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Hospitalization experience can be an obstructive factor to successful aging. Although older adults who had hospitalization experience has been considered to have poor health status and low participation in one’s life, it is not obviously evident whether hospitalization itself affects successful aging. This study aimed to investigate whether three components of successful aging (i.e., diseases and disease-related complications, physical and mental functions, and engagement with life) were different in community-dwelling older adults who had hospitalization experience for the past one year compared to the counterpart older adults without hospitalization experience. A secondary data analysis was performed using a nationally representative survey data in Korea. A total of 1,812 who had hospitalization experience were matched to 1,812 control counterpart using propensity score matching. Sampling weight of the survey was considered for all statistical analysis. The community-dwelling older adults with hospitalization experience were less likely to be aging successfully than the older adults without hospitalization experience. The older adults with hospitalization experience had more chronic illnesses and malnourishment; they had more impairment in physical function and depressive symptoms; they were less active in working, social activities, and traveling. However, there were no differences in cognitive function and religious activities between the groups. In conclusion, the community-dwelling older adults who had hospitalization experience have poor health status and less engagement in one’s life in general after matching covariates using propensity score matching analysis. Therefore, more attention and assist are needed to the community-dwelling older adults with hospitalization experience to facilitate successful aging.

This paper addresses technical problems of thermal contact conductance or resistance which inevitably occurs in most cryogenic engineering systems. The main focus of this paper is to examine what kind of physical factors primarily influences the thermal contact resistance and to suggest how it can be minimized. It is a good practical rule that the contact surface must have sub-micron roughness level with no oxide layer and be thinly covered by indium, gold, or Apiezon-N grease for securing sufficient direct contact area. The higher contact pressure, the lower the thermal contact resistance. The general description of this technique has been widely perceived and reasonable engineering results have been achieved in most applications. However, the detailed view of employing these techniques and their relative efficacies to reduce thermal contact resistances need to be thoroughly reviewed. We should consider specific thermal contact conditions, examine the engineering requirements, and execute each method with precautions to fulfil their maximum potentials.

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