Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this study was to investigate mental health problems among international students in South Korean universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to identify the factors that affect their mental health. A total of 488 international students living in South Korea participated in a web-based survey. The questionnaire was created using the Google Forms platform, and a link to the questionnaire was shared through social media. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the data. The prevalence rates of sleep problems, anxiety, and depression among international students were 47.1%, 39.6%, and 49%, respectively. The prevalence of mental health problems was higher among participants who were male, living with someone, residents of a rural area, and earning a higher income. The following variables were found to contribute to the prevalence of mental health problems: undergraduate student status, good understanding of the Korean language, longer hours of media usage, and experiences related to COVID-19 infection. A collaborative effort between the government and universities to manage the mental health of international students could promote the mental health of these students.

What justifies regulating hate speech in democratic societies? In this paper, we conduct a survey experiment and highlight the concept of dignity as the cornerstone for such regulations. In political theory and constitutional law, the primacy of dignity as the moral and legislative justification for regulating hate speech has already been addressed by Jeremy Waldron and other "dignitarians," especially in the course of debate with free speech advocates. Based on our survey experiment conducted in Japan, we show that citizens' concerns about the dignity of a targeted victim lead them to support regulations strongly and consistently across a variety of treatment conditions. Our experiment further clarifies the possible mediation mechanisms of the dignitarian rationale, revealing not only the people's public-centered expectation regarding the societal consequences of hate speech, which Waldron himself emphasized, but also the importance of more individual-based judgements regarding morality and justice, in shaping their regulatory attitudes.

It has long been believed that local autonomy is virtually nonexistent in Japan, but few empirical studies have tested for the impact of central controls over local financing on local spending priorities. In an analysis of budgetary data for Japan's 46 prefectures it is found that national aid has a weaker direct stimulation effect in Japan than in the United States, and that national aid has been used by local Japanese governments to release revenues, derived from internal sources, from ongoing programs in favor of new local priorities. Moreover, the high-income/low-dependency prefectures are shown to have shifted their spending priorities to innovative new programs in advance of national policy directives, particularly during periods of high economic growth. In addition, the overall strength of the progressive parties in a prefecture is associated with a shift in local priorities from public works to welfare spending. Both income and party have independent effects and in the late 1960s and early 1970s furnished several urban, high-income, progressive prefectures with the capacity and motivation to implement innovative, welfare-oriented policies. These findings suggest a need to revise our model of the central/local linkages in the Japanese policy-making process from a unitary, highly centralized depiction to a more two-way interaction.

On 19 May 2018, more than 12,000 women gathered at Hyehwa subway station in Seoul, South Korea to protest discrimination against Korean women and spy camera involved crimes. This rally was a response to an incident in which a male nude model in a class was secretly photographed by a female model at Hongik University. This study examined how discourses on Twitter regarding the incident led to the demonstration and what was the memory working that shaped significant discourses through critical discourse analysis. First, a discourse that "women have long been victims" emerged through personal remembrances. Second, photographs of the female suspect standing with police officers directed a discourse that "women have been treated unfairly by public authorities" through collective witnessing. Third, many women contextualized the incident as a gendered event by connecting the past feminist movements. Finally, through appropriating past slogans and accumulated hashtags on Twitter, the main slogan of the rally #Equal_punishment_for_equal_crime was established. This study provides an under-researched context of digital mnemonic practices and the logic of connective actions by analyzing feminist movements in South Korea.

ABSTRACTThis study evaluated the caries risk profile of patients with severe intellectual disabilities (IDs) who received dental treatment under general anesthesia. One hundred and two patients with ID [ID group, mean age (SD); 23.8(9.3)] and 100 healthy patients without ID [NID group, mean age (SD); 23.19(3.3)] were included. Medication, disability type, oral hygiene maintenance, and cooperation of the patients were investigated. Dietary habits, plaque index, mutans streptococci counts, fluoride availability, and salivary buffering were scored and analyzed using the Cariogram. The mean chance of avoiding caries (SD) was 28.1(20.4) in the ID group and 54.7(18.4) in the NID group. The ID group had significantly higher numbers of decayed and missing teeth, but fewer filled teeth than the NID group (p < .05). Significant disparities existed in the distributions of all caries‐related factors except for mutans streptococci counts between the two groups (p < .05). The low chance to avoid future caries in ID patients was closely associated with insufficient oral hygiene maintenance (p < .05). Fluoride availability was strongly associated with the chance of avoiding caries in the ID group. Dental patients with severe ID exhibited a higher risk of developing caries than normal patients. Among several caries‐related factors, insufficient oral hygiene maintenance and low fluoride availability most contributed to the high risk.

Purpose of Work: We have developed a strategy of designing multi-functional extracellular matrix proteins for functionalizing bone tissue engineering scaffolds and other biomedical surfaces to achieve improvements in bone grafting, bone repair and bone regeneration. We developed a novel extracellular matrix protein designed to have a cell adhesive RGD sequence derived from fibronectin and active functional unit of osteocalcin (OC) containing Ca2+-binding sites for immobilization to mineral component of bone, hydroxyapatite (HA). The fusion protein, designated FNRGD/OC, was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified with affinity chromatography using a His-tag. The resultant FNRGD/OC fusion protein preferentially bound to HA, promoted cell adhesive activity, and stimulated differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cell. ; This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government(MOEHRD) (KRF-2007-314-E00183), the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) Grant funded by the Korea government (MOST) (R01-2007-000-20183), the Grants (#2009-0093829: priority research centers program, and #M10755080002-07N5508-00212) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Purpose of Work We have developed a strategy of designing multi-functional extracellular matrix proteins for functionalizing bone tissue engineering scaffolds and other biomedical surfaces to achieve improvements in bone grafting, bone repair and bone regeneration. We developed a novel extracellular matrix protein designed to have a cell adhesive RGD sequence derived from fibronectin and active functional unit of osteocalcin (OC) containing Ca2(+)-binding sites for immobilization to mineral component of bone, hydroxyapatite (HA). The fusion protein, designated FN(RGD)/OC, was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified with affinity chromatography using a His-tag. The resultant FN(RGD)/OC fusion protein preferentially bound to HA, promoted cell adhesive activity, and stimulated differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cell. ; This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2007-314-E00183), the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) Grant funded by the Korea government (MOST) (R01-2007-000-20183), the Grants (#2009-0093829: priority research centers program, and #M10755080002-07N5508-00212) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. ; 0