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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the employment experiences of female Mongolian migrant workers in Korea and identify their meanings.Methods: Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with eight such women using the phenomenological Colaizzi qualitative research approach.Results: Six categories were drawn from the research: “Facing a dilemma when hitting the wall,” “Foreigners’ lives disrespected,” “Physically filled with wounds,” “Lonely, laborious, and sad,“ “Growing stronger and knowledgeable,” and “Happiness found in the workplace.”Conclusion: The results of this study revealed the substantial meaning of the employment experience of female Mongolian migrant workers in Korea. The results of the study could provide basic data for offering such women various kinds of programs to support them psychologically and in their adjustment to their jobs. These programs would enhance their ability to adapt to both working and in Korea.

We describe the case of a 67-year-old woman who experienced lower back pain and radiating pain caused by lumbar spine treated with a transforaminal epidural steroid injection under fluoroscopic guidance. This report describes the complications and treatment of this condition.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in Korean American (KA) women. In view of its high prevalence in these women, their low screening rates, and the cultural influence of BC risk factors in their lifestyles, we developed a community-based culturally tailored BC prevention program, the Korean Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Program (KBCRRP). Guided by the PRECEDE-PROCEDE and health belief models, the KBCRRP was developed to achieve four goals: (1) healthy weight, (2) physically active lifestyle, (3) healthy diet, and (4) BC screening and adherence. KBCRRP combines effective multicomponent strategies for BC screening and a group-based lifestyle intervention incorporating traditional Korean health beliefs and is tailored for BC risk reduction. In this paper, we provide an overview of the program, the process of program development, implementation, and evaluation, and modification during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial program involved 8 weeks of in-person group education sessions led by interdisciplinary healthcare professionals and 16 weeks of follow-up involving smartphone applications, phone calls, and text messaging from trained lifestyle coaches. Participants received opportunities to obtain free mammography during the program. After feasibility testing, the program was modified by incorporating participants' feedback. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we provided the program using the Zoom video platform. Participants' recruitment and retention during the pandemic was successful, reflecting the fact that virtual delivery of group-based education was a feasible and acceptable alternative to in-person sessions. Collaboration with community organizations serving the target population is the key to developing and sustaining a successful community-based educational program.

SB5 is an approved biosimilar of adalimumab, a monoclonal anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) antibody. This study compared pharmacokinetics (PK), safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity between a new high-concentration, low-volume, and citrate-free formulation (40 mg/0.4 ml, SB5-HC) and the current low-concentration formulation with higher volume (40 mg/0.8 ml, SB5-LC) to evaluate the bioequivalence of the two formulations.This study was a randomized, single-blind, two-arm, parallel-group, single-dose study in healthy male subjects. Subjects were randomized to receive either SB5-HC or SB5-LC via subcutaneous injection using a pre-filled syringe. Primary endpoints were the area under the curve of the concentration-time curve from zero to infinity (AUCSubjects (n = 188) were randomized to SB5-HC (n = 94) or SB5-LC (n = 94). Baseline characteristics were comparable between the two treatment groups. The mean values for AUCThis bridging study demonstrated PK equivalence and comparable safety and tolerability of subcutaneous injection of SB5 via SB5-HC or SB5-LC.GOV IDENTIFIER: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04514796 .

This study aims to examine the impact of mental toughness of employees on their psychological well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. A research model based on structural equation modeling ‘ developed, and a survey was conducted with 534 office workers in Korean companies to gather the data. The findings indicate that mental toughness has a significant effect on psychological well-being and positively (+) affects organizational commitment and job satisfaction through psychological well-being. The study also reveals that mental toughness has a greater influence on organizational commitment than on job satisfaction. However, the positive effect of job satisfaction was found to increase when psychological well-being was mediated. Consequently, this study recommends that employees’ mental toughness be managed effectively to improve their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, leading to enhanced job competency, and reduced turnover intention. These findings are of practical significance to organizational practitioners, as they underscore the importance of fostering mental toughness among employees to promote their well-being and commitment to their work.

The global market is experiencing stagnation and recession in the “untact era”, and the emergence of the metaverse provides platform support and presents a new paradigm. This study aims to provide a framework for content creators and marketers to verify the effectiveness of metaverse marketing. An analysis was carried out of the fit of the model and the hypotheses between the metaverse seamlessness, presence, interoperability, concurrence, and economic flow (SPICE) model factors, customer satisfaction, and purchase intention. In the test, 9 out of 11 hypotheses were accepted. In conclusion, the data are meaningful, and this study presents the value of music content marketing in the metaverse through the metaverse SPICE model.

Cephalometric landmark detection performs an important role in a diagnostic measurements for orthodontic treatment plans. As manual depiction of landmarks is a time-consuming and tedious task, the development of an automated detection algorithm for daily clinics is in high demand. In this study, we propose a single-passing convolutional neural network that performs an accurate landmark detection in a hierarchical fashion. The proposed network first extracts global contexts by regressing initial positions of all the landmarks. Subsequently, local features are extracted from landmark-centered patches, which are obtained through global regression. The encoded global and local features are concatenated and weighed through a novel patch-wise attention module to weigh the relative importance. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed local patch-wise attention mechanism performs a significant role in accurate detection. The proposed method outperformed other state-of-the-art methods by improving the successful detection rate by approximately 1 ∼ 2 % . The proposed method suggests that a structured attention, which is developed in a patch-wise fashion, significantly enhances the local feature encoders to further improve the final accuracy.

The demand for face masks is increasing exponentially due to the coronavirus pandemic and the particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere. As a result, an enormous number of disposable mask filters have been produced and discarded, contributing to plastic waste. Underprivileged people who cannot afford to purchase commercial face masks have started making fabric masks with waste clothing; however, this material does not effectively filter viruses or PM. Therefore, in this study, a chitosan coating was applied to clothing fabrics to increase their effectiveness as face masks. The improvement in the PM removal efficiency owing to the chitosan polymer was observed for stocking, innerwear, and bamboo materials, but not for cotton. Furthermore, chitosan prepared in the form of a nanowhisker (CsW) achieved a PM 2.5 removal efficiency of 96% in a five-layer cotton fabric. In addition, a commercial biodegradable poly(lactic acid) filter was coated with CsW, which increased the PM 2.5 removal efficiency from 67% to 83%. Additionally, microbial growth was significantly suppressed in the chitosan-coated fabrics, and the degree to which it was suppressed depended on the coating concentration. The study will aid in the utilization of face mask filters that are more sustainable, efficient, and widely accessible.

Background A heterogeneous radiological response is frequently observed in cancer patients and could reflect tumor heterogeneity. We investigated the prognostic impact of heterogeneous radiological responses in patients with advanced non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received platinum‐based chemotherapy. Methods The treatment response according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 criteria was evaluated in 212 patients with advanced NSCLC who received platinum‐based chemotherapy. Patients with partial response (PR) or stable disease (SD) were classified into “PR homo,” “PR hetero,” “SD homo,” and “SD hetero” by the presence of a heterogeneous radiological response, and survival was compared between groups. We also compared survival based on the presence of metabolic responses in lesions with heterogeneous radiological responses. Results Fifty‐two patients (24.5%) were classified as PR, 112 patients (52.8%) as SD, and 48 patients (22.7%) as progressive disease (PD). There was no significant difference in progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) between the PR homo and PR hetero groups. The SD homo group had a longer PFS and OS than the SD hetero group. In the SD hetero group, patients with increased maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) in lesions with heterogeneous radiological responses had a shorter PFS than those with a stable SUVmax. Conclusions The presence of lesions with radiological heterogeneity was associated with disease progression and poor prognosis in the SD group. Patients with heterogeneous radiological responses require careful monitoring., Patients with heterogeneous radiological responses in the SD group had a shorter PFS and OS. In particular, patients with increased SUVmax in lesions with heterogeneous radiological responses had a shorter PFS than patients with a stable SUVmax. The presence of lesions with radiological heterogeneity was associated with disease progression and poor prognosis in the SD group.

Among plastic items, single-use straws are particularly detrimental to marine ecosystems because such straws, including those made of poly(lactic acid) (PLA), are sharp and extremely slowly degradable in the ocean. While paper straws are promising alternatives, they exhibit hydration-induced swelling even when coated with a non-degradable plastic coating and promote effervescence (fizzing) in soft drinks owing to their surface heterogeneities. In this study, upgraded paper straw is coated with poly(butylene succinate) cellulose nanocrystal (PBS/CNC) composites. CNC increases adhesion to paper owing to their similar chemical structures, optimizes crystalline PBS spherulites through effective nucleation, and reinforces the matrix through its anisotropic and rigid features. The straws are not only anti-fizzing when used with soft drinks owing to their homogeneous and seamless surface coatings, but also highly water-resistant and tough owing to their watertight surfaces. All degradable components effectively decompose under aerobic composting and in the marine environment. This technology contributes to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water).

Effects of aging temperature and time on dilute solution properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were characterized. In DMF, the intrinsi...

From the perspective of live commerce consumers in South Korea, this study aimed to investigate the changes in consumer interest since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To this end, a consumer perception survey on live commerce was conducted. Further, this study utilized social big data analytics, which involved collecting posts and articles from Korean portal sites for the 2019–2020 period and then analyzing them through text mining. The results revealed that, before the outbreak of COVID-19, the keyword “mobile” showed high appearance frequency and high connection centrality. “Fashion” and “beauty,” which are classified as subcategories of live commerce in Korea, also appeared as top keywords, both before and after the onset of COVID-19. Considering the social environment and characteristics of live commerce, providing services that enable consumers to participate in the streaming platform more actively is necessary. Additionally, providing services that encourage customers to respond would also be desirable. This study’s findings can serve as baseline data for the development of an extension plan for the Korean fashion and beauty industry through live commerce and can provide insight into the consumption patterns of consumers of live commerce.

Background Abdominal lymph node metastasis (ALNM) is common in patients with metastatic non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its mechanism of spread remains to be elucidated. We investigated whether thoracic duct has the role as a pathway for ALNM in NSCLC using clinical data. Methods We classified ALNM into subgroups by their location and evaluated its prevalence and association with clinical characteristics in 892 patients with metastatic NSCLC. The abdominal lymph nodes were classified into direct or indirect groups depending on whether they drain directly into the trunk (intestinal trunk or lumbar trunks) connected to the cisterna chyli. Results One hundred‐five patients (11.8%) had ALNM. The paraaortic lymph node was most commonly involved, followed by the aortocaval, left gastric, paracaval, and celiac lymph nodes. After grouping the patients by location of ALNM, 56 patients (53.3%) with ALNM were in the “direct only” group, only seven patients (6.7%) were in the “indirect only” group, and 42 patients (40.0%) were in “both” groups. In patients whose intrathoracic lesions were limited to the right thorax, there was a significantly lower prevalence of ALNM (3.4% vs. 14.3%, p, ALNM was more common in the direct than indirect lymph nodes. ALNM was more common in patients with left thorax lesion compared to those with right thorax lesion only. ALNM risk was increased for patients with higher N category. These results indicate that ALNM occurs by lymphatic spread through the thoracic duct in patients with metastatic NSCLC.

In the precarious situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines is promising for prevention against the infection However, this type of vaccine has not been effectively commercialized because it needs to be stored and transported at ultracold conditions mRNA vaccines exposed to undesired temperatures may not show any visible changes but can deteriorate and cause negative effects Consumers' demand for vaccine authenticity requires logistics to develop a robust monitoring tool to ensure the integrity of ultracold supply chain from manufacturing until vaccination Here, we report a time-temperature indicator (TTI) that can detect a relatively small change in temperature within subzero ranges, for example, from -70 to -60 degreeC, which cannot be achieved by current TTIs operating at room temperature A dyed noneutectic ethylene glycol/water mixture that melts near the mRNA conservation temperature (-69 degreeC) diffuses into a white absorbent and leaves a colored trace In addition, the heterogeneous ice particles in the noneutectic mobile phase can prevent absorption during short-term exposure to room temperature Therefore, the proposed TTI will not record inevitable "meaningless" short-term exposure to room temperature during the cold supply chain but monitor the "meaningful" relatively long-term exposure above -60 degreeC These findings help facilitate the safe distribution of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines

To enhance the life satisfaction of the elderly with multimorbidity, it is necessary to investigate the relevant factors and to examine the differences in factors according to gender. The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting life satisfaction of the elderly with multimorbidity in the community by gender in Korea. We analyzed data from 2140 participants with multimorbidity who were aged 65 or older and participated in the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) in 2016. A multivariate linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the factors affecting life satisfaction among male and female older participants with multimorbidity. The most common pattern of multimorbidity of women was hypertension and arthritis/rheumatism, while that of men was hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Some factors, such as depression, exercise, and number of chronic diseases, affected both male and female participants, but others related to life satisfaction varied by gender. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of multiple chronic diseases, and policy support should be provided in consideration of gender differences to improve the life satisfaction of the elderly.

Designing efficient plastic-digesting microorganisms is necessary to accelerate the decomposition of biodegradable plastics leaking into outer environments. However, screening of microorganisms for hydrophobic plastics is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Herein, a high-throughput, straightforward micro-spray-based screening system is presented; the whole process only takes 1–5 days using a minimal amount of polymers. Bioplastic microparticles sprayed on an agar plate share a large interface with microorganisms, and therefore their discovery is readily recognizable. This method inspires finding new microorganisms that digest conventional plastics known as non-degradable plastics.

Self-repairable materials strive to emulate curable and resilient biological tissue; however, their performance is currently insufficient for commercialization purposes because mending and toughening are mutually exclusive. Herein, we report a carbonate-type thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer that self-heals at 35 °C and exhibits a tensile strength of 43 MPa; this elastomer is as strong as the soles used in footwear. Distinctively, it has abundant carbonyl groups in soft-segments and is fully amorphous with negligible phase separation due to poor hard-segment stacking. It operates in dual mechano-responsive mode through a reversible disorder-to-order transition of its hydrogen-bonding array; it heals when static and toughens when dynamic. In static mode, non-crystalline hard segments promote the dynamic exchange of disordered carbonyl hydrogen-bonds for self-healing. The amorphous phase forms stiff crystals when stretched through a transition that orders inter-chain hydrogen bonding. The phase and strain fully return to the pre-stressed state after release to repeat the healing process., Self-healing materials strive to emulate curable and resilient biological tissue but their performance is often insufficient for commercial applications because self-healing and toughening are mutually exclusive properties. Here, the authors report a tough and strong carbonate-type thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer that self-heals at ambient temperature.

Current sustainable bioplastics need dramatic improvement to become competitive. Herein, we prepared poly(butylene succinate-co-carbonate) nanocomposites with citric acid and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). The dimethyl carbonate co-monomer lowers crystallinity and increases elongation; citric acid increases the strength, and the CNCs maximize mechanical performance. Accelerated biodegradation is also favorable for sustainable tough bags.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and examine the preliminary effectiveness of a mobile application-based meal assistant training program (APP) for use by direct care workers (CAs) assisting residents with dementia in long-term care facilities in South Korea. Methods We adopted a mixed methods research design, which included a pre- and post-intervention study and focus group interviews for the feasibility assessment. Participants included 23 dyads of older adults with dementia and their CAs from a long-term care facility in South Korea. Upon completion of the APP intervention, focused group interviews were conducted with six CAs and five nurses. Results The results of paired t-tests showed that the effects of the APP intervention on the older adults with dementia and their CAs were not significant; however, the results of the focused group interviews support the potential usefulness of the APP for CAs. Conclusion The APP may be applicable to long-term care workers who need meal assistant skills education.

The purpose of the emission trading scheme (ETS), a cost-effective reduction, can be achieved through the active participation of liable firms. Although there was a steady increase in the transaction volume in the phase 1 (2015–2017) of Korea ETS, allowance used in flexible mechanism such as banking outweighed the amount of trading. By analyzing the trading behavior of liable firms in the Phase 1 of Korea ETS, we find out the determinants impeding the cost-effective reduction through active market participation. According to our empirical result, the liable firms who perceive ETS as a burden, trust government policy continuity and forecast that allowance price would go up tend to bank remaining allowance. On the other hand, the firms who were allocated larger allowance are more likely to trade. This result shows that heavy emitters having larger allowance could have realized economies of scale in transaction cost for MRV or seeking trading partners. Thus, market liquidity will be enhanced through government’s support to reduce transaction cost for small emitters, discover clear price signal, and provide policy signals that ETS can be another business opportunity.

The formation of high-energy electrons and ion fluxes induced by an abnormal electron heating mode in asynchronous pulse-modulated plasma was investigated using particle-in-cell simulation. We demonstrate that the abnormally high electron heating mode was induced only for a short time in the asynchronous pulsed plasmas. Furthermore, enhanced production of energetic electrons accompanies this electron heating. In particular, the higher energy electrons ( ε > 20 eV) are mainly produced by the abnormal electron heating during the first period of the abrupt sheath expansion phase in the asynchronous pulsed plasma with α1 = α3 = 0.05. These high-energy electrons are crucial for tailoring the expansion of plasma density and neutralizing the surface charging for the HARC etching process. A synergy of higher energy electrons and higher density ion fluxes in asynchronous pulsed plasma can be a promising solution to reduce statistical variation and charging-induced profile deterioration without the etch rate reduction in 3D NAND fabrication.

The major pathologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are amyloid plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau. The deposition of amyloid plaques leads to synaptic dysfunction, neuronal cell death, and cognitive impairment. Among the neurotransmitters, glutamate is the most abundant in the mammalian brain and plays an important role in synaptic plasticity. With respect to synaptic transmission, metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) is highly affected by amyloid pathology. However, the neuropathologic changes in the protein expression of mGluR5 in AD remain unclear. Therefore, to elucidate the alteration in mGluR5 expression with the progression of AD, we performed serial behavioral tests, longitudinal imaging studies, and histopathological immunoassay for both 5xFAD (n = 14) mice and age-matched wild-type mice (n = 14). The 5xFAD mice started showing severe hyperactivity and memory impairment from 7 months of age. In addition, mGluR5 positron emission tomography revealed that while the binding values in the wild-type mice were similar over time, those in 5xFAD mice fluctuated from 5 months of age. Furthermore, the 5xFAD mice presented a 35% decrease in the binding values of their cortical and subcortical areas at 9 months of age compared with those at 3 months of age. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and histopathological studies showed similar changes. In conclusion, mGluR5 availability changes with age, and mGluR5 positron emission tomography could successfully detect this synaptic change in the 5xFAD mice.