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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Respected Parents & Respected Children (RPRC) parenting education program for mothers of preschool-aged children in South Korea. A total of 99 mothers were assigned to an intervention group (n = 54) or a control group (n = 45). Mothers in the intervention group received 16 weekly sessions of the parenting education program and then were compared with mothers who did not take part in the program. Questionnaires were used to assess parenting characteristics (i.e., maternal depression and anger, parenting behavior, co-parenting, parenting efficacy, and parenting stress) at baseline (pre-test), immediately after the termination of the program (post-test), and 8 months after the end of the program (follow-up test). Maternal rejection/restrictions, dissatisfaction, and parental distress of the intervention group decreased and efficacy as parents improved after taking part in the program, and these effects were sustained at follow-up. Our findings support the effectiveness of the RPRC parenting education program in changing parenting strategies and satisfaction and emphasize the need for preventive interventions for parents with young children.

We have proposed and fabricated high performance AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), of which the breakdown voltage is considerably high and the leakage current is efficiently suppressed employing H 2 O annealing. We also investigated the effects of H 2 O annealing on the formation of GaO x film on the surface of AlGaN/GaN HEMT as well as reverse blocking characteristics including the breakdown voltage and the leakage current. We compared the reverse blocking characteristics of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated by the proposed H 2 O annealing treatment with those of the HEMT by widely used O 2 annealing method. Also, we investigated the reverse blocking characteristics of HEMT fabricated without any annealing treatment. We used the smaller molecular size, higher permeation probability, and the lower activation energy of H 2 O than O 2 . The breakdown voltage of AlGaN/GaN HEMT with the L GD of 20 μm employing H 2 O and O 2 annealing was 1674 and 1512 V, respectively. The drain leakage current of these devices using H 2 O and O 2 annealing was 13.1 and 60.1 nA/mm under V DS of 100 V and V GS of −10 V, respectively. A conventional device without any annealing process exhibited the breakdown voltage of 598 V and the leakage current of 666.0 μA/mm. In order to investigate the amounts of deep traps in the interface of AlGaN/GaN HEMT, we measured the pulsed I – V . A low drain current of the device under pulsed bias indicated that the GaO x , which was formed by H 2 O annealing, induced the deeper level and longer emission time of traps compared to the shallow ones. These may be related to the surface leakage current in the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.

The purposes of this paper are to evaluate the current school bus operations used by childcare centers in Korea, suggest an alternative to prioritize service quality for parents and children, rather than the convenience of the centers, and compare the results of the alternative with those of classic school bus operations. Although numerous studies have examined the school bus operation problem, this study addresses school bus operations at childcare centers in Korea because they are quite different from those of upper-level schools. Moreover, we consider service quality for parents and children to be the most important consideration. Using quantitative methodologies to analyze the source of route generation and scheduling problems, our research demonstrates that there is ample room for the school bus operations of childcare centers in Korea to enhance their service quality.

It is not easy to apply tissue microarray (TMA) to atherectomized tissues from peripheral arterial disease because of their physical properties. We introduce a new TMA application technique for atherectomized tissues. Using a pre-made plastic TMA cassette and TMA punch device, we successfully made the TMA block containing 40 vertically oriented atherectomized tissue samples from 10 patients. The histogram of surface areas of tissue cores in the TMA showed a bell-shaped distribution, whereas that of conventionally embedded tissues showed wide distribution. This finding suggests that the TMA method might be a better way of vertical embedding than the conventional method. A TMA block prepared by our method enabled a simultaneous evaluation of the histopathology of vertically oriented atherectomized tissues and the correlation between them with intravascular ultrasound image. In addition, this new method might be applied to various tissues in different ways.

Factor X (FX) deficiency is a rare, autosomal-recessive coagulation disorder. Diagnosis can be confirmed by a factor X assay. Although fresh frozen plasma and prothrombin complex concentrates have been used as a temporary treatment of bleeding symptoms and preparation for surgery, frequent transfusion has its risk and prothrombin complex is not available in Korea. We report the first pediatric case of successful liver transplantation for the correction of a severe congenital FX deficiency in a child with recurrent life-threatening hemorrhagic episodes.