• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.97-114
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• 1996

INSTRODUCTION Service quality is, unlike goods quality, an abstract and elusive constuct. Service quality and its requirements are not easily understood by consumers, and also present some critical research problems. However, quality is very important to marketers and consumers in that it has many strategic benefits in contributing to profitability of marketing activities and consumers' problem-solving activities. Moreover, despite the phenomenal growth of medical service sector, few researchers have attempted to define and model medical service quality. Especially, little research has focused on the evaluation of medical service quality and patient satisfaction from the perspectives of both the provider and the patient. As competition intensifies and patients are demanding higher quality of medical service, medical service quality and patient satisfaction has emerged as a critical research topic. The major purpose of this article is to explore the concept of medical service quality and its evaluation from both nurse and patient perspectives. This article attempts to achieve its purpose by (1)classfying critical service attibutes into threecategories(satisfiers, hygiene factors, and performance factors). (2)measuring the relative importance of need criteria, (3)evaluating SERVPERF model and SERVQUAL model in medical service sector, and (4)identifying the relationship between perceived quality and overall patient satisfaction. METHOD Data were gathered from a sample of 217 patients and 179 nurses in Seoul-area general hospitals. From the review of previous literature, 50 survey items representing various facets of the medical service quality were developed to form a questionnaire. A five-point scale ranging from "Strongly Agree"(5) to "Strongly Disagree"(1) accompanied each statement(expectation statements, perception statements, and importance statements). To measure overall satisfaction, a seven-point scale was used, ranging from "Very Satisfied"(7) to "Very Dissatisfied"(1) with no verbal labels for scale points 2 through 6 RESULTS In explaining the relationship between perceived performance and overall satisfaction, only 31 variables out of original 50 survey items were proven to be statistically significant. Hence, a penalty-reward analysis was performed on theses 31 critical attributes to find out 17 satisfiers, 8 hygiene factors, and 4 performance factors in patient perspective. The role(category) of each service quality attribute in relation to patient satisfaction was com pared across two groups, that is, patients and nurses. They were little overlapped, suggesting that two groups had different sets of 'perceived quality' attributes. Principal components factor analyses of the patients' and nurses' responses were performed to identify the underlying dimensions for the set of performance(experience) statements. 28 variables were analyzed by using a varimax rotation after deleting three obscure variables. The number of factors to be extracted was determined by evaluating the eigenvalue scores. Six factors wereextracted, accounting for 57.1% of the total variance. Reliability analysis was performed to refine the factors further. Using coefficient alpha, scores of .84 to .65 were obtained. Individual-item analysis indicated that all statements in each of the factors should remain. On 26 attributes of 31 critical service quality attributes, there were gaps between actual patient's importance of need criteria and nurse perceptions of them. Those critical attributes could be classified into four categories based on the relative importance of need criteria and perceived performance from the perspective of patient. This analysis is useful in developing strategic plans for performance improvement. (1) top priorities(high importance and low performance) (in this study)- more health-related information -accuracy in billing - quality of food - appointments at my convenience - information about tests and treatments - prompt service of business office -adequacy of accommodations(elevators, etc) (2) current strengths(high importance and high performance) (3)unnecessary strengths(low importance and high performance) (4) low priorities(low importance and low performance) While 26 service quality attributes of SERPERF model were significantly related to patient satisfation, only 13 attributes of SERVQUAL model were significantly related. This result suggested that only experience-based norms(SERVPERF model) were more appropriate than expectations to serve as a benchmark against which service experiences were compared(SERVQUAL model). However, it must be noted that the degree of association to overall satisfaction was not consistent. There were some gaps between nurse percetions and patient perception of medical service performance. From the patient's viewpoint, "personal likability", "technical skill/trust", and "cares about me" were most significant positioning factors that contributed patient satisfaction. DISCUSSION This study shows that there are inconsistencies between nurse perceptions and patient perceptions of medical service attributes. Also, for service quality improvement, it is most important for nurses to understand what satisfiers, hygiene factors, and performance factors are through two-way communications. Patient satisfaction should be measured, and problems identified should be resolved for survival in intense competitive market conditions. Hence, patient satisfaction monitoring is now becoming a standard marketing tool for healthcare providers and its role is expected to increase.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2010

Monitoring of the dynamic changes at paddy rice agriculture is very important for agricultural sustainability. Field monitoring was performed to evaluate the soil chemical properties of 260 paddy soil samples every four years from 1999 to 2007 in Gyeongnam Province. Soil chemical properties such as pH, organic matter, available phosphate, silicate, exchangeable potassium, calcium, and magnesium contents were analyzed. The contents of exchangeable cations, and available silicate were significantly increased in 2007 compared to 1999. The chemical contents of organic matter, exchangeable potassium, and magnesium were significantly increased in acid sulfate soil, and silty clay loam compared to those of other soil types, and textures. Especially, content of organic matter was significantly increased in hill area compared to other soil topographies, while exchangeable potassium was significantly decreased. Principle component analysis (PCA) of chemical properties in paddy soils was obtained with eigenvalues > 1 summing 39.1%of variance for PC1, 20.4%of variance for PC2, and 59.5%of the total variance in the all of soil chemical properties. Therefore, principal component analysis is more effective for monitoring from chemical properties of paddy soil.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.84 no.2
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• pp.151-165
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• 1995

This study was conducted to establish a systematized taxonomic problems of through the leaf morphological characters and leaf venation patterns, and stomatal cell patterns and cell characteristics of abaxial and adaxial surface of the leaflets by SEM, of 6 native species in Korea and 2 foreign species of the Genus Rhus in the Family Anacardiaceae. The results obtained from this study are summarized as followings: 1. Morphological study measured 32 characters of leaves from herbarium specimen and field-collected samples for each species. The results of cluster analysis based on the Euclidean distance showed that the species could be classified into 3 groups: R. sylvestris. R. typhina, R. succedanea: R. trichocarpa. R. chinensis. R. verniciflua: and R. ambigua. R. radicans subsp. orientale, Analysis of principal components showed 5 groups: The major factors in the first principal component group was length of petiole of the terminal leaflets, that in the second group angle of left side in the terminal leaflet bash, that in the third group area ratio between first and terminal leaflets, that in the forth group angle ratio between right and left side in the terminal leaflet base, and that in the fifth group was angle of main and secondary vein at midrib of terminal leaflet. Cumulative contribution by the first, second and third principal component group was explained with 82.6%, a large percent of all information. 2. The leaf venation pattern investigated using soft X-ray photography revealed clado-and reticulo-camptodromous types according to branching angle of the secondary vein. And three groups by the developing degree of secondary vein were R. trichocarpa, R. ambigua. R. chinensis, R. typhina; R. radicans subsp. onentale, R. succedanea, R. verniciflua: and R. sylvestris. Classification key for the Rhus of Korean-native Anacardiaceae was made by the venation pattern and devevoping degree of the secondary vein. 3. The stomatal cell patterns were greatly classified into paracytic and anomocytic types, specific among species according to stomatal and subsidiary cell patterns, and various differences among the species was determined. Microstructure of the adaxial and abaxial surfaces could be divided into synclinal and anticlinal cell wall patterns, and were specific-species. Stomatal cells of R. chinensis were surrounded with characterized villus-like cells.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2013

Objectives There are only a limited number of studies on instruments assessing fatigue in university students, although fatigue exerts negative influences on their health and academic performances and fatigue-related complaints are more frequently reported in young adults than middle-aged adults. The aim of this study was to validate the 9-item Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) among university students including both undergraduate and graduate students in South Korea. Methods A total of 176 university students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires, including the FSS, the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 version 2 (MOS-SF36v2), and the Inclusion of Community in the Self Scale (ICS). The data were collected from February of 2012 to June of 2012. The reliability, convergent validity, divergent validity, and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to assess psychometric properties of the FSS. Results The mean FSS score was 3.20 (standard deviation = 1.43). The FSS demonstrated an excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ = 0.93) and item-total correlations ranged from 0.56 to 0.90. Correlations of the FSS with the BFI (r = 0.71, p < 0.01), BDI-II (r = 0.54, p < 0.01), BAI (r = 0.46, p < 0.01), MOS-SF36v2 physical component summary (r = -0.28, p < 0.01), MOS-SF36v2 mental component summary (r = -0.55, p < 0.01), and ICS (Spearman's rho = -0.07, p = 0.33) showed acceptable convergent and divergent validity. Exploratory factor analysis defined one underlying factor (eigenvalue = 5.67) that explained 93.50% of the total variance. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate reliability and validity of the FSS in university students. The FSS exhibits good psychometric properties for evaluation of fatigue among university students in South Korea. Since the FSS is easy to administer, score, and interpret, it could be a useful tool in research and practice for assessing fatigue among university students.