COVID-19 has sparked a debate on the vulnerability of densely populated cities. Some studies argue that high-density urban centers are more vulnerable to infectious diseases due to a higher chance of infection in crowded urban environments. Other studies, however, argue that connectivity rather than population density plays a more significant role in the spread of COVID-19. While several studies have examined the role of urban density and connectivity in Europe and the U.S., few studies have been conducted in Asian countries. This study aims to investigate the role of urban spatial structure on COVID-19 by comparing different measures of urban density and connectivity during the first eight months of the outbreak in Korea. Two measures of density were derived from the Korean census, and four measures of connectivity were computed using social network analysis of the Origin-Destination data from the 2020 Korea Transport Database. We fitted both OLS and negative binomial models to the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients and its infection rates at the county level, collected individually from regional government websites in Korea. Results show that both density and connectivity play an important role in the proliferation of the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea. However, we found that the connectivity measure, particularly a measure of network centrality, was a better indicator of COVID-19 proliferation than the density measures. Our findings imply that policies that take into account different types of connectivity between cities might be necessary to contain the outbreak in the early phase.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of gold nanoparticles as radiosensitizer for use in neutron therapy against hepatocellular carcinoma.The hepatocellular carcinoma cells lines Huh7 and HepG2 were irradiated with γ and neutron radiation in the presence or absence of gold nanoparticles. Effects were evaluated by transmission electron microscopy, cell survival, cell cycle, DNA damage, migration, and invasiveness.Gold nanoparticles significantly enhanced the radiosensitivity of Huh7 and HepG2 cells to γ-rays by 1.41- and 1.16-fold, respectively, and by 1.80- and 1.35-fold to neutron radiation, which has high linear energy transfer. Accordingly, exposure to neutron radiation in the presence of gold nanoparticles induced cell cycle arrest, DNA damage, and cell death to a significantly higher extent, and suppressed cell migration and invasiveness more robustly. These effects are presumably due to the ability of gold nanoparticles to amplify the effective dose from neutron radiation more efficiently.The data suggest that gold nanoparticles may be clinically useful in combination therapy against hepatocellular carcinoma by enhancing the toxicity of radiation with high linear energy transfer.
The purpose of this study is to find a clue of psychological intervention in group sandplay therapy for children in local children's centers who are overly dependent on internet and smartphones experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic era. Art is a process of expressing imagination, and it is in line with the fact that play is a symbolic and creative activity. Therefore, it can be said that children's imaginary play scenes and imaginary stories appearing in sandplay therapy are a form of art. Sandplay enables non-verbal expression, and the unconscious contents expressed by children are useful in understanding children's emotions. In this process, the researcher understands the client through imagination which is the intersubjective method and experiences an accepting relationship where healing and change occur. However, previous studies have limitations in that they approached children's dependence on the Internet and smartphones based on language. Therefore, these researchers conducted an arts-based study from an analytical psychology perspective to understand the experiences of children in local children's centers who are overly dependent on the Internet and smartphones through the group sandplay therapy process. To this end, co-researchers attending the doctoral program in child counseling and psychotherapy have categorized and discussed four themes: ‘wanting to be loved’, ‘suffering from anxiety’, ‘tolerating being alone/not communicating’, ‘trying to protect oneself’. Finally, it was intended to alleviate the psychological difficulties of children in local children's centers who are overly dependent on internet and smartphones, and to provide an open method for resolving the Internet and smartphone dependence phenomenon.
This study investigated the effects of Sandplay therapy on smartphone overdependence, impulsiveness, and interpersonal problems in college students. A survey was conducted on 359 four-year college students, and 10 smartphone overdependent students were selected for both the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 10 sessions of Sandplay therapy. Results showed that Sandplay therapy reduced the degree of overdependence, impulsiveness, and interpersonal problems in smartphone overdependent college students. Qualitative analysis identified common themes such as “being left alone,” “a side of myself I want to hide,” and “struggling to escape.” This study highlights the potential of Sandplay therapy as a treatment program for smartphone overdependence in college students. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.
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