The Impacts of Role Overload and Role Conflict on Physicians\u27 Technology Adoption

Technology adoption is an important solution for physicians to increase work efficiency, and thus deal with role conflict among their multiple job roles. Prior studies have not investigated how multiple job roles and role conflict influence physicians’ technology adoption intentions. Based on role strain theory and role identity theory, we present a model of physicians’ technology adoption intentions to support their primary (clinical care) versus secondary (teaching or research) job roles. We test the model using surveys with 156 physicians at nine medical schools in Korea. The results of our data analysis largely support our hypotheses. Role overload in each of their job roles increases role conflict between any pair of associated roles. Furthermore, role conflict between a physician’s primary and secondary role is affected more by role overload in the secondary role than by overload in the primary role. Moreover, the impact of role conflict on technology adoption intentions is also influenced by the hierarchical relationship between two roles. This study contributes to technology adoption research by demonstrating how physicians’ job characteristics affect technology adoption

Increased Prevalence of low High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) Levels in Korean Adults: Analysis of the Three Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES 1998–2005)

AbstractObjectivesHigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases that has shown a remarkable increase, but little is known about the prevalence of low HDL-C in Korea. This study aimed to evaluate changing trends of low HDL-C prevalence, and indicate other risk factors associated with low HDL-C.MethodsWe selected subjects aged ≥20 years from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 1998, 2001, and 2005 (n = 7962, 6436, and 6412). The mean level of HDL-C and the prevalence of low HDL-C was calculated, and cardiovascular risk factors associated with low HDL-C, as well as demographic, anthropometric, lifestyle, and nutrition factors, were assessed using the KNHANES 2005 data.ResultsMean HDL-C levels in men and women between KNHANES 1998 and 2005 decreased significantly, from 48.1 to 42.3 and from 51.6 to 47.1 mg/dL, respectively (both p < 0.001). The decrease was slightly less for women compared with men for the same period, and women had higher HDL-C levels at all periods. Covariate-adjusted OR revealed that body mass index, waist circumference, and non-alcohol drinker in both men and women were associated with low HDL-C levels by KNHANES 2005, as were employed and light physical activity in men and low fat intake in women.ConclusionThe prevalence of low HDL-C increased significantly from KNHANES 1998 to 2001 and 2005 (p < 0.001) in both men and women. body mass index, waist circumference, and non-alcohol drinker were identified as associated with low HDL-C in Korean adults

Stress Relaxation by Addition-fragmentation Chain Transfer in Glassy Polymer Networks

Since polymer materials have come to dominate our life by replacing many other, more traditional materials, any endeavors to improve their performance have heightened importance. Here, we have strived to develop methodologies to reduce and understanding of the processes relevant to the origins of polymerization-induced shrinkage stress. In this thesis, addition-fragmentation chain transfer (AFCT) was utilized to reduce the shrinkage stress through network relaxation and adaptation by radical-mediated bond rearrangement that occurs throughout the polymerization. In previous studies, the presence of the allyl sulfide functional group was shown to reduce the final stress in thiol-ene resins via AFCT. Unfortunately, thiol-ene polymerizations often yield elastomeric materials with low glass transition temperatures (Tgs) that are illsuited for structural applications. To extend the utility of AFCT into structural applications, AFCT-capable monomers have been incorporated into many systems to achieve both low stress and excellent mechanical properties by designing chemical structure of monomers and by exploration of the polymerization and relaxation mechanisms. In particular, incorporation of AFCT-capable monomers into conventional dental resins was investigated to generate novel low stress dental composites. This thesis has demonstrated the development and implementation of thiol-ene and thiol-yne based monomers that are capable of undergoing AFCT to reduce polymerization stress further in a glassy polymer and its application for the conventional glassy methacrylate-based dental resins. Additionally, novel monomers that undergo AFCT were developed and implemented in methacrylate-based resins that undergo propagation exclusively through chain growth mechanisms. Since direct incorporation of the allyl sulfide in methacrylatebased systems was not effective for stress relaxation with large amounts of methacrylate, trithiocarbonates were used in place of allyl sulfides in dimethacrylate monomers, where the trithiocarbonate enables reversible reactions with the methacrylic radicals. The trithiocarbonate-based dimethacrylate demonstrated 65 % stress reduction compared with the standard BisGMA-TEGDMA composite while demonstrating fracture toughness which was slightly higher than the control BisGMA-TEGDMA composite indicating that TTCDMA and related monomers represent excellent candidates for reactive diluents in BisGMA-based dental materials. The improved understanding of the trithiocarbonate functional group will broadly expand its utility for a wide range of applications such as coatings, microelectronics, photoresists, and dental materials

Serial Magnetic Resonance Imagings of Multiple Brain Abscesses in a Patient with Pneumococcal Meningoencephalitis

We report a 43-yr-old man manifesting bacterial meningoencephalitis and multiple abscesses by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Serial magnetic resonance (MR) imagings and MR spectroscopy showed the evolution of multiple brain abscesses over 4 weeks: the enhanced rings became thicker and the dimension of whole lesions larger despite shrinkage of the ring-enhanced regions. These findings may be evidence of active inflammation working to sequestrate the lesion and protect the surrounding normal brain parenchyma from additional damage, even in the final stage of the brain abscess