• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.413-425
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• 2022

Objective: We compared appendiceal visualization on 2-mSv CT vs. conventional-dose CT (median 7 mSv) in adolescents and young adults and analyzed the undesirable clinical and diagnostic outcomes that followed appendiceal nonvisualization. Materials and Methods: A total of 3074 patients aged 15-44 years (mean ± standard deviation, 28 ± 9 years; 1672 female) from 20 hospitals were randomized to the 2-mSv CT or conventional-dose CT group (1535 vs. 1539) from December 2013 through August 2016. A total of 161 radiologists from 20 institutions prospectively rated appendiceal visualization (grade 0, not identified; grade 1, unsure or partly visualized; and grade 2, clearly and entirely visualized) and the presence of appendicitis in these patients. The final diagnosis was based on CT imaging and surgical, pathologic, and clinical findings. We analyzed undesirable clinical or diagnostic outcomes, such as negative appendectomy, perforated appendicitis, more extensive than simple appendectomy, delay in patient management, or incorrect CT diagnosis, which followed appendiceal nonvisualization (defined as grade 0 or 1) and compared the outcomes between the two groups. Results: In the 2-mSv CT and conventional-dose CT groups, appendiceal visualization was rated as grade 0 in 41 (2.7%) and 18 (1.2%) patients, respectively; grade 1 in 181 (11.8%) and 81 (5.3%) patients, respectively; and grade 2 in 1304 (85.0%) and 1421 (92.3%) patients, respectively (p < 0.001). Overall, undesirable outcomes were rare in both groups. Compared to the conventional-dose CT group, the 2-mSv CT group had slightly higher rates of perforated appendicitis (1.1% [17] vs. 0.5% [7], p = 0.06) and false-negative diagnoses (0.4% [6] vs. 0.0% [0], p = 0.01) following appendiceal nonvisualization. Otherwise, these two groups were comparable. Conclusion: The use of 2-mSv CT instead of conventional-dose CT impairs appendiceal visualization in more patients. However, appendiceal nonvisualization on 2-mSv CT rarely leads to undesirable clinical or diagnostic outcomes.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.73-82
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• 2024

In 2017, the United Nations reported that the population aged 60 and above was increasing more rapidly than all younger age groups worldwide, projecting that by 2050, the population aged 60 and above would constitute at least 25% of the global population, excluding Africa. The world is experiencing a decline in the rate of increase in the working-age population due to global aging, and the younger generation tends to avoid difficult and challenging occupations. Although theoretically, AI equipped with artificial intelligence can replace humans in all fields, in the realm of practical information security, human judgment and expertise are absolutely essential, especially in ethical considerations. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to retrain and reintegrate IT professionals aged 50 and above who are retiring or seeking career transitions, aiming to bring them back into the industry. For this research, surveys were conducted with 21 government/public agencies representing demand and 9 security monitoring companies representing supply. Survey results indicated that both demand (90%) and supply (78%) unanimously agreed on the absolute necessity of such measures. If the results of this research are applied in the field, it could lead to the strategic development of senior information security professionals, laying the foundation for a new market in the Korean information security industry amid the era of low birth rates and longevity.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2024

Background Plastic surgery has developed to benefit in a variety of challenging areas formerly handled by other disciplines. Medical students do not have a clear picture of plastic surgery as a career due to lacking scope, clinical practice, and understanding of plastic surgery as a clinical area of expertise, including general practitioners, nursing staff, medical trainees, and the general public, and misconceptions about the extent of reconstructive and plastic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on Kuwait University Medical students (2nd-7th Years) over a period of 1 month. A questionnaire and a consent form were provided to eligible students. The inclusion criteria were Kuwait University Medical students from 2nd to 7th Years with signed consent form. The response was collected via email sent in coordination with the Vice Dean of Student Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine. Using statistical package for the social sciences, responses were statistically analyzed. Pearson's chi-square test was used to calculate p-values, where p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 244 eligible medical students, 121 males and 123 females, were included in the study, with a mean age of 21 (±2) years. Similarly, 126 (51.6%) were preclinical students (2nd-4th-year students), while 118 (48.4%) were clinical students (5th-7th-year students). About 79.8% of medical students believed that plastic surgery plays an essential role in trauma management, whereas 9.2% did not consider plastic surgery significant for trauma management. This study found that only 15.5% of medical students were interested in enrolling in plastic surgery residency after graduation, while 47.1% of students did not consider plastic surgery residency after graduation. However, 37.4% were uncertain. The two most driving factors in deciding on plastic surgery residency were expected income (61.8%) and lifestyle (14.3%). Conclusion Improving medical students' education quality can enhance their perception and awareness of plastic surgery. Students should be taught the broader scope of plastic surgery. The inclusion of formal training during undergraduation is the essence of time and should be added to or improved during plastic surgery rotations with more emphasis on reconstructive and hand/peripheral nerve surgery. Student-led interest groups can be a useful tool for educating students about their specialty.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.18-37
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• 2024

This study examines migrant workers' occupational health and safety issues through a case study of the UK construction industry, focusing on structural vulnerabilities. Migrant workers are at the bottom of the hierarchically fragmented labour market, performing outsourced hazardous work. Structural vulnerability focuses on the social structures that create hierarchies and increase risk in the workplace, rather than on individual responsibility or 'cultural' differences of migrant workers. The study considers the structural factors that perpetuate the migrantisation of risk in the UK construction industry, focusing on the structural necessity of low-wage migrant labour, precarious employment and the legal status of migrant workers, and discusses how these three factors interact to increase migrant workers' vulnerability to health and safety. The migrantisation of risk is not only a matter of occupational health and safety or universal workers' compensation, but also of the intertwining of labour migration policies with employment structures that rely on low-wage, low-skilled labour. This calls for proactive measures to address structural risks that go beyond passive declaratory policies that do not exclude migrant workers from education, training or legal systems.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.1498-1505
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• 2023

This study attempted to investigate the difference in service orientation according to the individual characteristics of hair salon workers, and to identify the internal marketing factors of hair salon that influence service orientation. Questionnaires for empirical research were collected from hair salon workers in Gyeongnam, and the results of analyzing the collected questionnaires through IBM SPSS Statistics 26 are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the difference in service orientation according to the individual characteristics of hair salon workers, the '40s or older' group and the 'working period of 10 years or longer' group showed statistically higher service orientation than other groups. Second, as a result of analyzing the causal relationship between internal marketing and service orientation, it was found that welfare, compensation system, education and training of internal marketings had the statistical effect on service orientation, and in particular, the compensation system had the strongest effect on service orientation. Therefore, service orientation for customers should be improved through internal marketing activities that take into account the individual characteristics of hair salon workers. The improvement of service orientation means the customer's intention to reuse, suggesting that ultimately the management performance of hair salon companies can be further improved.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2024

Recently, with immersive virtual reality(IVR) technologies, various services such as education, training, entertainment, industry, healthcare and remote collaboration have been applied. In particular, researches are actively being studied to visualize and interact with virtual humans, research on virtual pets in IVR is also emerging. For interaction with the virtual pet, similar to real-world interaction scenarios, the most important thing is to provide physical contact such as haptic and non-verbal interaction(e.g., gesture). This paper investigates the effects on factors (e.g., shape and texture) of passive haptic feedbacks using mapping physical props corresponding to the virtual pet. Experimental results show significant differences in terms of immersion, co-presence, realism, and friendliness depending on the levels of texture elements when interacting with virtual pets by passive haptic feedback. Additionally, as the main findings of this study by statistical interaction between two variables, we found that there was Uncanny valley effect in terms of friendliness. With our results, we will expect to be able to provide guidelines for creating interactive contents with the virtual pet in immersive VR environments.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.107-134
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• 2024

This study aims to classify the semantic words commonly used to evaluate sound quality and to analyze their differences in reflecting the level of musical stimuli. Participants were thirty-one music majors in their 20s and 30s, with an average of 9.4 years of professional training. Each participant listened to nine pieces of music with variations in texture and instrument type and evaluated them using 18 pairs of semantic words describing sound quality. A factor analysis was conducted to group words influenced by the same latent factor, and a multivariate ANOVA determined the differences in ratings based on texture and instrument type. Radar charts were also drawn based on the identified sets of semantic words. The results showed that four factors were identified, and the word pairs 'soft-hard,' 'dull-sharp,' 'muddy-clean' and 'low-high' showed significant differences based on the level of musical stimuli. The radar charts effectively distinguished the sound quality evaluations for each music. These results indicate that developing Korean semantic words for sound quality evaluation requires a structure different from the previous categories used in Western countries and that linguistic and cultural factors are crucial. This study will provide foundational data for developing a verbal sound quality evaluation framework suited to the Korean context, while reflecting acoustic attributes in music listening.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.201-207
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• 2024

In this study, we investigated the current status of written discourse mediation in a more general and in-depth manner, including the training completion experience and knowledge of written discourse mediation among Speech-Language Pathologists in Korea, and the Speech-Language Pathologists' perceptions of written discourse mediation. We wanted to look into the requirements. Research results were derived through a questionnaire answered by 110 Speech-Language Pathologists. As a result, although most Speech-Language Pathologists learned about written discourse intervention in the curriculum, their application of written discourse intervention in clinical settings is insufficient and they have difficulty with written discourse intervention due to lack of systematic and professional knowledge of this intervention. I could tell that I was feeling it. Looking at the status of written discourse intervention, only 46.4% of the Speech-Language Pathologists who responded in clinical settings showed that they had experience with written discourse intervention. In other words, it was analyzed that 53.6% of respondents had no experience with writing discourse mediation. As a result of Speech-Language Pathologists' perception and demand for written discourse intervention, 76.4% of SpeechLanguage Pathologists responded that they thought written discourse intervention was an important area of speech therapy. In addition, 62.8% of respondents responded that a curriculum for discourse mediation is necessary, more than 90% said that continuous research on written discourse mediation is necessary, and 89.1% thought that the development of textbooks and teaching aids was necessary.This study is significant in that it investigated the experiences and perceptions of Speech-Language Pathologists in written discourse intervention and analyzed the results in that it provided direction on how education and various processes related to written discourse intervention should be conducted.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.289-318
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to identify users behavioral characteristics for using the online catalog opened in May 1996 at Duksung Women's University Library. 278 student users were surveyed from October 4th to 8th in 1996. Major findings are as follows. 1. Most users$(87.4\%)$ prefer the online catalog to the card catalog and regard the online catalog easy to use$(89.6\%)$ 2. $(65.8\%)$ of users are active users who frequently use the online catalog at least 10 times or more per semester. 3. $10.4\%$ of users feel the online catalog difficult because they do not know how to use it. 4. Most users prefer the menu search mode among menu, command and fill-in-blank search modes offered by DISCOVER. The most preferred access points are the title for known-item search and subject headings for subject search. 5. User's attitude toward the online catalog is very favorable$(83.5\%)$, however, the search success rate is rather low $(77.0\%)$ compared to that of the card catalog $(87.0\%)$ 6. The title and author are regarded easy to use among access points offered by DISCOVER. Classification numbers and call numbers are the least easy access points to use. 7. Since users show lack of knowledge of how to use the online catalog, education and training programs on the online catalog use for users are needed. 8. Users showed different search patterns for pursuing different search goals. The most preferred access points are the title for known-item search and subject headings for subject search. These search behaviors are different from those in using the card for both the known-item search and subject search was the title.