• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.6 s.84
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• pp.117-129
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to provide basic information about hierarchical spatial compositions of lounges and corridors in elderly skilled nursing facilities through the analysis of elderly residents' behaviors. For the study, five researchers observed the behavior of the elderly in the lounges and corridors of five facilities from 10 AM. to 4 PM. at 30-minute intervals for the investigation of hierarchical spatial compositions. And then, the design characteristics of public and semi-public area were analyzed by evaluating their openness, centrality, accessibility, and stimulations. The results of this study were as follows. First, the public area was focused on the lounge, and the semi-public area was formed on the comers of corridors and the parts of lounge walls. The private and semi-private area were distributed to the whole lounges and corridors. Second, in morning time, the semi-public area was concentrated on the wall of lounge instead of on the comers of corridors, and in afternoon, the residents' behaviors relevant to the private and semi-public areas were increased. Especially, the comers of corridors were utilized as the main semi-public areas. Third, the public area could encourage the participation of the elderly residents when it was opened to other areas more than 40% and close to the nursing station. But, the central garden made the accessibility from the elderly private room to the public area not good. The ideal openness of semi-public area was indicated as 25-30%, and its centrality was $10{\sim}15m$ which was a little far from the nursing station. Forth, furniture arrangements gave large influence to the behavior characteristics in the semi-public areas. Especially, sofa arrangements in the comers of corridors increased informal interactions among the elderly. In conclusion, the public area needs high rate of openness and should satisfy both of the centrality and accessibility so that it lead the elderly participations from the private and semi-private areas. The semi-public area should be in a little distance from nursing station and provide with furniture sets for the elderly informal interactions.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.395-402
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• 2011

As the consumer market for odor products grows, companies producing healthcare products are beginning to pay more attention to the emotional aspect of an odor product in order to differentiate their products from competitors. In the following research, the affective effect of odor product was investigated while focusing on relaxation and working contexts using orange and pine scents, since these are typical odors in current domestic market. Two empirical studies were carried out. First, in experiment I, 18 subjects, all of whom were university students, spent 20 minutes sitting comfortably on a sofa while electrocardiogram assessments were made. After a five-minute break, in experiment II, the same subjects were provided with both arithmetic and geometric questions and their electroencephalogram readings was recorded from eight channels. All subjects participated in three sessions - no odor, an orange scent, and then a pine scent - with a minimum time interval of 24 hours. The results show that in the context of a pine scent, both the activation ratio of subjects' parasympathetic system and those of the Sensory Motor Rhythm waves and Mid Beta waves were at the highest peak. Therefore, the pine scent helped the subjects to feel more comfortable and more focused at the same time. In other words, it gave them a state of meditated attention. In addition, it was found that the right brain was activated twice the intensity when the subjects worked through the geometric questions, whereas both sides of the brain were activated in equal magnitude during the process of arithmetic tasks. This replicates previous studies of the functional aspect of the right brain - being responsible for spatial and creative thinking.