• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.294-312
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• 1996

Relatively young widows, who are left with young children by a sudden death of their husbands, will be faced with not only psychological troubles such as individual anxiety and frustration but also the dual burden of playing both father and mother roles in a family, Also, family members have difficulty in adapting themselves to new circumstances of the family system, the training and raising of family members, and management of the family economy. In this study, the realistic resources on the experience of middle-aged women who are bereaved of their husbands by accidents were explored. The purpose of this study is to help widows adapt to life in society and live a more positive life by setting a new goals and recovering from a lost and twisted life. 11 women, who have experienced the loss their husbands and live in the Seoul metropolitan area were studied. The research took 116 days from December 15, 1995 to April 8, 1996. The method of research was direct interviews. While having interviews with them, the contents were recorded with their consent. The ground theory was that used by Strauss & Corbin(1990) in the analysis of the data. 81 concepts were analyzed and they were subdirided into 22 subordinate categories through the course of the analysis. These were then classified into 9 general categories. In the course of being categorized, 'absurdity' was showed as a core category. The subordinate categories 'surprise', 'gloom', 'grudge', 'helplessness', 'emptiness', and 'loss' were united in the core category 'absurdity'. Ominous presentiment, belated notice, death, surprise, gloom, grudge, helplessness, emptiness, loss, the situation of the children, lack of support from neighbors, support from neighbors, mulling over ways to live, choosing a job, strengthening, reinforcement, burden, sadness, smoldering, yearning, overcoming these 22 subordinate categories were re-composed into 9 general ones the husband's death, absurdity, presence of children, existence of support, self-support ability, preparation of countermeasures, self-reinforcement, toilsomeness, and overcoming. 'Absurdity' widows experience was shown in the results of 'toilsomeness' and 'overcoming' through reaction, confrontation, and adaptation. According to the analysis the central phenomenon was absurdity, the causal condition of the death of a husband, the presence of children and the existence of support, and the meditated situation of self-support. To solve absurdity, the preparation of countermeasures and self-reinforcements were shown resulting in toilsomeness and overcoming. Through the contrast in the data, the following statements were deduced: (1) If the death of the husband is expected, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (2) The more children she has and the younger she is, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (3) The lower support she is given, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (4) The larger self-ability she has, the more actively she will prepare countermeasures. (5) The smaller self-ability she has, the more passively she will prepare countermeasures. (6) The larger self-ability she has, the weaker self-reinforcement she will preform. (7) The smaller self-ability she has, the stronger self-reinforcement she will perform. (8) The more actively she prepares countermeasures for absurdity, the better she will overcome. (9) The more passively she prepares counter measure for absurdity, the worse she will overcome. (10) The stronger self-reinforcement for absurdity she performs, the better she will overcome. (11) The weaker self-reinforcement for absurdity she performs, the worse she will overcome. Through the results in this study, the following suggested: 1) A study whose object is all family members, and a comparative study on the case of a husband who has lost his wife should be done. These studies can be expected to develop a more refined theory. 2) Because of the collapse of the extended family system and the changes of family culture in Korea, a widow's status and position are apt to be ambiguous between her husband's home and her parent's. Therefore a new study on family culture should be made. 3) A continuous study on growing social Self Help Groups should be requested for the widows of this study to re-establish and recover from their twisted and scattered lives.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-57
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• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2001

Objective：The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical features of children with three subdiagnoses of tic disorder(transient tic disorder(TTD), chronic tic disorder(CTD) and Tourette’s disorder (TD)) and to exam the factors related with illness severity of them. Method：Subjects were 69 children who met DSM-IV criteria for tic disorder and 43 control children. All subjects were investigated demographic and clinical factors related to tic. The severity of tic was assessed with the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale(YGTSS) in tic disorder children. The Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL) was accomplished by parents of all subjects. Results：Children with TTD had not only shorter duration of tic symtoms but also milder tic severity and impairment than those with CTD and TD. They also had significantly lower scores on most CBCL subscales than children with CTD and TD, while they were similar with controls in all the CBCL subcale scores except aggressive behavior. Children with CTD and those with TD were similar to each other in clinical variables except number of tic symptom and scores on CBCL social problem subscale. The interference and intensity of motor tic symptoms and duration of tic symptoms were significant predictors of global impairment score on YGTSS, while the presence of comorbid ADHD was a preictor of the total behavior problem score of CBCL. Conclusion：These findings indicate that duration of tic symptoms and the presence of comorbid ADHD as well as the severity of tic symptoms strongly associated with the illness severity of children with tic disorder. These results also suggest that those clinical factors may be more important for assessing the severity of illness and determining the treatment strategy than the sub-diagnosis itself in children with tic disorder.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4373-4378
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• 2012

Introduction: Hypercalcemia is mainly caused by bone resorption due to either secretion of cytokines including parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) or bone metastases. However, hypercalcemia may occur in patients with or without bone metastases. The present study aimed to describe the effect of chemotherapy treatment, regimens and doses on calcium levels among breast and lung cancer patients with hypercalcemia. Methods: We carried a review of medical records of breast and lung cancer patients hospitalized in years 2003 and 2009 at Penang General Hospital, a public tertiary care center in Penang Island, north of Malaysia. Patients with hypercalcemia (defined as a calcium level above 10.5 mg/dl) at the time of cancer diagnosis or during cancer treatment had their medical history abstracted, including presence of metastasis, chemotherapy types and doses, calcium levels throughout cancer treatment, and other co-morbidity. The mean calcium levels at first hospitalization before chemotherapy were compared with calcium levels at the end of or at the latest chemotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test for categorical data, logistic regression test for categorical variables, and Spearman correlation test, linear regression and the paired sample t tests for continuous data. Results: Of a total 1,023 of breast cancer and 814 lung cancer patients identified, 292 had hypercalcemia at first hospitalization or during cancer treatment (174 breast and 118 lung cancer patients). About a quarter of these patients had advanced stage cancers: 26.4% had mild hypercalcemia (10.5-11.9 mg/dl), 55.5% had moderate (12-12.9 mg/dl), and 18.2% severe hypercalcemia (13-13.9; 14-16 mg/dl). Chemotherapy lowered calcium levels significantly both in breast and lung cancer patients with hypercalcemia; in particular with chemotherapy type 5-flurouracil+epirubicin+cyclophosphamide (FEC) for breast cancer, and gemcitabine+cisplatin in lung cancer. Conclusion: Chemotherapy decreases calcium levels in breast and lung cancer cases with hypercalcemia at cancer diagnosis, probably by reducing PTHrP levels.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.188-193
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• 2017

Purpose: There has been very little study on the associations between patient's symptoms themselves and family caregiver (FC)'s depression in the palliative phase. This cross-sectional study was to investigate the relationship between symptom features of terminally ill cancer patients and their FC's depression. Methods: We performed a multicenter survey using the MD Anderson symptom inventory and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. A total of 293 patient-FC pairs were recruited from seven tertiary medical centers. A multivariate regression analysis was applied for identifying the relevant factors associated with FC depression and for estimating adjusted depression score of FCs. Results: Among various psychosocial factors, low FC quality of life, low social support, spouse, and more caregiving time were significantly associated with FCs' depression. According to the presence of FCs' depression, there were significant differences in some symptom characteristics of patients. Even after adjusting for the relevant confounders, depression scores were lower in FCs caring for patients who had negative symptoms (loss of appetite, P=0.005; drowsiness, P=0.024; and dry mouth, P=0.043) than in FCs caring for patients who had not. FCs caring for patients with severe appetite loss had lower depression scores than those with not severe one (P=0.039). Conclusion: Our result suggests that patient's symptom characteristics might be helpful when evaluating a FC's depression.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.639-647
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• 2002

Purpose: Sexuality is important for the quality of life in old men, but this issue has been less explored due to social prejudice. Therefore, this study was carried out to describe a correlation between sex life and depression perceived by old men. Method: The subjects were 370 old men who were aged over 60 and lived in a city and three provinces. Instruments used in this study were Perception of Sex life Scale 01 items) and Depression Scale (20 items). The data was collected from December 2001 to February 2002 by written responses of the subjects to the questionnaire as well as one-to-one interview by research assistants for subjects. Statistical analysis for the data was done using SPSS and the level of significance was tested at 95% of confidence interval. Result: 1) Mean age of the subjects was $69.35{\pm}5.70$. A total of 253 subjects (68.6%) had spouse, and 191 of the subjects (52.3%) had sexual intercourse as frequently as 3 times per month. The average score for perception of sex life was $21.25{\pm}5.06$, out of the total score of 44, and that of depression was $35.08{\pm}9.29$ out of the total score of 80. 2) Perception of sex life was statistically significant by age, education, disease, medication, living arrangement, marital status, presence of girlfriend, pattern of inter-coitus, pocket money age of last coitus, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 3) Depression was statistically significant by age, education, disease. medication, living arrangement, marital status, satisfaction for marriage life, pattern of inter-coitus, feeling for change of sex life, pocket money, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 4) The correlation between perception of sex life and depression was negative, showing that depression tended to decrease as perception of sex life increases. Conclusion: It is concluded that depression in old men is closely related to their sex life. Positive sex life may have an important effect on the quality of life in old men.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to identity the death anxiety of elderly people living alone, and the factors that affect their death anxiety. The subjects did not have an impaired cognitive function, and were from one Chungcheongnamdo 2 district in the elderly University. The subjects were 187 elderly people over the age of 65 living alone in the district. The character, communication, and data was collected from February, 2014 to 2 May, 2015 and analyzed using the SPSS 18 program. The death anxiety whole point of elderly people living alone was 2.94 (${\pm}0.32$); it was 3.06 (${\pm}0.32$) points according to the sub-region 'death process anxiety', 2.88 (${\pm}0.51$) points according to 'after-death anxiety', and 2.75 (${\pm}0.43$) points according to 'presence loss anxiety'. The factors affecting the death anxiety were economic status, depression, and spiritual wellbeing. Economic status (${\beta}=-.36$, p= .000) had the largest effect with an overall explanatory power of 20.3%. Therefore, for the death anxiety of elderly people living alone, life needs to be strengthened through social security systems with intervention programs to improve the quality of depression and spiritual wellbeing.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2009

Due to its well-known function in parturition and milk ejection, oxytocin (OT) has been considered as a 'female neurohypophyseal hormone'. Recent studies, however, clearly indicate that OT has some local roles in male reproduction via both central and peripheral routes. In experimental rodents, OT is released within distinct brain regions in response to social stimuli, and the brain OT receptor (OTR) mediated actions were strongly involved in the regulation of a variety of male behaviors such as mating-associated behaviors. In particular, OT and/or OTR knockout mice provide important clues about the molecular regulatory mechanism of the socio-sexual behaviors. Several lines of evidence also show that OT is synthesized within rodents testis, epididymis and prostate, and the presence of OTRs in these organs. In rodent testes, OT might have a role in the modulation of steroidogenesis via stimulation of the conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by 5alpha-reductase. Similar effects of OT on this androgen conversion were observed in epididymis and prostate suggesting the OT's modulatory role, such as contractility induction, in these androgen-dependent organs. In this context, further investigations on the OT's role in male CNS and reproductive organs are likely to provide better understanding on the complex socio-sexual behaviors and a platform for development of therapeutics to treat some psychological and/or andrological problems.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers' wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. Contrary to public perception that foreign ownership is positively associated with higher wages, previous studies show mixed results. Since most of the previous studies used industry or firm level average wages, they can not control for the impact of individual characteristics on wages. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1) One-step estimation with industry-state level of inward foreign direct investments by using individual level data, and (2) Two-step industry characteristic regression approach. The higher presence of foreign firms is associated with higher local wages after workers' observable characteristics are controlled for in the first approach. This effect, however, disappears once workers' industry affiliations and regions are controlled for in cross-section analysis. In a panel data analysis, I did not find any statistically significant positive association between inward FDI activities and industry wage premiums within industry. Further, inward FDI activities appeared to be negatively associated with worker's industry wage premium for workers with more than high school education.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.80
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• pp.115-142
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• 2016

This study aims to reveal the content of and logic behind a recent negative public sentiment toward female idols with the example of a debate over songstress IU's fourth album that was released late last year. While previous studies on fandom have focused on the identification process towards entertainers and making community, a recent phenomenon of "anti-fandom" or "malicious comments" implies that more research is needed on negative emotions such as hostility or schadenfreude (feelings of pleasure from others' misfortunes). Schadenfreude is a social sentiment that originated in modern liberalism, which features contradictions between public equality and private ownership, and that has been intensified in neoliberalism, which features a maximization of this contradiction centering on a meritocracy. Celebrities in Korea often become the targets of schadenfreude, which is associated with the suspicion that they gain popularity not from their abilities but from "just being popular." It should also be noted that this kind of schadenfreude operates differently between male and female entertainers. Specifically, the acquisition of money and fame by modern women whose presence used to be located in the private possessions of males is considered to be due to their unjustified use of sexuality. This is also the background of the recent online misogyny culture in Korea. In this context, IU, who had been successful at building a differentiated image of "sister-like idol artist," became a valid target. Although accusing IU of utilizing pedophilia reflects a stalemate that a current politics of sexual violence faces, it rather damages the name of an individual than attracts public attention to the structural causes of childsexualabuse. This is why I see the way that pedophilia was used in the debate over IU as a schadenfreude. Consequently, the term pedophilia here contributes to an expansion of the entertainment economy that is sustained by rises and falls of the celebrities' stock prices.