• Title/Summary/Keyword: Comparison by age

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Comparison of gut microbial diversity of breast-fed and formula-fed infants (모유수유와 분유수유에 따른 영아 장내 미생물 군집의 특징)

  • Kim, Kyeong Soon;Shin, Jung;Sim, JiSoo;Yeon, SuJi;Lee, Pyeong An;Chung, Moon Gyu
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.55 no.3
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    • pp.268-273
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    • 2019
  • The intestinal microbiomes vary according to the factors such environment, age and diet. The purpose of this study was to compare the gut microbial diversity between Korean infants receiving breast-fed milk and formula-fed milk. We analyzed microbial communities in stool samples collected from 80 Korean infants using next generation sequencing. Phylum level analysis revealed that microbial communities in both breast-fed infants group (BIG) was dominated by Actinobacteria ($74.22{\pm}3.48%$). Interestingly, the phylum Actinobacteria was dominant in formula-fed infants group A (FIG-A) at $73.46{\pm}4.12%$, but the proportions of phylum Actinobacteria were lower in formulafed infants group B and C (FIG-B and FIG-C) at $66.52{\pm}5.80%$ and $68.88{\pm}4.33%$. The most abundant genus in the BIG, FIG-A, FIG-B, and FIG-C was Bifidobacterium, comprising $73.09{\pm}2.31%$, $72.25{\pm}4.93%$, $63.81{\pm}6.05%$, and $67.42{\pm}5.36%$ of the total bacteria. Furthermore, the dominant bifidobacterial species detected in BIG and FIG-A was Bifidobacterium longum at $68.77{\pm}6.07%$ and $66.85{\pm}4.99%$ of the total bacteria. In contrast, the proportions of B. longum of FIG-B and FIG-C were $58.94{\pm}6.20%$ and $61.86{\pm}5.31%$ of the total bacteria. FIG-A showed a community similar to BIG, which may be due to the inclusion of galactooligosaccharide, galactosyllactose, synergy-oligosaccharide, bifidooligo and improvement material of gut microbiota contained in formula-milk. We conclude that 5-Bifidus factor contained in milk powder promotes the growth of Bifidobacterium genus in the intestines.

A Study on the Characteristics of Intentional Self-Poisoning Patients : Comparison between Non-Prescription and Prescription Drugs (일반의약품과 전문의약품 의도적 음독 자살 시도자 특성 분석 연구)

  • Cho, Eulah;Cho, Ji Hyun;Jho, Kyeng Hyeng;Sim, Hyun-Bo
    • Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.116-125
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    • 2020
  • Objectives : Self-poisoning is the leading cause of visits to the emergency departments after a suicide attempts. This study is aimed to compare the patient characteristics according to the category of drugs ingested by the patients who attempted suicide. Methods : All medical charts were retrospectively reviewed from patients who visited the emergency center, at Seoul Medical Center, due to intentional self-poisoning from April of 2011 to July of 2019. We investigated the information regarding the subtype and quantity of the intoxication drug, how it was obtained, suicidal history, and psychiatric history, as well as, sociodemographic information. Variables were compared between prescription drug (PD) and non-prescription drug (NPD) poisoning groups. Results : The mean age of the NPD poisoning group was significantly lower than that of the PD poisoning group. The patient ratio of those enrolled in national health insurance and living with spouses were significantly higher in the NPD poisoning group. Compared to the NPD poisoning group, the PD poisoning group had a higher incidence of mental illnesses, underlying diseases and ratio of involuntary visit to the emergency department. Among the prescription drugs, the benzodiazepine poisoning group had a higher rate of self-prescription than the non-poisoning group, while the zolpidem poisoning group had a higher rate of the using someone else's prescription than other drugs. Each single drug poisoning group (benzodiazepine, zolpidem, and antidepressant single-agent) had a higher rate of no mental illness than each of the mixed-poisoning group. Conclusions : Guidelines for regulating non-prescription drugs are needed as a matter of suicide prevention. Also, this study suggests that clinicians need to be careful when issuing prescriptions and should suicidal risk according to patients' characteristics, duration of follow-up and type of drug packaging.

Discrepancy and Correlation in the renal length between Kidney CT and 99mTc-DMSA Renal scan (신장 CT 검사와 99mTc-DMSA Renal Scan 검사에서 측정한 신장 길이의 차이 및 상관분석)

  • Jung, Woo-Young;Shim, Dong-Oh;Lee, Dong-Hun;Choi, Jae-Min
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.15-20
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    • 2021
  • Purpose This article studies the relationship between the length of a kidney measured by two scanning methods: Kidney Computed Tomography (CT) and 99mTc-Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scan. Kidney CT provides a better anatomic assessment, while 99mTc-DMSA renal scan is superior in the kidney function test. Materials and Methods From January to December of 2019, two hundred patients who had Kidney CT and Tc99m-DMSA renal scan were chosen for this study. SPSS17.0 was selected for statistical analysis. Results Due to the effect of the breathing and resolution of 99mTc-DMSA renal scan, it showed the kidney's relatively longer length than the length of Kidney CT. For the same kidney, the length comparison among different brands' Gamma cameras was negligible. The length difference within the same age group did not show a noticeable discrepancy. However, there was a length difference between the radio technologists. Kidney CT and 99mTc-DMSA renal scan indicated a strong positive correlation between the length of the left and right kidney. Conclusion It is necessary to establish a standardized measurement method for measuring kidney length using 99mTc-DMSA renal scan. The kidney's functional changes and length changes are indications of Kidney diseases. Especially, pediatric patients tend to use 99mTc-DMSA renal scan for assessing the kidney's shape and the function to avoid potential radiation exposure during the Kidney CT. Therefore, it is significant to provide not only the kidney's functional information but also an anatomic analysis, including the kidney's size, length, and location through the 99mTc-DMSA renal scan.

Changes in body composition, body balance, metabolic parameters and eating behavior among overweight and obese women due to adherence to the Pilates exercise program (과체중·비만인에서 필라테스 운동 순응도에 따른 식생활 변화, 체구성, 신체 균형도 및 대사지표 개선효과)

  • Hyun Ju Kim;Jihyun Park;Mi Ri Ha;Ye Jin Kim;Chaerin Kim;Oh Yoen Kim
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.55 no.6
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    • pp.642-655
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: We examined the effects of the 8-week moderate-intensity Pilates exercise program on body composition, balance ability, metabolic parameters, arterial condition, and eating habits among overweight and obese women. Methods: From the general sample of overweight or obese Korean women (body mass index ≥ 23 kg/m2 ), those who had not been diagnosed with any chronic degenerative diseases were enrolled in the study (n = 39). After 8 weeks of the Pilates exercise program, the participants were subdivided into adherence and non-adherence groups. Among the study participants, 24 women were matched for age and menopausal status to reduce the bias, and then finally included for the comparison (Pilates-adherence, n = 12; Pilates-non-adherence, n = 12). Results: The body balance measured by the Y-balance test, body mass index, and subcutaneous fat areas were significantly improved in both groups. However, the Pilate-sadherence group showed more positive changes in body balance and had significant improvement in body composition parameters such as waist size, visceral fat area, systolic blood pressure, arterial aging index, fasting blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin than the Pilates-non-adherence group. In addition, the nutrition quotient for Korean adults (balance, moderation, and behavior except diversity) were significantly improved in both groups after dietary education. However, the participants did not show dramatic improvement in the metabolic parameters, because all the study subjects were in relatively good health and did not have any diagnosed diseases. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that higher adherence to the Pilates exercise program together with a modification of eating habits may effectively improve body balance, body composition, and obesity-related parameters among overweight and obese women.

A Comparative Study on the Ginseng Consumption Culture of College Consumers in Korea and China - Focused on Attitudes Toward Ginseng and Intention to Purchase it - (한국과 중국 소비자의 인삼 소비문화 비교 연구 -대학생 소비자의 인삼에 대한 태도와 구매 의도를 중심으로)

  • Siwuel Kim
    • Journal of Ginseng Culture
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    • v.6
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    • pp.135-151
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    • 2024
  • In order to compare the ginseng consumption culture of Korean and Chinese college students, their purchase status of ginseng products, attitudes toward ginseng, and satisfaction with ginseng products were examined, and the purchase and recommendation intention of ginseng products was investigated. It targeted 267 Korean college students and 318 Chinese college students who had experience eating ginseng products. As a result of the survey, in the case of Korean college student consumers, interest in ginseng products increased compared to before COVID-19, and the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products increased. In addition, the higher the satisfaction with ginseng, the higher the frequency of ginseng purchase experience, the higher the social benefit attitude toward ginseng, and the higher the age, the higher the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products. Chinese college student consumers had higher parental purchases than Korea, higher positive intentions to purchase and recommend social and psychological benefits, and their 20s are already more interested and friendly than Korea. What Korean college students and Chinese college student consumers have in common is that interest in health, safety, and environment has increased since before COVID-19, and interest in ginseng-related products has changed in individual experiences, indicating that individual experiences are important and Chinese college student consumers are influenced by parents. In particular, COVID-19 is an opportunity to recognize the importance of health, which is important to those in their 20s, and is actually related to purchase intention. Focusing on these results, it seems that expansion to preferred products for college student consumers and differentiation of marketing strategies according to family influence and consumption culture should be made, and these new changes due to COVID-19 seem to be a timely opportunity. At a time when interest in health and safety has increased, strategic preparations are needed for the future consumersociety to respond to changesin product diversity and convergence, changes in marketing media to meet consumer consumption values, and changesin consumer family types, such assingle households.

Effect of Domestic Clay Minerals on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics in Growing-Fattening Hanwoo Steers (육성비육 거세한우에 대한 점토광물 급여가 성장 및 도체특성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, S.W.;Kim, J.S.;Cho, W.M.;Ahn, B.S.;Ki, G.S.;Son, Y.S.
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.44 no.3
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    • pp.327-340
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    • 2002
  • This study was conducted to investigate the effects of domestic clay minerals on feed efficiency, meat quantity, meat quality and economic traits in 24 head of Hanwoo steers(166.1kg in body weight) for 540 days from six to 24 months in age. Feeding trial was conducted with 4 treatment(six heads/treatment) which were T1(Control), T2(Control+Kaolinite), T3(Control+Bentonite), T4(Control+Illite). The results obtained are summarized as follows; The range of average daily gains were 0.682 to 0.713, 0.669 to 0.714, 0.690 to 0.840 and 0.699 to 0.756kg in growing, fattening, finishing and over-all period, respectively, and the gains were high in T1 for growing and fattening period but in clay mineral groups for finishing and over-all period, especially it was high in Illite and Bentonite groups. Concentrates and TDN intakes per unit of kg gains were lower in clay mineral groups than in control and was lower especially in Bentonite groups. In carcass characteristics, dressed carcass and fresh meat and retailed cut percent were not apparently difference by treatments, and yield index was 69.3, 68.9, 68.8 and 68.6 in T3, T2, T4 and T1, respectively. Marbling scores were 5.1, 4.6, 4.4 and 3.3 in T3, T2, T4 and T1, respectively, and the range of shear force by treatment was from 3.51 to 6.02kg/cm2. and were improved with significant difference(P<0.05) in clay mineral groups than in control. Also in palatability traits, panel test scores of juiciness, tenderness and flavor were improved in clay mineral feeding groups, especially the flavor was improved with highly significant difference(P<0.01) in clay mineral groups than in control. In total fatty acid contents, the rate of SFA(saturated fatty acid) in longissimus muscle of beef was higher in the order of T2, T3, T1 and T4 while the rate of MUFA(monounsaturated fatty acid) was high in the order of T4, T3, T1 and T2. The content of oleic acid which is major influential factor at the flavor of beef was higher in Illite groups than in any other groups. In composition of amino acids in longissimus muscles of beef, the rate of essential amino acids was high in the order of T1, T2, T3 and T4. and the rate of amino acids in clay mineral groups was smaller than in control.In chemical component in Gom-Tang(soup of bone) made by Hanwoo steer’s leg-bone, the ranges of crude protein, ether extract, and crude ash was 0.81 to 1.24, 0.17 to 0.35 and 0.07 to 0.09%, respectively. In mineral composition, the ranges of Ca, P, Na and Mg was 14.01 to 15.77, 11.45 to 16.40, 37.92 to 49.99 and 0.26 to 0.46ppm, respectively. Chemical composition were not apparently different but mineral composition was increased in clay mineral groups than in control. Income by treatments was 967,096 to 1,524,055 Won per head for 540 days and income of clay mineral groups in comparison with control’s increased by 23.7 to 57.6 percent, and especially it was higher in bentonite and(or) Illite groups than others. According to the above results it may be concluded that clay mineral to growing-fattening Hanwoo steers can be improved the meat quantity, meat quality and income. Especially the effect of bentonite and illite is large and can be recommended for usage to improve animal performance as feed additives of growing-fattening Hanwoo steers.

Comparison of One-day and Two-day Protocol of $^{11}C$-Acetate and $^{18}F$-FDG Scan in Hepatoma (간암환자에 있어서 $^{11}C$-Acetate와 $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT 검사의 당일 검사법과 양일 검사법의 비교)

  • Kang, Sin-Chang;Park, Hoon-Hee;Kim, Jung-Yul;Lim, Han-Sang;Kim, Jae-Sam;Lee, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.3-8
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: $^{11}C$-Acetate PET/CT is useful in detecting lesions that are related to livers in the human body and leads to a sensitivity of 87.3%. On the other hand, $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT has a sensitivity of 47.3% and it has been reported that if both $^{18}F$-FDG and $^{11}C$-Acetate PET/CT are carried out together, their cumulative sensitivity is around 100%. However, the normal intake of the pancreas and the spleen in $^{11}C$-Acetate PET/CT can influence the $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT leading to an inaccurate diagnosis. This research was aimed at the verification of the usefulness of how much influence these two radioactive medical supplies can cause on the medical images through comparative analysis between the one-day and two-day protocol. Materials and Methods: This research was carried out based on 46 patients who were diagnosed with liver cancer and have gone through the PET/CT (35 male, 11 female participants, average age: $54{\pm}10.6$ years, age range: 29-69 years). The equipment used for this test was the Biograph TruePoint40 PET/CT (Siemens Medical Systems, USA) and 21 participants who went through the one-day protocol test were first given the $^{11}C$-Acetate PET/CT and the $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT, the latter exactly after one hour. The other 25 participants who went through the two-day protocol test were given the $^{11}C$-Acetate PET/CT on the first day and the $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT on the next day. These two groups were then graded comparatively by assigning identical areas of interest of the pancreas and the spleen in the $^{18}F$-FDG images and by measuring the Standard Uptake Value (SUV). SPSS Ver.17 (SPSS Inc., USA) was used for statistical analysis, where statistical significance was found through the unpaired t-test. Results: After analyzing the participants' medical images from each of the two different protocol types, the average${\pm}$standard deviation of the SUV of the pancreas carried out under the two-day protocol were as follows: head $1.62{\pm}0.32$ g/mL, body $1.57{\pm}0.37$ g/mL, tail $1.49{\pm}0.33$ g/mL and the spleen $1.53{\pm}0.28$ g/mL. Whereas, the results for participants carried out under the one-day protocol were as follows: head $1.65{\pm}0.35$ g/mL, body $1.58{\pm}0.27$ g/mL, tail $1.49{\pm}0.28$ g/mL and the spleen $1.66{\pm}0.29$ g/mL. Conclusion: It was found that no statistical significant difference existed between the one-day and two-day protocol SUV in the pancreas and the spleen (p<0.05), and nothing which could be misconceived as false positive were found from the PET/CT medical image analysis. From this research, it was also found that no overestimation of the SUV occurred from the influence of $^{11}C$-Acetate on the $^{18}F$-FDG medical images where those two tests were carried out for one day. This result was supported by the statistical significance of the SUV of measurement. If $^{11}C$-Acetate becomes commercialized in the future, the diagnostic ability of liver diseases can be improved by $^{18}F$-FDG and one-day protocol. It is from this result where tests can be accomplished in one day without the interference phenomenon of the two radioactive medical supplies and furthermore, could reduce the waiting time improving customer satisfaction.

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A Survey on the Hearing Disturbance of High School Students in Korea (한국고교생(韓國高校生)에 대(對)한 난청실태조사(難聽實態調査))

  • Rhee, Kyu-Shik;Kim, Doo-Hie
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.115-123
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    • 1972
  • As a link of chain study program of school health, a survey was made up by the screening test with audiometry for hearing disturbance on 18,675 high school students who are mainly aged in 15-19 years from November 5.1969 to October 30. 1970. The results obtained were summerized as follows. According to our criteria as table 3, the rates of the profound, the severe and the moderate who required the appropriate hearing aids were 0.02%, 0.03% and 0.14% respectively:-the cumulative percentage was 0.197. When the marginal, 0.23% should be included the cumulative rate was 0.41%. But there was no-significance by sex and school classes. If we will make the special classes for them one class would be estimated out of 10,000 persons when a class is formed with about 15 persons. Otherwise when we examined that according to each ear of persons, the rates of the profound, the severe and the moderate were 0.17%, 0.22% and 0.33% respectively and their cumulative percentage wag 0.72. There was no significance also by sex and age. By the way, the rate of hearing disturbance in urban high school students tended to lower than rural. And the perceptive disturbance was higher than rural in rate. The conductive disturbance tended to oppose in comparison with the above.

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Differential Effects of Recovery Efforts on Products Attitudes (제품태도에 대한 회복노력의 차별적 효과)

  • Kim, Cheon-GIl;Choi, Jung-Mi
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.33-58
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    • 2008
  • Previous research has presupposed that the evaluation of consumer who received any recovery after experiencing product failure should be better than the evaluation of consumer who did not receive any recovery. The major purposes of this article are to examine impacts of product defect failures rather than service failures, and to explore effects of recovery on postrecovery product attitudes. First, this article deals with the occurrence of severe and unsevere failure and corresponding service recovery toward tangible products rather than intangible services. Contrary to intangible services, purchase and usage are separable for tangible products. This difference makes it clear that executing an recovery strategy toward tangible products is not plausible right after consumers find out product failures. The consumers may think about backgrounds and causes for the unpleasant events during the time gap between product failure and recovery. The deliberation may dilutes positive effects of recovery efforts. The recovery strategies which are provided to consumers experiencing product failures can be classified into three types. A recovery strategy can be implemented to provide consumers with a new product replacing the old defective product, a complimentary product for free, a discount at the time of the failure incident, or a coupon that can be used on the next visit. This strategy is defined as "a rewarding effort." Meanwhile a product failure may arise in exchange for its benefit. Then the product provider can suggest a detail explanation that the defect is hard to escape since it relates highly to the specific advantage to the product. The strategy may be called as "a strengthening effort." Another possible strategy is to recover negative attitude toward own brand by giving prominence to the disadvantages of a competing brand rather than the advantages of its own brand. The strategy is reflected as "a weakening effort." This paper emphasizes that, in order to confirm its effectiveness, a recovery strategy should be compared to being nothing done in response to the product failure. So the three types of recovery efforts is discussed in comparison to the situation involving no recovery effort. The strengthening strategy is to claim high relatedness of the product failure with another advantage, and expects the two-sidedness to ease consumers' complaints. The weakening strategy is to emphasize non-aversiveness of product failure, even if consumers choose another competitive brand. The two strategies can be effective in restoring to the original state, by providing plausible motives to accept the condition of product failure or by informing consumers of non-responsibility in the failure case. However the two may be less effective strategies than the rewarding strategy, since it tries to take care of the rehabilitation needs of consumers. Especially, the relative effect between the strengthening effort and the weakening effort may differ in terms of the severity of the product failure. A consumer who realizes a highly severe failure is likely to attach importance to the property which caused the failure. This implies that the strengthening effort would be less effective under the condition of high product severity. Meanwhile, the failing property is not diagnostic information in the condition of low failure severity. Consumers would not pay attention to non-diagnostic information, and with which they are not likely to change their attitudes. This implies that the strengthening effort would be more effective under the condition of low product severity. A 2 (product failure severity: high or low) X 4 (recovery strategies: rewarding, strengthening, weakening, or doing nothing) between-subjects design was employed. The particular levels of product failure severity and the types of recovery strategies were determined after a series of expert interviews. The dependent variable was product attitude after the recovery effort was provided. Subjects were 284 consumers who had an experience of cosmetics. Subjects were first given a product failure scenario and were asked to rate the comprehensibility of the failure scenario, the probability of raising complaints against the failure, and the subjective severity of the failure. After a recovery scenario was presented, its comprehensibility and overall evaluation were measured. The subjects assigned to the condition of no recovery effort were exposed to a short news article on the cosmetic industry. Next, subjects answered filler questions: 42 items of the need for cognitive closure and 16 items of need-to-evaluate. In the succeeding page a subject's product attitude was measured on an five-item, six-point scale, and a subject's repurchase intention on an three-item, six-point scale. After demographic variables of age and sex were asked, ten items of the subject's objective knowledge was checked. The results showed that the subjects formed more favorable evaluations after receiving rewarding efforts than after receiving either strengthening or weakening efforts. This is consistent with Hoffman, Kelley, and Rotalsky (1995) in that a tangible service recovery could be more effective that intangible efforts. Strengthening and weakening efforts also were effective compared to no recovery effort. So we found that generally any recovery increased products attitudes. The results hint us that a recovery strategy such as strengthening or weakening efforts, although it does not contain a specific reward, may have an effect on consumers experiencing severe unsatisfaction and strong complaint. Meanwhile, strengthening and weakening efforts were not expected to increase product attitudes under the condition of low severity of product failure. We can conclude that only a physical recovery effort may be recognized favorably as a firm's willingness to recover its fault by consumers experiencing low involvements. Results of the present experiment are explained in terms of the attribution theory. This article has a limitation that it utilized fictitious scenarios. Future research deserves to test a realistic effect of recovery for actual consumers. Recovery involves a direct, firsthand experience of ex-users. Recovery does not apply to non-users. The experience of receiving recovery efforts can be relatively more salient and accessible for the ex-users than for non-users. A recovery effort might be more likely to improve product attitude for the ex-users than for non-users. Also the present experiment did not include consumers who did not have an experience of the products and who did not perceive the occurrence of product failure. For the non-users and the ignorant consumers, the recovery efforts might lead to decreased product attitude and purchase intention. This is because the recovery trials may give an opportunity for them to notice the product failure.

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The Effect of VDT Work on Vision and Eye Symptoms among Workers in a TV Manufacturing Plant (텔레비젼(TV)생산업체 근로자들의 영상단말기(VDT)작업이 시력과 안증상에 미치는 영향)

  • Woo, Kuck-Hyeun;Choi, Gwang-Seo;Jung, Young-Yeon;Han, Gu-Wung;Park, Jung-Han;Lee, Jong-Hyeob
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.25 no.3 s.39
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    • pp.247-268
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    • 1992
  • This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of VDT work on eyes and vision among workers in a TV manufacturing plant. The study subjects consisted of 264 screen workers and 74 non-screen workers who were less than 40 years old male and had no history of opthalmic diseases such as corneal opacities, trauma, keratitis, etc and whose visual acuity on pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 1.0 or above. The screen workers were divided into two groups by actual time for screen work in a day : Group I, 60 workers, lesser than 4 hours a day and group II, 204 workers, more than 4 hours a day. From July to October 1992 a questionnaire was administered to all the study subjects for the general charateristics and subjective eye symptoms after which the opthalmologic tests such as visual acuity, spherical equivalent, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, slit lamp test, fundoscopy were conducted by one opthalmologist. The proportion of workers whose present visual acuity was decreased more than 0.15 in comparison with that on the pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 20.6% in Group II. 15.0% in Group I and 14.9% in non-screen workers. However, the differences in proportion were not statistically significant. The proportion of workers with decreased visual acuity was not associated with the age, working duration, use of magnifying glass and type of shift work (independent variables) in all of the three groups. However, screen workers working under poor illumination had a higher proportion of persons with decreased visual acuity than those working under adequate illumination (P<0.05) . The proportion of workers whose near vision was decreased was 27.5% in Group II, 18.3% in Group I, and 28.4% in non-screen workers and these differences in proportion were not statistically significant. Changes of near vision were not associated with 4 independent variables in all of the three groups. Six out of seven subjective eye symptoms except tearing were more common in Group I than in non-screen workers and more common in Group II than in Group I (P<0.01). Mean of the total scores for seven subjective symptoms of each worker(2 points for always, 1 point for sometimes, 0 point for never) was not significantly different between workers with decreased visual acuity and workers with no vision change. However, mean of the total scores for Group II was higher than those for the Group I and non-screen workers (P<0.01). Total eye symptom scores were significantly correlated with the grade of screen work, use of magnifying glass, and type of shift work. There was no independent variable which was correlated with the difference in visual acuity between the pre-employment health examination and the present state, the difference between far and near visions, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, and spherical equivalent. Multiple linear regression analysis for the subjective eye symptom scores revealed a positive linear relationship with actual time for screen work and shift work(P<0.01). In this study it was not observed that the VDT work decreased visual acuity but it induces subjective eye symptoms such as eye fatigue, blurred vision, ocular discomfort, etc. Maintenance of adequate illumination in the work place and control of excessive VDT work are recommended to prevent such eye symptoms.

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