• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.342-352
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• 2020

Objectives: The characteristics of research workers are different from those working in the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the reagents used change according to the research due to the characteristics of the laboratory, and the amounts used vary. In addition, since the working time changes almost every day, it is difficult to adjust the time according to exposure standards. There are also difficulties in setting standards as in the manufacturing industry since laboratory environments and the types of experiments performed are all different. For these reasons, the measurement of the working environment of research workers is not realistically carried out within the legal framework, there is a concern that the accuracy of measurement results may be degraded, and there are difficulties in securing data. The exposure evaluation based on an eight-hour time-weighted average used for measuring the working environment to be studied in this study may not be appropriate, but it was judged and consequently applied as the most suitable method among the recognized test methods. Methods: The investigation of the use of chemical substances in the research laboratory, which is the subject of this study, was conducted in the order of carrying out work environment measurement, sample analysis, and result analysis. In the case of the use of chemical substances, after organizing the substances to be measured in the working environment, the research workers were asked to write down the status, frequency, and period of use. Work environment measurement and sample analysis were conducted by a recognized test method, and the results were compared with the exposure standards (TWA: time weighted average value) for chemical substances and physical factors. Results: For the substances subject to work environment measurement, the department of chemical engineering was the most exposed, followed by the department of chemistry. This can lead to exposure to a variety of chemicals in departmental laboratories that primarily deal with chemicals, including acetone, hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, and normal hexane. Hydrogen chloride was measured higher than the average level of domestic work environment measurements. This can suggest that researchers in research activities should also be managed within the work environment measurement system. As a result of a comparison between the professional science and technology service industry and the education service industry, which are the most similar business types to university research laboratories among the domestic work environment measurements provided by the Korea Safety and Health Agency, acetone, dichloromethane, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, nitric acid, normal hexane, and hydrogen chloride are items that appear higher than the average level. This can also be expressed as a basis for supporting management within the work environment measurement system. Conclusions: In the case of research activity workers' work environment measurement and management, specific details can be presented as follows. When changing projects and research, work environment measurement is carried out, and work environment measurement targets and methods are determined by the measurement and analysis method determined by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The measurement results and exposure standards apply exposure standards for chemical substances and physical factors by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. Implementation costs include safety management expenses and submission of improvement plans when exposure standards are exceeded. The results of this study were presented only for the measurement of the working environment among the minimum health management measures for research workers, but it is necessary to prepare a system to improve the level of safety and health.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.27-42
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• 2020

Startup accelerators have emerged as new investment entities that help early startups, which are not easy to survive continuously due to lack of funds, commercialization capabilities, and experiences. As their positive performance on early startups and the ecosystem has been proven, the number of early startups which want to receive their investment is also increasing. However, they are vaguely preparing to attract accelerators' investment because they do not have any information on what factors the accelerators consider important. In addition, researches on startup accelerators are also at an early level, so there are no remarkable prior studies on factors that decide on investment. Therefore, this study aims to help startups prepare for investment attraction by looking at what factors are important for accelerators to invest, and to provide meaningful implications to academia. In the preceding study, we derived five upper level categories, 26 lower level accelerators' investment determinants through the qualitative meta-synthesis method, secondary data analysis, observation on US accelerators and in-depth interviews. In this study, we want to derive important implications by deriving priorities of the accelerators' investment determinants. Therefore, we used AHP that are evaluated as the suitable methodology for deriving importance and priority. The analysis results show that accelerators value market-related factors most. This means that startups that are subject to investment by accelerators are early-stage startups, and many companies have not fully developed their products or services. Therefore, market-related factors that can be evaluated objectively seem to be more important than products (or services) that are still ambiguous. Next, it was found that the factors related to the internal workforce of startups are more important. Since accelerators want to develop their businesses together with start-ups and team members through mentoring, ease of collaboration with them is very important, which seems to be important. The overall priority analysis results of the 26 investment determinants show that 'customer needs' and 'founders and team members' understanding of customers and markets' (0.62) are important and high priority factors. The results also show that startup accelerators consider the customer-centered perspective very important. And among the factors related to startups, the most prominent factor was the founder's openness and execution ability. Therefore, it can be confirmed that accelerators consider the ease of collaboration with these startups very important.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2021

The increasing use of deicing salts has caused various environmental problems, including crop damage along the motorway where deicing salts are sprayed during winter. Deicing salts used on roads have been reported to negatively affect crops, but little information is known about their impact on crops. A seedling emergence assay was conducted to evaluate the effects of deicing salts on crops using oilseed rape (Brassica napus) as a model plant. We tested five chloride deicing salts consisting of NaCl, CaCl2, or MgCl2 and 1 non-chloride deicing salt (SM-3) at a range of concentrations (25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 mM), and untreated control. Regardless of deicing salts, they significantly delayed and reduced seedling emergence of oilseed rape with increasing salt concentration. Non-linear regression analysis of seedling emergence with a range of salt concentrations by fitting to the log-logistic model revealed that the chloride deicing salts reduced seedling emergence more than the non-chloride deicing salt SM-3. The GR50 value, the concentration causing 50% seedling emergence, of SM-3 was 47.1 mM, while those of the chloride deicing salts ranged from 30.7 mM (PC-10) to 37.5 mM (ES-1), showing approximately 10 mM difference between non-chloride and chloride deicing salts. Our findings suggest that seedling emergence assay is a useful tool to estimate the potential damage caused by deicing salts on crops.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2021

Purpose: Rapid detection of etiologic organisms is crucial for initiating appropriate therapy in patients with central nervous system (CNS) infection. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of the BioFire^® Meningitis/Encephalitis (ME) panel in detecting etiologic organisms in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from febrile infants. Methods: CSF samples from infants aged <90 days who were evaluated for fever were collected between January 2016 and July 2019 at the Seoul National University Children's Hospital. We performed BioFire^® ME panel testing of CSF samples that had been used for CSF analysis and conventional tests (bacterial culture, Xpert^® enterovirus assay, and herpes simplex virus-1 and -2 polymerase chain reaction) and stored at -70℃ until further use. Results: In total, 72 (24 pathogen-identified and 48 pathogen-unidentified) CSF samples were included. Using BioFire^® ME panel testing, 41 (85.4%) of the 48 pathogen-unidentified CSF samples yielded negative results and 22 (91.7%) of the 24 pathogen-identified CSF samples yielded the same results (enterovirus in 19, Streptococcus agalactiae in 2, and Streptococcus pneumoniae in 1) as those obtained using the conventional tests, thereby resulting in an overall agreement of 87.5% (63/72). Six of the 7 pathogen-unidentified samples were positive for human parechovirus (HPeV) via BioFire^® ME panel testing. Conclusions: Compared with the currently available etiologic tests for CNS infection, BioFire^® ME panel testing demonstrated a high agreement score for pathogen-identified samples and enabled HPeV detection in young infants. The clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of BioFire^® ME panel testing in children must be evaluated for its wider application.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.155-173
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was undertaken to update the Nutrition Quotient for Elderly (NQ-E), which reflects dietary quality and behavior among Korean older adults. Methods: The first 29 items of the measurable food behavior checklist were obtained from a previous NQ-E checklist, recent literature reviews, and national nutrition policies and recommendations. One-hundred subjects (50 men and 50 women) aged ≥ 65 years living in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, including Gyeonggi Province, completed a pilot survey from March to April 2021. Based on the results of the pilot study, we conducted factor analysis and frequency analysis to determine whether the items of the survey were properly organized and whether the distribution of answers for each evaluation item was properly distributed. As a result, we reduced the number of items on the food behavior checklist and used 23 items for the national survey. Nationwide, 1,000 subjects (472 men and 528 women) aged > 65 years, completed the checklist survey, which was applied using a face-to-face survey method from May to August 2021. The construct validity of the NQ-E 2021 was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, LISREL. Results: Seventeen food behavior checklist items were selected for the final NQ-E 2021. Checklist items addressed three factors: balance (8 items), moderation (2 items), and practice (7 items). Standardized path coefficients were used as the weights of items to determine nutrition quotients. NQ-E and three-factor scores were calculated according to the weights of questionnaire items. Conclusion: The updated NQ-E 2021 produced by structural equation modelling provides a suitable tool for assessing the dietary quality and behavior of Korean older adults.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.33
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• pp.25-33
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• 2021

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of the Trigger mode for the Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy (RGRT) Materials and methods : A QUASAR respiratory phantom that inserted a 3 mm fiducial marker (a gold marker) was used to estimate the accuracy of the Trigger mode. And the 20 bpm was used as reference respiration rate in this study. The marker that placed at the center of the phantom was contoured, and the lower threshold of a gating window was fixed at 2.0 mm using an OBI with Truebeam STx^TM. The upper threshold was measured every 0.5 mm from 1.0 mm to 3.0 mm. The respiration rates were changed every 10 bpm from 10 bpm to 60 bpm. We repeatedly measured five times to check the error rate of the trigger mode in the same condition. Result : The differences of a distance from a peak phase to upper threshold, 1.0 to 3.0 mm at a 20 bpm as a reference for 3 days in a row were 0.68±0.05 mm, 0.91±0.03 mm, 1.23±0.03 mm, 1.42±0.04 mm, and 1.66±0.06 mm, respectively. Measurement result of changes in respiratory rate compared to baseline respiratory rate in maximum absolute difference. The coefficient of determination (R2) to estimate the correlation between the respiration velocity and variation of absolute difference was on average 0.838, 0.887, 0.770, 0.850, and 0.906. The p-values of all the variables were below 0.05. Conclusion : Using Trigger mode during respiratory gated radiation therapy (RGRT), accuracy and usefulness of trigger mode at reference breathing rate were confirmed. However, inaccuracies depending on the rate of breathing it could be uncertain in case of respiration rate is faster than 20 bpm as a standard respiration rate compared to slower than 20 bpm. Consequently, when conducting a RGRT using the trigger mode, real time monitoring is required with well educated respiration.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

This study aims to evaluate Person Centered Care practice and characteristics of care services in Korean long-term care facilities using Dementia Care Mapping as a tool. DCM, systematic observational evaluation tool for measuring dementia patients' QOL, was transformed into self-report rating scale. The process of transforming DCM into a scale of 34 items involves operationalization of DCM concepts and it's adaptation into Korean long-term care practices. Review by research team of Bradford university was added to maintain DCM concept and meaning in this scale. The scale with Cronbach alpha of .88 was surveyed on 343 care workers. Survey result shows PCC value practiced by them is 3.77(of 5 likert scale) and values on each categories of PCC reveal the characteristics of care in Korean facilities; attachment(4.02), comfort(3.95), inclusion(3.89), identity(3.67) and occupation(3.41). Dementia care in Korean facilities focuses on recipients'safety, comfort but lacks individualistic care and the meaningful and fulfilling occupation for patients. Looking at the organizational and individual factors influencing DCM values, the small facilities showed higher PCC values and there are no significant difference in PCC values between public and private facilities. Managers and care workers with career of 1~2 years showed higher PCC values compared to other career ranks and lengthes. This study suggests care practice should be centered on personhood of patients in long-term care facilities, for which introduction of unit care and education of PCC for service providers including support personnel are needed. DCM and Korean DCM scale developed in this study are suggested for the PCC-based assessment on care quality.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.61-74
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• 2022

Considering that the number of cases in which a structure foundation is located on weathered rock has been increasing recently, for adequate design bearing capacity of a foundation on weathered rock, allowable bearing capacities of such foundations in geotechnical investigation reports were studied. With reference to the study results, the allowable bearing capacity of a foundation on weathered rock was approximately 400-700 kN/m², with a large variation, and was considered a conservative value. Because the allowable bearing capacity of the foundation ground is an important index in determining the foundation type in the early design stage, it can have a significant influence on the construction cost and period according to the initial decision. Thus, in this study, six large-scale plate-bearing tests were conducted on weathered rock, and the bearing capacity and settlement characteristics were analyzed. According to the test results, the bearing capacities from the six tests exceeded 1,500 kN/m², and it shows that the results are similar with the one of bearing capacity formula by Pressuremeter tests when compared with the various bearing capacity formula. In addition, the elastic modulus determined by the inverse calculation of the load-settlement behavior from the large-scale plate-bearing tests was appropriate for applying the elastic modulus of the Pressuremeter tests. With consideration of the large-scale plate-bearing tests in this study and other results of plate-bearing tests on weathered rock in Korea, the allowable bearing capacity of weathered rock is evaluated to be over 1,000 kN/m². However, because the settlement of the foundation increases as the foundation size increases, the allowable bearing capacity should be restrained by the allowable settlement criteria of an upper structure. Therefore, in this study, the anticipated foundation settlements along the foundation size and the thickness of weathered rocks have been evaluated by numerical analysis, and the foundation size and ground conditions, with an allowable bearing capacity of over 1,000 kN/m², have been proposed as a table. These findings are considered useful in determining the foundation type in the early foundation design.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.240-249
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• 2022

Measuring chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) is a useful tool for assessing a plant's ability to tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought, waterlogging and high temperature. Korean ginseng is highly sensitive to water stress in paddy fields. To evaluate the possibility of non-destructively diagnosing waterlogging stress using chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) imaging techniques, we screened 57 ginseng accessions for waterlogging tolerance. To evaluate waterlogging tolerance among the 2-year-old Korean ginseng accessions, we treated ginseng plants with water stress for 25 days. The physiological disorder rate was characterized through visual assessment (an assigned score of 0-5). The physiological disorder rates of Geumjin, Geumsun and GS00-58 were lower than that of other accessions. In contrast, lines GS97-62, GS97-69 and GS98-1-5 were deemed susceptible. Root traits, chlorophyll content and the reduction rates decreased in most ginseng accessions. Further, these metrics were significantly lower in susceptible genotypes compared to resistant ones. All CF parameters showed a positive or negative response to waterlogging stress, and this response continuously increased over the treatment time among the genotypes. The CF parameter Fv/Fm was used to screen the 57 accessions, and the results showed clear differences in Fv/Fm between the susceptible and resistant genotypes. Susceptible genotypes had an especially low Fv/Fm value of less than 0.8, reflecting damage to the reaction center of photosystem II. It is concluded that Fv/Fm can be used as a CF parameter index for screening waterlogging stress tolerance in ginseng genotypes.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.400-410
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• 2022

This study was performed to analyze the microbial contamination levels of three non-heated rice cake manufacturers in terms of seasonal manufacturing process and to investigate the effects of summertime soaking on contamination levels and temperature-controlled soaking in water on reduction in microbial levels. The total aerobic bacteria (TAB) ranged from 2.69 log CFU/g to 5.08 log CFU/g in the produce, but the microbial contamination increased sharply during soaking. The levels of TAB and coliforms during summer soaking were 7.01 and 3.96 log CFU/g, respectively, and this was significantly higher than those in other seasons. The contamination level was high in the subsequent freezing, with the TAB level (6.24 log CFU/g) exceeding the legal standard. The temperature of soaking water in summer increased from 19.1℃ to 26.8℃ after 12 h of soaking. The microbial contamination was significantly high commensurate with increased soaking time, and the TAB level in the frozen process exceeded the legal standard from 9 h of soaking. The use of ice packs to prevent the increase in temperature of the soaking water in summer resulted in maintenance of temperature at 20.1℃ for up to 12 h. The average TAB value in the freezing process was 4.42 log CFU/g after 12 h of soaking, and this is 1.77 log CFU/g lower than that before. Based on these results, it was determined that controlling the soaking time and water temperature are essential for the production of a safe unheated frozen rice cake. The safety of the HACCP system could be established by applying these preventive management standards.