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Asian culture has been test-centric for over 1,400 years. U.S. education has been since the 1990s. Based on Kim's creative Climates, Attitudes, and Thinking skills (CATs), creativity indicators were developed using the 2015 PISA questionnaires. Study I examined: (1) relationships between students' PISA science scores and CATs; (2) differences between Asian and U.S. students in PISA scores and CATs; and (3) relationships between teachers' years of teaching and nurturing CATs. Study I found: (1) negative relationships between students' PISA scores and CATs; (2) Asian students demonstrating higher PISA scores but lower CATs than U.S. students; and (3) U.S. teachers decreasingly nurture CATs. Study II examined how U.S. CATs changed from 1990 through 2017 by analyzing TTCT norming data (N = 273,441) and found continued declines in CATs, especially in imagination and in young children.

Background: The electronics industry has characteristics, such as the continuous occurrence of new hazards and risk factors due to rapid technological changes, the occurrence of safety and health blind spots due to the outsourcing of work, trade secrets, and a lack of information, so research is needed from a safety and health perspective. This study sought to determine the relationship between work-related health problems and the working conditions of electronics industry workers. Methods: The study subjects were 3354 workers in the electronics industry from the raw data of the 4th to 6th Korean Working Condition Survey (KWCS). The variables were divided into general, occupational, and working environment characteristics, and a logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between work-related health problems and working conditions. Results: Among the general and occupational characteristics, gender, education, night work, and working time appropriateness were analyzed as effect factors. In terms of working environment characteristics, physical work risk, musculoskeletal work risk, possibility of risk to work, subjective health impact, and working environment satisfaction were found to have effects on work-related health problems. Conclusions: The results of this study are meaningful in that they identified the effect factors of work-related health problems in the working conditions of workers in the electronics industry, where prior studies are lacking. Therefore, improvements, such as the management of night workers, appropriate working time, reduction in exposure to work risk factors, and improvement in working environment satisfaction, appear to be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study investigated the sex-specific association between thyroid function and various insulin resistance (IR) indices, including noninsulin-based IR indices, in euthyroid adolescents. Methods: A total of 465 adolescents (aged 12–18 years; 255 boys and 210 girls) based on data from the 2014–2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were included. Serum thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH]) and free thyroxine (fT4) were used to assess thyroid function, whereas the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin-sensitivity check index (QUICKI), glucose/insulin ratio (GIR), triglyceride–glucose (TyG) index, and triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio were used to assess IR. The relationship between thyroid function and IR was analyzed using multiple linear regressions stratified by sex, considering obesity status. Results: The relationship between thyroid function and IR varied depending on sex and was more pronounced in the overweight/obesity subgroup for both boys and girls. In overweight and obese boys and girls, fT4 was significantly associated with HOMA-IR and QUICKI with conflicting association directions. TSH was also positively associated with the TyG index in both sexes. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the relationship between thyroid function and IR in adolescents might vary depending on sex, and the degree of association was significant in obese adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is a very complex interaction among a person, a field, and a culture (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). People vary in their native capacity for creativity; however, an individual's interaction with the macrocosm can foster creative expression. East Asian cultures, which include Korean culture, are based upon the principals of Confucianism. The impact of Confucianism on creativity is reviewed and the relationship between Confucianism and creativity was explored in the present study. The study involved comparing 184 Korean educators' scores on a measure of Confucianism (Eastern-Western Perspective Scale) with their scores on a measure of creativity (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural). The results indicate that Confucianism is negatively related to creativity. Specifically, some elements of Confucianism, Unconditional Obedience, Gender Inequality, Gender Role Expectations, and Suppression of Expression, may present cultural blocks to creativity. Further, Confucianism was found to be negatively related to Adaptive creative type and Creative Strengths, but not Innovative creative type, which indicates that Adaptive creative type may be more sensitive to, and thus more influenced by, culture. (Contains 3 tables.)

Objective: This study aimed at investigating the negative emotion‐related eating behaviours of young women with extreme weights or eating disorders (EDs). Method: A total of 808 young women participated including 144 with underweight (UW), 364 with normal‐weight (NW) and 137 with overweight (OW; including 27 with obesity) from universities, and 63 patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), and 100 patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) from a hospital. Participants were interviewed and completed questionnaires on eating behaviours related to negative emotions. Results: While both OW and BN groups ate more in response to negative emotions, UW and AN groups ate less compared to NW group. Negative feelings after overeating were prominent in OW group and patients with ED. In negative emotions, patients with EDs preferred sweet tastes, but BN group preferred spicy tastes less. Patients with EDs had increased external eating, and BN group also showed increased restrained eating. Neuroticism had indirect impacts on OW status via emotional eating unlike BN. Conclusions: The results suggest that UW and OW status were on the spectrum of emotional eating, and AN and BN were on the extremes of external eating, which may be integrated into the development of interventions targeting each status. Highlights: Overweight (OW) and bulimia nervosa (BN) groups ate more than usual in response to negative emotion, whereas underweight (UW) and anorexia nervosa (AN) groups ate less than usual compared to normal‐weight (NW) group.OW, AN and BN groups experienced negative feelings after overeating. AN and BN groups preferred sweet tastes when feeling negative emotions.Neuroticism both directly and indirectly affected BN, while OW status was affected only indirectly via emotional eating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Along with the rapid transmission of COVID-19, adherence to preventive behaviours plays a crucial role with respect to the control of COVID-19. However, different individuals' psychological characteristics and risk perception result in various forms of response to preventive behaviours. Based on the Health Belief Model, this study identifies the factors associated with preventive behaviours towards COVID-19 in South Korea during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2020 through an anonymous online survey. A total of 1207 people in the age bracket of 20-59 years participated in the survey. Single and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify the determinants of preventive behaviours against COVID-19.Results: The following factors were associated with preventive behaviours towards COVID-19: female gender (β = .124, p < 0.001), has a master's degree or above (β = 0.065, p = 0.010), perceived susceptibility (β = .197, p < 0.001), self-efficacy (β = .404, p < 0.001), trust in radio (β = -.080, p = .006), trust in official government website (β = .057, p = .045), trust in social networks (β = .054, p = .033), and trust in family and friends (β = .068, p = .009), with an explanatory power of 41.5% (R2 = 0.415).Conclusions: To flatten the epidemic curve, it is important to understand the public's risk perception and the motivation behind behavioural responses that aim to promote preventive behaviours among the public. Thus, this study calls for the provision of accessible and credible information sources and demonstrates a public health campaign that encourages the public's engagement in preventive behaviours towards COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are usually treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) if ACEIs are not tolerated. However, there is no data regarding the impact of switching from ACEIs to ARBs on long-term clinical outcomes in AMI patients with preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic function especially beyond 1 year. To investigate the effectiveness of treatment with ACEIs or ARBs on clinical outcomes over 3 years in AMI patients with preserved LV systolic function following percutaneous coronary intervention.Method: It is a prospective cohort study using data from a nationwide large scale registry with 53 hospitals involved in treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Korea. Between March 2011 and September 2015, we enrolled 6236 patients with AMI who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention and had a left ventricular ejection fraction ≥ 50%. Main outcome measures composite of total death or recurrent AMI over 3 years after AMI. Patients were divided into an ACEI group (n = 2945), ARB group (n = 2197), or no renin-angiotensin system inhibitor (RASI) treatment (n = 1094). We analyzed patients who changed treatment. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis was also performed.Results: After the adjustment with inverse probability weighting, the primary endpoints at 1 year, AMI patients receiving ACEIs showed overall better outcomes than ARBs [ARBs hazard ratio (HR) compared with ACEIs 1.384, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-1.71; P = 0.003]. However, 33% of patients receiving ACEIs switched to ARBs during the first year, while only about 1.5% switched from ARBs to ACEIs. When landmark analysis was performed from 1 year to the end of the study, RASI group showed a 31% adjusted reduction in primary endpoint compared to patients with no RASI group (HR, 0.74; 95% CI 0.56-0.97; P = 0.012).Conclusions: This result suggests that certain patients got benefit from treatment with ACEIs in the first year if tolerated, but switching to ARBs beyond the first year produced similar outcomes. RASI beyond the first year reduced death or recurrent AMI in AMI patients with preserved LV systolic function. CRIS Registration number: KCT0004990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive chronic disease with poor outcomes. One reason for poor prognosis is the lack of understanding regarding individual variability in response to treatment. Idiopathic PAH (IPAH) patients with bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2) mutations have distinct phenotypes that are crucial for individualized therapy but evidence regarding their prevalence and clinical features in the Korean population is lacking. Therefore, the present study aimed to screen Korean IPAH patients for BMPR2 mutations and analyze their clinical phenotypes. Methods: We enrolled 73 unrelated IPAH patients for BMPR2 mutation screening between March 2010 to November 2015 from 11 hospitals in Korea. Thirty-three lineal family members from 6 families of BMPR2 mutation carriers were also screened. Results: Among 73 patients, 16 (22%) had BMPR2 mutations. Mutation carriers were younger (27 vs. 47 years; p = 0.02) and had a higher mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) than non-carriers (64 vs. 51 mmHg; p<0.05). Of the 16 individuals with mutations, 5 deletion, 2 splice-site, 6 nonsense, and 3 missense mutations were found, among which, 9 were newly identified mutation types. Patients less than 30 years old had more BMPR2 mutations (44 vs. 14%; p = 0.04) and a higher mPAP (64 vs. 50 mmHg; p = 0.04) compared with those equaled to or over 30 years old. There were no differences in hemodynamic profiles or the proportion of BMPR2 mutation carriers between groups according to sex. Conclusion: The prevalence of BMPR2 mutations in Korean IPAH patients was 22%. Mutation carriers were younger and had a poorer hemodynamic profile compared with the non-carriers. Clinical trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01054105 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Group B streptococcus (GBS) is a leading cause of life‐threatening bacterial infections among newborns, and neonates born to heavily colonized women may be subject to vertical transmission. We sought to determine an appropriate detection method for genital GBS in pregnant women by comparing culture‐based methods and real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, we performed molecular serotyping and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) on isolates. Methods: A total of 150 pregnant women were enrolled and underwent vaginal‐rectal swabbing at 16–40 weeks of gestation. GBS was identified by conventional culture and real‐time PCR with or without enrichment. Molecular serotyping and MLST were performed on isolates. Results: Overall genital GBS positive rate among the 150 study subjects was 17.3%. Direct culture identified 18 (12.0%) positive specimens, enrichment culture 22 (14.6%), direct PCR 24 (16.0%) and enrichment PCR 25 (16.6%). The sensitivity and specificity by direct and enrichment PCR were as follows: for direct PCR, 90.9% and 96.9%, respectively; and for enrichment PCR, 95.5% and 96.9%, respectively. Resistance rates to clindamycin and erythromycin were 33.3% and 19.1%, respectively. Serotype III‐1 was the most common (26.3%), followed by serotype Ib (21.1%), III‐3 (15.8%), V (15.8%), II (10.5%), IV (5.3%) and VI (5.3%). Most common sequence types (ST) were ST‐1, ST‐19 and ST‐862 (15.8%), followed by ST‐2 and ST‐654 (10.5%). Conclusion: Direct real‐time PCR using vaginal‐rectal specimen could be used for detecting GBS in emergent conditions. Molecular serotypes III, Ib and V were most common. MLST analysis frequently presented ST‐1, ST‐19 and ST‐862. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s green tea consumption in South Korea has been gradually increasing because consumers consider green tea as beneficial to health. It is, therefore, necessary to know the factors influencing each motivational cluster according to sociodemographic characteristics. This study aims to obtain an empirical understanding of the green tea market by using a segmentation approach to provide better information for green tea marketers in Korea. A self-administered survey was obtained from 595 consumers in Seoul, Korea. Four distinct segments from cluster analysis were identified based on motivation: low motivated (18.0%), social seekers (35.7%), want-it-all (25.3%), and refreshment (21.0%). A multinomial logit regression analysis was used to identify the characteristics of consumers who are most likely to opt for a suitable motivation segment. Results indicated that the determinants of consumer motivation are age, occupation, price, company, and purchasing place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined whether there were differences in news reporting of women's subjects in South Korea due to reporter gender. The findings reveal that, in covering the women Cabinet members in South Korea, female reporters used a more positive tone, emphasized conflict news value less, used fewer stereotypical references to women, and employed more gender-sensitive perspectives than did male reporters. Our analysis also reveal that there was not a significant difference between the female-friendly newspapers and the female-unfriendly newspapers in terms of the story's tone, gender-equity tendency, and use of conflict news value in their news stories about women Cabinet members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study suggests that Internet-mediated communication played an important role for Asian international students in South Korea in maintaining and strengthening tightly knit, emotionally close relationships such as family and close friends. Alternatively, Internet-mediated communication allowed these students to make connections with members of the same ethnic groups in South Korea as well as South Korean students; however, the main goal of these new connections was to gain informational resources. Interview data disclosed that Asian international students maintained a transcultural space in the online world. Because the Internet is an open space, the respondents had navigated among numerous South Korean sites before arriving in South Korea and had become regular consumers of contents on some of those sites. They simultaneously continued to use their home country-based sites for entertaining and informational content. Three interrelated characteristics of the Internet consumption emerged from the interview data: (1) the respondents' Internet consumption pattern did not change significantly before and after their arrival in South Korea; (2) the Hallyu phenomenon was evident; and (3) the respondents' Internet consumption was not based on the criteria, such as country of origin, but on their personal interests. The Internet has become the hybridized space where, without synthesizing differences, these students could manage complex interactions of cultural norms and values between their home countries and the host country, and could carry out an uninhibited cultural navigation amid the distinct yet connected zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing prevalence of precocious puberty (PP) has emerged as a significant medical and social problem worldwide. However, research on the relationship between long-term air pollution exposure and PP has been relatively limited. We thus investigated the association between long-term air pollution exposure and the onset of PP in South Korea. We investigated a retrospective cohort using the Korea National Health Insurance Database. Six-year-old children born from 2007 to 2009 were examined (2013–2015). We included boys ≤10 years and girls aged ≤9 years who visited hospitals for early pubertal development, were diagnosed with PP per the ICD-10 (E228, E301, and E309), and received gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment. We analyzed data for boys up until 10 years old (60-month follow-up) and for girls up to 9 years old (48-month follow-up). We assessed the association between long-term air pollution exposure and the onset of PP using a Cox proportional hazard model. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) per 1 μg/m3 increase in fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and particulate matter (PM 10) and per 1 ppb increase in sulfur dioxide (SO 2), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), and ozone (O 3). This study included 1,205,784 children aged six years old between 2013 and 2015. A positive association was found between the 48-month moving average PM 2.5 (HR: 1.019; 95% CI: 1.012, 1.027), PM 10 (HR: 1.009; 95% CI: 1.006, 1.013), SO 2 (HR: 1.037; 95% CI: 1.018, 1.055), and O 3 (HR: 1.006; 95% CI: 1.001, 1.010) exposure and PP in girls but not boys. This study provides valuable insights into the harmful effects of air pollution during childhood and adolescence, emphasizing that air pollution is a risk factor that should be managed and reduced. [Display omitted] • Association between long-term air pollution exposure and precocious puberty assessed. • PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and O 3 were positively associated with precocious puberty. • Association between pollution exposure and precocious puberty found for girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]