• Title/Summary/Keyword: Agent-based model

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Design and Implementation of Process Management Model applying Agent Technology (헬스케어 홈 서비스를 위한 데이터베이스 및 응용 서비스 구현)

  • Lee, Chung-Sub;Jeong, Chang-Won;Joo, Su-Chong
    • Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.57-70
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    • 2007
  • This paper is to construct a healthcare database using information obtained from healthcare home environments, and use this one for healthcare home services, Especially, our researching focus in this paper is how to design healthcare database scheme and how to use this constructed database on the Framework for Supporting Healthcare Integrated Service(FSHIS) we developed previously. Healthcare information is designed to database schemes in accordance to the specific save types of the data collected from various typed-sensors. The healthcare database constructed by using this information for the purpose of healthcare home services is divided into the base information with real schemes and the context based information with view schemes. Firstly, the base information includes low data obtained from physical sensors relevant to locations, healths, environments, and the personnel healthy profiles. The other is the context based information that is produced and fused by using the based information. This context based information might be got via various view schemes according to healthcare application services. Finally, for verifying the practical use of healthcare database constructed in this paper, Via interconnecting this database to our FSHIS, we show an example of healthcare home monitoring service using information (basic and context based information), emergency call, home appliance control, and so on needed from living activity area for elderly living alone.

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Antidepressant Effects of JG02 on Chronic Restraint Stress Animal Model (만성구속스트레스 동물모델에 대한 JG02의 항우울 효과)

  • You, Dong Keun;Seo, Young Kyung;Lee, Ji-Yoon;Kim, Ju Yeon;Jung, Jin-Hyeong;Choi, Jeong June;Jung, In Chul
    • Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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    • v.30 no.3
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    • pp.209-220
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    • 2019
  • Objectives: As a general emotion, everyone can temporarily experience depression, but depressive disorder is a disease that excessively affects daily life. Among the various causes of depression, the deficiency of monoamine-based neurotransmitters such as serotonin and epinephrine are considered significant. Thus, antidepressants that target monoamines are used frequently. However, side effects such as nausea, vomiting, insomnia, anxiety, and sexual dysfunction are observed. Thus, it is necessary to develop a new therapeutic agent with fewer side effects. In this study, we investigated the antidepressant effect of JG02, used to treat depression by normalizing the flow of qi (氣) in Korean medicine. Methods: C57BL/6 mice were selected and randomly divided into six groups: normal, control, amitriptyline, and JG02 (50, 125, 250 mg/kg), respectively. Except for normal, depression was induced by applying restraint stress at the same time for six hours daily for 14 consecutive days. Saline, amitriptyline or JG02 samples were orally administered two hours before applying the stress. After that, a forced swimming test and an open field test were performed. Additionally, serum corticosterone, serotonin mRNA, BDNF mRNA, and protein in the hippocampal region were measured and compared. Results: JG02 decreased immobility time rate in the FST and increased the zone transition number and travel distance in the OFT. Also, JG02 inhibited the release of serum corticosterone, and increased serotonin, BDNF gene expression, and BDNF protein in the hippocampus. Conclusions: In this study, JG02 showed significant antidepressant effects on the chronic restraint stress mice model. When further research is performed based on JG02, the development of a new antidepressant is considered highly possible.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Infection Control among Community-visiting Nurses (방문간호사의 감염관리에 대한 지식, 태도 및 수행)

  • Park, Han Nah;Lee, Insook;Kim, Jieun;Gweon, Sohyeon;Choo, Jina
    • Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.18-30
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: Purpose: This study aimed to identify whether infection control practice would correlate significantly with the knowledge and attitude of infection control in the pre-, mid-, and postvisiting rounds among community-visiting nurses. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted based on the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) model by administrating questionnaires during September-October 2020. A total of 65 nurses working for 15 community health centers in Seoul, South Korea were included. The questionnaires were developed based on the epidemiologic triangle model and comprised of 28 items on practice, 18 items on knowledge, and 10 items on attitude. Results: The infection control practice showed a mean of 88.9 (range, 0-100). The infection control knowledge had 89.2% on the host domain, 80.0% on the environment domain, and 74.8% on the agent domain (range, 0-100). The infection control attitude showed a mean of 39.5 (range, 0-50). Higher scores on the infection control practice are significantly correlated with the higher scores on the infection control knowledge about the host domain (p= .004) at the pre-, mid-, and post-visiting rounds. Higher scores on the infection control practice are significantly correlated with the higher scores on the infection control attitude at the mid- (p= .018) and postvisiting rounds (p= .028). Conclusions: The infection control practice by community-visiting nurses may be enhanced with increased knowledge and attitude levels of infection control at the mid- and post-visiting rounds. The enhancement should be included in the on-the-job education for community-visiting nurses.

Sustained release of alginate hydrogel containing antimicrobial peptide Chol-37(F34-R) in vitro and its effect on wound healing in murine model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

  • Shuaibing Shi;Hefan Dong;Xiaoyou Chen;Siqi Xu;Yue Song;Meiting Li;Zhiling Yan ;Xiaoli Wang ;Mingfu Niu ;Min Zhang;Chengshui Liao
    • Journal of Veterinary Science
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.44.1-44.17
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    • 2023
  • Background: Antibiotic resistance is a significant public health concern around the globe. Antimicrobial peptides exhibit broad-spectrum and efficient antibacterial activity with an added advantage of low drug resistance. The higher water content and 3D network structure of the hydrogels are beneficial for maintaining antimicrobial peptide activity and help to prevent degradation. The antimicrobial peptide released from hydrogels also hasten the local wound healing by promoting epithelial tissue regeneration and granulation tissue formation. Objective: This study aimed at developing sodium alginate based hydrogel loaded with a novel antimicrobial peptide Chol-37(F34-R) and to investigate the characteristics in vitro and in vivo as an alternative antibacterial wound dressing to treat infectious wounds. Methods: Hydrogels were developed and optimized by varying the concentrations of crosslinkers and subjected to various characterization tests like cross-sectional morphology, swelling index, percent water contents, water retention ratio, drug release and antibacterial activity in vitro, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infected wound mice model in vivo. Results: The results indicated that the hydrogel C proved superior in terms of cross-sectional morphology having uniformly sized interconnected pores, a good swelling index, with the capacity to retain a higher quantity of water. Furthermore, the optimized hydrogel has been found to exert a significant antimicrobial activity against bacteria and was also found to prevent bacterial infiltration into the wound site due to forming an impermeable barrier between the wound bed and external environment. The optimized hydrogel was found to significantly hasten skin regeneration in animal models when compared to other treatments in addition to strong inhibitory effect on the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α). Conclusions: Our results suggest that sodium alginate -based hydrogels loaded with Chol-37(F34-R) hold the potential to be used as an alternative to conventional antibiotics in treating infectious skin wounds.

Research Framework for International Franchising (국제프랜차이징 연구요소 및 연구방향)

  • Kim, Ju-Young;Lim, Young-Kyun;Shim, Jae-Duck
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.61-118
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

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A Study on B Class Fire Extinguishing Performance of Air Ratio in the Compressed Air Foam System (압축공기포 소화설비의 공기포비에 따른 B급 소화성능 연구)

  • Lee, Jang-Won;Lim, Woo-Sub;Rie, Dong-Ho
    • Fire Science and Engineering
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    • v.27 no.6
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    • pp.8-14
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    • 2013
  • This research is to evaluate the fire extinguishing performance at a mixing ratio of pressurized air in the fire extinguishing system of compressed air foam (CAF) which injects compressed air into foam liquid and then discharging. The experimental device is made use of exclusive foam extinguishing facility for compressed air foam that is produces based on Canada National Laboratory and UL 162 standard, apply model of oil fire (B Class) 20 unit in accordance with "Standard of Model Approval and Product Inspection for Fire Extinguishing Agent" to the fire Extinguishing model. Compressed air is injected through the air mixture and study the tendency depending on increasing air foam ratio 1 : 4, 1 : 7, 1 : 10. In addition, the comparison experiments between synthetic surfactants foam and AFFF carry out with it at the air foam ratio 1 : 4. As a result, in the condition of same discharging flow, fire extinguishing effect of AFFF is the fastest at the air foam ratio 1 : 7 and the slowest at 1 : 10. Moreover, the fire extinguishing effect of AFFF in the comparison expeiments between AFFF and synthetic surfactants foam is faster than the other.

Study of the possible mode of action of O-ethyl S-methyl ethylphosphonothioate via the formation of S-oxide in chemical and metabolic oxidation systems (화학적, 대사적 산화반응 중 생성되는 S-oxide를 이용한 O-ethyl S-methyl ethylphosphonothioate (1) 의 독성 기작에 관한 연구)

  • Hur, J.H.;Fukuto, T.R.;Han, D.S.
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.167-177
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    • 1991
  • O-ethyl S-methyl ethylphosphonothioate [$LD_{50}$ (rat, oral) 4.6mg/kg ; $K_i$(bovine erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase) 303 $M^{-1\;min-1}$] was selected as a model compound to study the mode of action of O, S-dialkyl alkylphosphonothioates which have been hypothesized to be toxic via a bioactivation process. Two chemical oxidants, meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid and monoperoxyphthalic acid, and rat liver microsomal oxidases were used to mimic the action of mixed function oxidases on the model compound. The formation of S-oxide, a very unstable active intermediate, was proposed based on the identification of metabolic products.Furthermore, a trapping experiment with ethanol showed that the unstable intermediate S-oxide had the ability to phosphorylate acetylcholinesterase which is an important enzyme in nerve systems. The S-oxide intermediates are presumed to be responsible for the toxicity of O,S-dialkyl alkylphosphonothioates.

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Thermosensitive Chitosan-based Hydrogel with Growth Factor as Adhesion Barrier (성장인자/키토산이 담지된 온도감응성 하이드로젤의 유착방지제로서의 응용)

  • Park, Jun-Kyu;Nah, Jae-Woon;Choi, Changyong
    • Polymer(Korea)
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    • v.39 no.3
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    • pp.480-486
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    • 2015
  • The adhesion of tissue and organ occur with frequency after surgery. Theomosensitive hydrogel was prepared from poloxamer/chitosan/epidermal growth factor as adhesion barrier agent. The prepared hydrogel showed sol-gel transition temperatures around human temperature and gelation temperature was the faster within 1 min. The hydrogel sustained the release of epidermal grow factor during 7 days. The hydrogel was highly effective for the prevention of tissue and organ adhesion in rat model. The thermosensitive and antibacterial chitosan hydrogel can be useful to consider the anti-adhesion barrier with increased adhesion of organ and sustained release of epidermal growth factor.

Evaluation of Antioxidative Activity of Various Levels of Ethanol Extracted Tomato Powder and Application to Pork Patties

  • Kim, Hyeong Sang;Chin, Koo Bok
    • Food Science of Animal Resources
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.242-253
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    • 2017
  • This study was performed to evaluate antioxidant activity of tomato powder extracted by various concentrations of ethanol (0, 25, 50, 75, 100%) and to evaluate the physicochemical properties and antioxidant activities of pork patties with ethanol extracted tomato (EET) powder. No differences in the contents of total of individual phenolic compounds including gallic acid and catechin, were observed among the treatments (p>0.05). Among the various concentrations, 50% and 75% EET powder showed the highest free radical scavenging and iron chelating activities (p<0.05). Lipid peroxidation was retarded in linoleic acid emulsion with the addition of 50% and 75% EET powder (0.1%). Based on the model study, five pork patties were actually manufactured; control patty, reference patty with 0.01% of butylated hydroxytoluene, patty with 1% of water extracted tomato (WET), and patties with 0.5 and 1.0% of EET. Addition of 1% WET and EET decreased pH value, and increased redness values of pork patties, as compared to the control (p<0.05). Pork patties with WET (1.0%) and EET (0.5% and 1.0%) had lower 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values compared with control patties after 7 d of storage (p<0.05). Pork patties containing EET powder showed lower total bacterial and Enterobacteriaceae counts than control patties (p<0.05). In conclusion, WET and EET (50%) could be used as a natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agent in meat products.

Significant Attenuation of Aden-associate Virus Gene Expression by Catechol-conjugated Heparin Surface Coating (카테콜기가 도입된 헤파린의 표면고정화에 의한 아데노연관바이러스의 발현 억제에 관한 연구)

  • Do, Minjae;Lee, Slgirim;Jang, Jae-Hyung;Lee, Haeshin
    • Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.149-154
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    • 2016
  • In this study, natural polymer-based virus neutralizing agent was developed in an attempt to replace the conventional sterilization method for mammalian cell culture. A catechol conjugated heparin was synthesized by using EDC chemistry, and it show unique binding ability to virus which has heparin affinity (adenovirus, adeno-associated virus). To evaluate neutralization ability of catechol conjugated heparin, adeno-associated virus was used for test model, instead of using a pathogenic virus. The catechol conjugated heparin exhibited resistance to high concentration of salt and complete inactivation of adeno-associated virus. The result suggests that the catechol conjugated heparin, which is biocompatible and efficiency, may replace conventional sterilization method for mammalian cell culture.