needs shows meaningful differences in the expectation of nursing services, and the subjects who have had external communication show higher perception of nursing service than uncommunicative ones. After all, we can see that the statistical differences in the perception of nursing services depend on whether the subjects have external communications or not. The determinants in the expectation of nursing services can explain the quality of nursing service up to 14.96%. The statistically meaningful determinants in the expectation could be arranged in the order of Reliability, Assurance and Tangibility. And the more expectation brings about the lower evaluation of the quality of nursing services. The determinants in the perception of nursing service can explain the quality of nursing services up to 29.85%. The statistically meaningful determinants in the perception could be arranged in the order of Responsiveness, Reliability, Tangibility, Empathy, and Assurance. And the more perception brings about the higher evaluation of the quality of nursing services. According to the result of the above research, I would like to propose as follows. As long as this research is oriented to get knowledge of the consumer-oriented nursing services, it should be continued to draw the other elements determining the quality of the nursing services. Furthermore, this research is based upon the Parasuraman, A., et al.'s SERVQUAL Model(1991), which deals only expectation, perception and quality of consumer-oriented nursing services, so it will be necessary to inspect and verify it through the other models containing the offerers of nursing services in the future. On the other hand, as this research evaluates the actual quality of nursing services based on the expectation and perception of nursing services, it can be utilized as fundamental data to develop the marketing strategies and to estimate the qualities as well. I hope this research will be periodically estimated to be the useful data to develop the marketing strategies in the nursing service area.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.36
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• pp.349-386
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• 2013

This research analyzes and evaluates The Korean Security Industry Law(TKSIL) putting the regulation of the present government about the private security industry. It nowadays becomes the important axis of the police services offered in the aspect of 'the national life safety' in connection with 'the materialization of society which is safe from the crime'. TKSIL is one of the national administration strategies which Park Gun-hye government aims on supervision policy. After seeking out the core values of the private security industrial policy which sets up in order to approach the national life safety which Park Gun-hye government aims, we make some assessments of this revised security industry law systematically. Particularly all keynote of policy about the private security of the police tried to be confirmed and the desirable direction of policy tries to be presented as to the security industry law application and real operation. In the site of organized civil complaint, the revised security industry law was revised as the direction which intensifies the administrative regulation as to the partial regulation such as it established the reason of the introduction of the arrangement license system. And grounds for disqualification of security instructor and guard, and rules of punishment is intensified order to intercept previously illegal and violent act of the security company etc. However it has the feature that it accomplishes 'the law principle(principle of statute)' the substantial portion through the effort of them changing a lot the content for the form of the law when being the clauses of the fundamental human rights limit, although it has been prescribed in "the security industry law enforcement ordinance" or "the security industry law enforced regulation". The security industry law revised this time brought from the change of the sharp policy through the revision of 17 clauses or new establishment. It can divide into 4 categorizes. (1) strictness of punishment in the site of organized civil complaint (2) Intensification of throwing out for the violation person in the private security business market time-limitedly (3) Intensification of the legal guide supervision power of police (4) upstream of the capital, name tag attachment under compulsion and the limit about other equipment use etc. Essentially "the security industry law" cannot help regulating the national interference of the private security and regulation with this content. However as to this interference and regulation, the limit has to be possible within reasonable range. As the history proved, excessive regulation by the country is not only due to bring the distortion of the security system of nation but also provoke national social cost. It can't be disregards ever that it premises the harmony which appropriate as well as reasonable in the socio-economic dimension for drawing the best combination that all things which get the compulsory education, it limits the person providing the private security service to the corporation, or it limits to the certificate of qualification holder are the ultimate for 'the safety of the national life'.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.27-39
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• 2009

Compulsive consumption is regarded as a global phenomenon that can adversely affect consumer well-being. Although the topic has been studied in different cultural settings, we have seen relatively little theory development and explanations of compulsive behavior Nearly all previous empirical studies attempt to explain this behavior by correlating measures of compulsive behavior with independent variables taken within the same time frame. However, recent developments in social sciences suggest that such a phenomenon may best understood in the context of the person's earlier-in-life experiences. Using the life course paradigm as an overarching framework, the present research extends previous work on this topic. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The earlier in childhood and adolescence a person experiences family dislocation, the greater his or her likelihood of exhibiting compulsive behaviors in adulthood. H2: The earlier in life the young person experienced family dislocation, the greater the number of family disruption events the young person experienced prior entering adulthood years. H3: Family dislocation leads to (a) increased frequency of socio.oriented family communications and (b) decreased frequency of concept-oriented family communication. H4: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong socio-oriented communication structure are more likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a weak socio-oriented family communication structure. H5: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong concept-oriented communication structure are less likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a week concept-oriented family communication structure. H6: The relationship between family disruption events experienced during adolescence and perceived stressfulness of these events is moderated by (a) global family support, (b) emotional family support, and (c) material family support. Those reporting higher levels of family support as teenagers are less likely to report experiencing stress due to family disruption events. H7: Perceived stressfulness of family disruption events experienced during adolescent years are associated with compulsive consumption tendencies in early adulthood. H8: The greater the number of family disruption events young adults experienced during their adolescent years the more frequent was their communication about consumption with their peers. H9: The more frequent was the young persons' communication with their peers about consumption during their adolescent years, the more likely they are to report compulsive buying tendencies as young adults. We use a sample of 120 Thai undergraduate students attending classes taught in English as part of a four-year international program. Product-moment correlations, hierarchical regression analysis and partial correlation were used to analyze data. Results of testing hypotheses showed that hypothesis 2, 4, 7 and 9 were supported and hypothesis 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 were not supported. Our study did not find a significant relationship between the age when a person experienced family dislocation and their compulsive behavior tendencies expressed as young adults. We did not find a significant relationship between family dislocation and family communication structures. But we found a significant positive relationship between socio-oriented communication structure and compulsive buying and a significant relationship between our peer communication and compulsive buying measures. Also we found perceived stressfulness due to the disruptive events to have a significant positive relationship between the perceived stressfulness and compulsive buying. Implications from these findings, limitations of this research and future research suggestions were discussed.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.5
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• pp.25-42
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• 2004

This study set out to investigate the relations between middle school students' perception of body image and their allowance for plastic surgery, to understand their perception of body image and desire for plastic surgery, and provide some data needed to warn against reckless plastic surgery and guide the students effectively. For those purposes, an examination was conducted of the relationships between the individual characteristics and perception levels of body image, the individual characteristics and allowance for plastic surgery, and perception levels of body image and allowance for plastic surgery. The subjects were drawn from sour middle schools located in two regions of Gyeonggi Province. Total 922 boys and girls were surveyed on a questionnaire, which was developed based on the pretest of previous literature, reviewed for appropriateness, and tested for reliability and reasonableness. The body image on the five scale was greater as the perception level was higher. The allowance for plastic surgery was also greater as the scores were more. The findings were as follows: First, the relationships between individual characteristics and perception levels of body image were examined. The third graders showed the highest perception level, being followed by the first and second graders. The girls were more perceptive than the boys, and those who were extrovert were more perceptive than those who were introvert. Those students whose parents earned 2 million won or more a month and who adapted themselves to the environmental changes had a higher perception level. In a word, the girls from the middle class that were well adapted, felt happy, and were extrovert had a higher perception level of body image. Second, the connections between individual characteristics and allowance for plastic surgery were investigated. The third graders were the most admissive of plastic surgery, followed by the second and first graders. That is, the upper graders were more admissive of plastic surgery. In addition, the girls were more admissive than the boys, and those who were extrovert were more than those who were introvert. There were no significant differences according to the monthly income of the parents, grades, adaptability to surroundings, and happiness, which results almost resembled the findings of a study conducted on adults. Third, there were negative correlations found between the perception levels of body image and the allowance for plastic surgery. To elaborate, the higher the perception levels were, the lower the allowance was, and vice versa. As for the items, the subjects showed more allowance for plastic surgery when they scored less in the item of caring about appearance, importance of looking pretty to others, and efforts to improve appearance. When they had a low value of body and easily felt tired, they were highly acceptive of plastic surgery. The allowance for plastic surgery was also great when their perception was much of how healthy they felt, how important they felt about their bodies, how they were satisfied with their current appearances, how they evaluated the appearance of others, how much they were satisfied physically, and how much demanding they were for physical changes. Meanwhile, there were no correlations between the allowance and physical attraction, the degree for one's activities to be hindered, and sickness. In short, the demand for plastic surgery was 41% for the girls and 20.2% for the boys. Just as the study on adults reported, those who had a low or negative perception of body image were more acceptive of plastic surgery. The middle school students were generally positive about their bodies with the lowest perception level at 2.91 and the highest at 3.21. Their individual allowance for plastic surgery was related to their individual body images, which were in turn affected by the mass communication, surrounding environments, and social values. Thus it's necessary for the entire society to try to improve or change the overall perception. Helping measures should be taken so that the students can form right sense of values about their bodies, avoid the obsession with appearance and appearance-based evaluation, and exercise righteous criteria against humans beings and things. In conclusions, the following suggestions were made: they need to develop such questionnaires or tools as can measure the body image of teens and fit the reality. Moreover, body image improvement programs should be more diverse and more applicable to teens. Despite the consistent reports that prove the correlations between body image and plastic surgery, there has been little effort to apply such factors as experience of the life of the disabled, volunteer activities for the disabled and at the hospitals, and others that can induce changes to body image to the body image improvement programs. In the future, comparative research should be carried out on body image and plastic surgery.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.518-535
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• 2001

Nursing practices should be based on the understanding of human beings. In order to understand human beings, it is important to study the lifestyles and thoughts of people in their natural environment. In this sense, the cultural aspects of a society need to be studied for a culture-bound nursing service. Child care, which is an important element of nursing, is also strongly influenced by the culture of a society. Therefore, a cultural study is necessary to understand the child-rearing practices of any society. The major purpose of this dissertation is to provide basic foundations for developing a culture-based theory for nursing intervention through studying traditional cultural elements of child care in Korean society. The study examined child-rearing practices in a small village on Koje Island in the southern part of Korea. It utilized ethnographic methodologies including participatory observations and in-depth interviews. The study participants were 9 Korean mothers living on Koje Island. The average age was 52. The data were collected between July in 1998 and December in 1999. The average number of interviews per person was 7-8, and the duration of each interview was approximately 2 hours. The data were analyzed using the Spradley Analytical Method. The following 9 major child-rearing aspects of mothers on Koje Island were discovered as a result of the study: 1. Firstly, mothers on Koje Island were mostly concerned about the "Old Birth Goddess' Curse", especially during their child's early years. This concern was evidenced by their careful behavior when their child was very young and by their praying to the Old Birth Goddess not to be jealous of their babies. 2. Secondly, they wished their children to live a different and better life than themselves. It was represented by their strong motivation toward their children's education as well as their expectation for their children's success. In traditional Korean culture, Korean people think that the rise and fall of the household depend on their offsprings. Therefore, Korean mothers wish their children attain to a higher level of social status through education. 3. Third, mothers are concerned about their children's righteousness. Mothers on Koje island expect their children to live with discretion, justice, strength, respect, harmony, and to do their best in life. 4. Next was an 'anticipation of their children's happy marriage'. The attributes of this category were an 'anxiety about their children's married life', and 'an expectation of a good spouse for their children'. Because Korean people believe that only a son can continue the bloodline of a family, especially Korean mothers have a great concern of the possibility of their daughters not having a son after marriage. Also they have different expectations toward their daughter-in-laws than son-in-laws. 5. Korean mothers also derived their satisfaction from their son. It was characterized by 'excessive affection toward their son', 'dependency on their son', and 'being afraid of their married daughter having a girl like themselves'. Korean society has been a patriarchy. Therefore, a son is beloved as someone who will take care of his old parents, be in charge of ancestral rites, and provide a daughter-in-law who can conceive a son. 6. The sixth category concerned 'the differences in their expectations for their children'. The attributes in this category were 'different expectations depending on their children's gender', 'different expectations depending on their children's ability', and a 'great sympathy toward children with low abilities'. Korean mothers expect their son to become better than their daughter. 7. The seventh category was related to their 'roles in child-caring practices'. Traditionally a child was raised in an extended family system in Korea So it was not the sole duty of a mother to bring up the child. Korean mothers used to receive much help rasing children from their in-laws, and family members. On the other hand, many children grew up by themselves, because their mothers were very busy taking care of housework. Furthermore, many children also grew up in poverty. 8. Mothers also had issues related to 'conflicts in child rearing'. They were characterized by 'lack of understanding', 'rudeness of children', and 'giving vent to one's anger'. 9. Finally, mothers regretted not doing their best in child-rearing practices. It was characterized by a 'bitter feeling of repentance', 'feeling irritated', and 'feeling of unsatisfaction'.