• Journal of Communications and Networks
• /
• 제15권3호
• /
• pp.312-320
• /
• 2013

Home evolved Node-B (HeNB), also called a femtocell or a femto base station, is introduced to provide high data rate to indoor users. However, two main problems arise in femtocell networks: (1) Small coverage area of HeNB, which results in limited cell-splitting gain and ping-pong handover (HO) problems and (2) high inter-femtocell interference because HeNBs may be densely deployed in a small region. In this study, an efficient cooperation mechanism called an HeNB-aided virtual-HO (HaVHO) scheme is proposed to expand the coverage area of femtocells and to reduce inter-femtocell interference. The cooperation among neighbor HeNBs is exploited in HaVHO by enabling an HeNB to relay the data of its neighbor HeNB without an HO. The HaVHO procedure is compatible with the existing long term evolution specification, and the information exchange overhead in HaVHO is relatively low. To estimate the signal to interference plus noise ratio improvement, the area average channel state metric is proposed, and the amount of user throughput enhancement by HaVHO is derived. System-level simulation shows that HaVHO has a better performance than the other four schemes, such as lesser radio link failure, lesser ping-pong handover, lesser short-stay handover, and higher user throughput.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• 제19권4호
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2015

This study is aimed to discover the deciding factors in senior employment programs for improving the quality of life for the elderly. The dependent variable used in this study was the quality of elderly persons. Personal and familial characteristics, and the community involvement of the elderly were used as independent variables in a Multiple Regression analysis. First, the most influential factor encouraging the elderly to participate in a senior employment promotion program was previous experience of senior employment programs. Second, health condition, residence in city areas, experience of volunteer work, and knowledge of senior employment programs had positive effects on the continuous participation of the elderly men and women. However, living arrangements had an effect solely on elderly men, and home ownership and participation in economic activities had effects solely on elderly women. Third, the life quality of the elderly was affected differently by sex. Health condition had the greatest effect on male elderly persons, whereas, the effective variable, the composition of the family had the most effect on female elderly persons. Thus, active campaigns through various mass media and information sessions are needed to promote participation in senior employment programs, according to the above mentioned deciding factors. In particular infrastructure providing the elderly with more volunteer work opportunity needs to be built for baby boomers to improve their quality of life. In addition, diversified senior employment programs are needed. Because the elderly living in city areas are more willing to participate in senior employment programs, specialized programs suitable for the elderly in city areas are needed. The government should also prepare programs that help the elderly stay healthy while they are working.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• 제7권1호
• /
• pp.105-120
• /
• 2002

In the United States, the prospective payment system(PPS), under which diagnosis related groups (DRGs) are used to reimburse hospitals for the care of Medicare patients since 1983, Study results showed that the PPS is having a major impact on the quantity of services especially of hospital length of stay. The PPS has increased the likelihood that a patient will be discharged home in an unstable condition and the use of nursing homes or long term care facilities increased. Still, it is insufficient to conclude that the PPS has decreased the Medicare total expenditure, but relatively sufficient to conclude that the quality of care hasn't changed. The maintenance of the quality resulted from the systemic "check-and-balance" composed of three factors; (1) The doctors are reimbursed based on the fee-for-service system, (2) hospitals contact with doctors under the attending system, and (3) there are some public hospitals. In Korea, the reimbursement for hospitals and doctors are not divided, the hospitals have doctors as employees, and 90% of hospitals are private. These differences may weaken the "check-and-balance" existing in the U.S. system. And there are few long term care facilities and the diagnostic coding system using in pilot test are not suitable for Korean situation. In conclusion, for successful implementation of the DRG payment system in Korea, the government should establish the "check-and-balance" system in the health sector to make sure the quality of care before the implementation.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• 제32권3호
• /
• pp.157-177
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contexts in which employed mothers with young children consider leaving the labor force. We used a mixed methods design, which integrates the findings of quantitative and qualitative analyses, to better understand the dynamics underlying employed mothers' intentions to leave the labor force. The participants of both quantitative (N = 324) and qualitative (N = 16) data were married mothers who were employed full-time and had at least one child younger than elementary-school age at the time of data collection. Both the quantitative analysis of logistic regression and the qualitative thematic analysis revealed that the child's age, the husband's income, the utilization of child care by relatives, the mother's job involvement, family-to-work role conflict, and other costs and rewards of participation in the work force were the important contexts where employed mothers considered leaving the labor force. The quantitative analysis uniquely found that being employed at a workplace with flexible work hours were associated with lower odds of considering exit from the labor market. The qualitative analysis highlighted that the decision to leave the labor force or to stay in it is a complicated issue that almost all employed mothers potentially face at some point in their careers. These findings suggest that policy support is warranted to help employed mothers with young children remain in the workforce when they wish to.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.224-228
• /
• 2019

Background: European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job creation. It can be assumed that health and well-being among the self-employed and managers in small-scale enterprises are particularly crucial in this enterprise group because the smallness of the enterprise makes its members vulnerable. Earlier studies have indicated that the self-employed have a high working pace and work for long and irregular hours, indicating that it can be difficult to stay at home because of sickness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of sickness presenteeism among the self-employed in relation to the organizationally employed and to analyze whether any differences can be explained by higher work demands among the self-employed. Methods: The study is based on the fifth European survey on working conditions (2010) and includes the northwestern European countries in the survey. The questions cover a wide range of topics designed to meet the European Union's political needs. The main variables in this study are sickness presenteeism and several indicators of time demands. Results: The results show that the self-employed report a higher level of sickness presenteeism than the employed: 52.4 versus 43.6%. All indicators of time demands are significantly related to the risk for sickness presenteeism, also when controlling for background characteristics. Conclusion: The results confirm that the level of sickness presenteeism is higher among the self-employed and that high time demands are a major explanation to this.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
• /
• 제11권3호
• /
• pp.7-18
• /
• 2020

Purpose: Recently, information on 'Delicious Restaurants (Mat-zip)' and 'Famous Bakeries' can be obtained through various media such as TV, Internet search, and SNS, and the culture of finding and sharing them has become a trend. Since PZB's SERVQUAL, there have been many studies measuring service quality, leading to hotels, restaurants and coffee shops. These studies of service quality include product quality in the service quality dimension. Hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops are provided with intangible services while customers visit and stay, but 'Delicious Restaurants (Mat-zip)' and 'Famous Bakeries' often stop by to buy products and return home. Therefore, the study on the effect of quality on customer behavior on 'Delicious Restaurants (Mat-zip)' should consider product quality separately. In this study, we want to study how each quality element affects the perceived value and response of customers by separating product quality and service quality. Research design, data, and methodology: This study tested the structural model of how the quality of products and services of famous bakeries affect customers' perceived value and response. As the quality factors, products, tangible services, and employee services were adopted, and perceived values adopted utilitarian and hedonic values, and customer responses adopted customer satisfaction and behavior intention. For this study, 203 survey data with experience using famous bakeries were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. Result: The research results are as follows. First, product quality positively influenced utilitarian value, hedonic value, and customer satisfaction, tangible service quality positively influenced utilitarian value, and employee service quality positively influenced hedonic value. Second, utilitarian value had a positive effect on behavioral intention, and hedonic value had a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Conclusions: In a famous bakery, it is basic that product quality should be given priority, and for customer satisfaction, employee service quality is half as important. In addition, for Behavior Intension (revisit by the customer), in addition to product quality, the quality of tangible services and employee services should be maintained at a quarter level.

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
• /
• 제5권4호
• /
• pp.249-255
• /
• 2018

Objective As aging progresses, clinical characteristics of elderly patients in the emergency department (ED) vary by age. We aimed to study differences among elderly patients in the ED by age group. Methods For 2 years, patients aged 65 and older were enrolled in the study and classified into three groups: youngest-old, ages 65 to 74 years; middle-old, 75 to 84 years; and oldest-old, ${\geq}85years$. Participants' sex, reason for ED visit, transfer from another hospital, results of treatment, type of admission, admission department and length of stay were recorded. Results During the study period, a total 64,287 patients visited the ED; 11,236 (17.5%) were aged 65 and older, of whom 14.4% were 85 and older. With increased age, the female ratio (51.5% vs. 54.9% vs. 69.1%, P<0.001), medical causes (79.5% vs. 81.3% vs. 81.7%, P=0.045), and admission rate (35.3% vs. 42.8% vs. 48.5%, P<0.001) increased. Admissions to internal medicine (57.5% vs. 59.3% vs. 64.7%, P<0.001) and orthopedic surgery (8.5% vs. 11.6% vs. 13.8%, P<0.001) also increased. The ratio of admission to intensive care unit showed no statistical significance (P=0.545). Patients over age 85 years had longer stays in the ED (330.9 vs. 378.9 vs. 407.2 minutes, P<0.001), were discharged home less (84.4% vs. 78.9% vs. 71.5%, P<0.001), and died more frequently (6.3% vs. 10.4% vs. 13.0%, P<0.001). Conclusion With increased age, the proportion of female patients and medical causes increased. Rates of admission and death increased with age and older patients had longer ED and hospital stays.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• 제21권2호
• /
• pp.110-119
• /
• 2021

The Coronavirus or COVID-19 is contagiousness virus that infected almost every single part of the world. This pandemic forced a major country did lockdown and stay at a home policy to reduce virus spread and the number of victims. Interactions between humans and robots form a popular subject of research worldwide. In medical robotics, the primary challenge is to implement natural interactions between robots and human users. Human communication consists of dynamic processes that involve joint attention and attracting each other. Coordinated care involves sharing among agents of behaviours, events, interests, and contexts in the world from time to time. The robotics arm is an expensive and complicated system because robot simulators are widely used instead of for rehabilitation purposes in medicine. Interaction in natural ways is necessary for disabled persons to work with the robot simulator. This article proposes a low-cost rehabilitation system by building an arm gesture tracking system based on a depth camera that can capture and interpret human gestures and use them as interactive commands for a robot simulator to perform specific tasks on the 3D block. The results show that the proposed system can help patients control the rotation and movement of the 3D arm using their hands. The pilot testing with healthy subjects yielded encouraging results. They could synchronize their actions with a 3D robotic arm to perform several repetitive tasks and exerting 19920 J of energy (kg.m².S^-2). The average of consumed energy mentioned before is in medium scale. Therefore, we relate this energy with rehabilitation performance as an initial stage and can be improved further with extra repetitive exercise to speed up the recovery process.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제13권3호
• /
• pp.294-301
• /
• 2022

Background: In the early stage of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, small- and midsized enterprises (SMEs) may be an important transmission consideration. The study aimed to identify the pattern of COVID-19 prevention measures during the outbreaks in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do at the early stage of COVID-19. Moreover, we investigated whether SME size and past experiences affected the preventive measures implemented in the region. Methods: A survey detailing the general characteristics and implementation of 12 preventive activities was conducted in 122 SMEs in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do. The survey was analyzed by size and operation period. Results: The study subjects consisted of 53 (43.4%) workplaces with 1-5 employees, 50 (40.9%) workplaces with 6-30 employees, and 19 (15.6%) workplaces with 31-49 employees. The lowest three items among those surveyed were 'symptomatic workers to stay home for 3-4 days' (17.2%), 'work remotely' (18.9%), and 'video meetings' (20.5%). There were significant differences in the rate of several preventive measures implemented. The larger sized SMEs, the higher the number of implementations (p < 0.01). The operation period had no significant relationship with the implementation of preventive measures. The same pattern was observed in multiple generalized linear regression with covariate adjustment. Conclusion: Preventive measures among SMEs with fewer than 50 employees were identified. Even within SMEs, a gap in preventive measures according to size was confirmed. To prevent the spread of infection and protect workers' right to health, different support for different sized SMEs is necessary.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• 제22권1호
• /
• pp.581-590
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the differences in social distancing practices by socioeconomic characteristics according to the national campaign on strong social distancing from March 22 through April 19. The data were obtained from the online survey performed by Embrain from May 13 through May 19. The sample consisted of 1,117 adults aged between 19 and 69. The campaign included six rules: to postpone or cancel unnecessary meeting, to refrain from going out, to keep personal hygiene, to stay home when sick, to ventilate frequently. Social distancing scores were defined as the proportion of items observed on a scale of 10. The multivariate regression analysis showed that type of housing and type of working were significantly related to social distancing scores. Study results imply that customized campaigns are needed for those from lower socioeconomic status.