Food Insecurity during the Pandemic in South Korea: The Effects of University Students' Perceived Food Insecurity on Psychological Well-Being, Self-Efficacy, and Life Satisfaction.

This study examined the impact of university students' perceptions of food insecurity on psychological well-being, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction and observed that the students' gender plays a moderating role in this causal relationship, based on a total of 491 university students who participated in this empirical study. This study used SPSS (Version 22.0) and AMOS (Version 20.0) for the analyses. This study examines the structural relationship of this causal model. Our findings suggest that students' perceived food insecurity negatively affects the status of their psychological well-being and self-efficacy. However, contrary to expectations, perceived food insecurity has no negative effects on students' life satisfaction. In addition, the level of students' psychological well-being positively influences their life satisfaction, while self-efficacy does not. The moderating effects of gender differences in this research were also disclosed. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Analysis of Food Delivery Using Big Data: Comparative Study before and after COVID-19.

This study examined consumers' change in perception related to food delivery using big data before and after the COVID-19 crisis. This study identified words closely associated with the keyword "food delivery" based on big data from social media and investigated consumers' perceptions of and needs for food delivery and related issues before and after COVID-19. Results were derived through analysis methods such as text mining analysis, Concor analysis, and sentiment analysis. The research findings can be summarized as follows: In 2019, frequently appearing dining-related words were "dining-out," "delivery," "famous restaurant," "delivery food," "foundation," "dish," "family order," and "delicious." In 2021, these words were "delivery," "delivery food," "famous restaurant," "foundation," "COVID-19," "dish," "order," "application," and "family." The analysis results for the food delivery sentimental network based on 2019 data revealed discourses revolving around delicious, delivery food, lunch box, and Korean food. For the 2021 data, discourses revolved around delivery food, recommend, and delicious. The emotional analysis, which extracted positive and negative words from the "food delivery" search word data, demonstrated that the number of positive keywords decreased by 2.85%, while negative keywords increased at the same rate. In addition, compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic era, a weakening trend in positive emotions and an increasing trend in negative emotions were detected after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic; sub-emotions under the positive category (e.g., good feelings, joy, interest) decreased in 2021 compared to 2019, whereas sub-emotions under the negative category (e.g., sadness, fear, pain) increased.

The Relationships between Food Literacy, Health Promotion Literacy and Healthy Eating Habits among Young Adults in South Korea.

The obesity problem has reached a critical level and is threatening not only personal health but also public health systems around the world. Obesity in young adults is especially rapidly growing and many studies have confirmed that the best prevention is developing healthy eating habits with the improvement of food and health promotion literacy competencies. In this context, this study diagnoses the present levels of food literacy and health promotion literacy among young adults and explores the relationships between both literacies and their healthy eating habits. A total of 325 young adults in South Korea participated in this research, and the results are as follows. First, all food literacy components, which are food and nutrition knowledge, food skills, and resilience, are positively associated with healthy eating habits. Second, health promotion literacy is also positively associated with young adults' healthy eating habits. Lastly, unlike the primary information sources, gender has a moderating effect on the relationships between both literacies and healthy eating habits. This indicates that the government and educational sectors should propose more policy supports and solid education systems in order to help young adults develop their food and health promotion literacies for overall well-being in the future.

The Effects of Workplace Loneliness on the Psychological Detachment and Emotional Exhaustion of Hotel Employees.

This study was aimed at establishing whether loneliness among hotel employees in the workplace affects their psychological and emotional experiences by empirically investigating their perceptions of negative situations. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 300 hotel employees, after which confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to reassess the reliability and validity of the measured questionnaire items. A model of workplace loneliness, psychological detachment, and emotional exhaustion was developed and examined through structural equation modeling. The results showed that the hotel employees experienced workplace loneliness and expressed a desire to be psychologically detached from their jobs for recovery. Workplace loneliness also contributed to emotional exhaustion. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and future research directions, are discussed.

Isolation of Epithelial Cells from Human Dental Follicle.

The dental follicle (DF) was harvested during the removal of an impacted third molar by an oral maxillofacial surgeon. Epithelial cell isolation was performed on the day of DF harvest. The DF was washed three times with DPBS and then dissected with tissue scissors until the tissue had a pulpy or squishy consistency. Single-cell populations were pelleted by centrifugation and washed with keratinocyte serum-free medium. Heterogeneous cell populations were distributed in a culture dish. Keratinocyte serum-free medium was used to select the epithelial cells. The culture medium was changed daily until no floating debris or dead cells were observed. Epithelial cells appeared within 7-10 days after cell population distribution. Epithelial cells survived in serum-free medium, while α-modification minimal essential medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum allowed the proliferation of mesenchymal-type cells. The DF is a tissue source for the isolation of dental epithelial cells. The purpose of this study was to establish a method for the isolation of epithelial cells from human DF. Periodontal ligament (PDL) was used for the isolation of human dental epithelial cells. Procuring epithelial cells from human PDL is not always successful due to the small tissue volume, leading to low numbers of epithelial cells. DF has a larger volume than PDL and contains more cells. DF can be a tissue source for the primary culture of human dental epithelial cells. This protocol is easier and more efficient than the isolation method using PDL. Procuring human dental epithelial cells may facilitate further studies of dental epithelial-mesenchymal interactions.