• Title/Summary/Keyword: Cost Improvement

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Potentials of Synbiotics for Pediatric Nutrition and Baby Food Applications: A Review (소아 영양 및 유아식 응용을 위한 신바이오틱스의 잠재력: 총설)

  • Jung, Hoo Kil;Kim, Sun Jin;Seok, Min Jeong;Cha, Hyun Ah;Yoon, Seul Ki;Lee, Nah Hyun;Kang, Kyung Jin
    • Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.111-118
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    • 2015
  • Probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic substances as well as microorganisms were added to infant formula in an attempt to influence the intestinal microflora with an aim to stimulate the growth of lactic acid bacteria, especially bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Over the last 10 years, new synbiotic infant formulas containing probiotics and prebiotics have been proposed in order to simulate the effect of breast-feeding on the intestinal microflora. Owing to their synergistic effect, the new synbiotics are expected to be more helpful than using probiotics and prebiotics individually. Maintenance of the viability of the probiotics during food processing and the passage through the gastrointestinal tract should be the most important consideration, since a sufficient number of bacteria ($10^8cfu/g$) should reach the intended location to have a positive effect on the host. Storage conditions and the processing technology used for the manufacture of products such as infant formula adversely affect the viability of the probiotics. When an appropriate and cost-effective microencapsulation methodology using the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status and substances with high biological value are developed, the quality of infant formulas would improve. The effect of probiotics may be called a double-effect, where one is an immunomodulatory effect, induced by live probiotics that advantageously alter the gastrointestinal microflora, and the other comprises anti-inflammatory responses elicited by dead cells. At present, a new terminology is required to define the dead microorganisms or crude microbial fractions that positively affect health. The term "paraprobiotics" (or ghost probiotics) has been proposed to define dead microbial cells (not damaged or broken) or crude cell extracts (i.e., cell extracts with complex chemical composition) that are beneficial to humans and animals when a sufficient amount is orally or topically administered. The fecal microflora of bottle-fed infants is altered when the milk-based infant formula is supplemented with probiotics or prebiotics. Thus, by increasing the proportion of beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, prebiotics modify the fecal microbial composition and accordingly regulate the activity of the immune system. Therefore, considerable attention has been focused on the improvement of infant formula quality such that its beneficial effects are comparable to those of human milk, using prebiotics such as inulin and oligosaccharides and potential specific probiotics such as bifidobacteria, which selectively stimulate the proliferation of beneficial bacteria in the microflora and the indigenous intestinal metabolic activity of the microflora.

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Enhancement of Image Contrast in Linacgram through Image Processing (전산처리를 통한 Linacgram의 화질개선)

  • Suh, Hyun-Suk;Shin, Hyun-Kyo;Lee, Re-Na
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.345-354
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    • 2000
  • Purpose : Conventional radiation therapy Portal images gives low contrast images. The purpose of this study was to enhance image contrast of a linacgram by developing a low-cost image processing method. Materials and Methods : Chest linacgram was obtained by irradiating humanoid Phantom and scanned using Diagnostic-Pro scanner for image processing. Several types of scan method were used in scanning. These include optical density scan, histogram equalized scan, linear histogram based scan, linear histogram independent scan, linear optical density scan, logarithmic scan, and power square root scan. The histogram distribution of the scanned images were plotted and the ranges of the gray scale were compared among various scan types. The scanned images were then transformed to the gray window by pallette fitting method and the contrast of the reprocessed portal images were evaluated for image improvement. Portal images of patients were also taken at various anatomic sites and the images were processed by Gray Scale Expansion (GSE) method. The patient images were analyzed to examine the feasibility of using the GSE technique in clinic. Results :The histogram distribution showed that minimum and maximum gray scale ranges of 3192 and 21940 were obtained when the image was scanned using logarithmic method and square root method, respectively. Out of 256 gray scale, only 7 to 30$\%$ of the steps were used. After expanding the gray scale to full range, contrast of the portal images were improved. Experiment peformed with patient image showed that improved identification of organs were achieved by GSE in portal images of knee joint, head and neck, lung, and pelvis. Conclusion :Phantom study demonstrated that the GSE technique improved image contrast of a linacgram. This indicates that the decrease in image quality resulting from the dual exposure, could be improved by expanding the gray scale. As a result, the improved technique will make it possible to compare the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRR) and simulation image for evaluating the patient positioning error.

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Improvement on Management of Non-point Source Pollution for Reasonable Implementation of TMDL - Focusing on Selection of Non-point Source Pollution Management Region and Management of Non-point Source Pollutant - (수질오염총량관리제의 합리적인 시행을 위한 비점오염원관리 개선방안 - 비점오염원 관리지역 선정 및 비점오염물질 관리를 중심으로 -)

  • Yi, Sang-Jin;Kim, Young-Il
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.36 no.10
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    • pp.719-723
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    • 2014
  • For effective implementation of total maximum daily load (TMDL), this study presented the improving plans of non-point source pollution management including the classification of non-point source pollution, calculation of non-point source pollution load (generated, discharged), selection of non-point source pollution management regions and management of non-point source pollutant. First of all, the definition of point source pollution and non-point source pollution based on the legal and scientific viewpoint should be precisely classified and managed. Especially, the forest, grassland and river without occurrence of environmental damage by activity of business and human should be separately classified natural background pollutants. The unit for generated and discharged non-point source pollution should be preferentially changed according to actual condition of watershed. The calculation methods of generated and discharged non-point source pollution should be corrected consideration on the amount and duration of rainfall. While the TMDL is implemented, non-point source pollution management regions should be selected in the watersheds exceed the targeted water quality standards by the rainfall. The non-point source pollution management regions should be selected in the minimal regions where have high values of discharged non-point source pollution density in the urban area, farmland and site area except forest, grassland in the whole watershed. The non-point source pollutant treatment facilities, which take into consideration non-point source pollution load per unit area, duration of the excess concentration, realizable possibility of treatment, effectiveness of treatment cost versus point source pollutant, should be established in the regions with a large generated non-point source pollution load and a high concentration of water quality exceed the targeted water quality standards by the rainfall.

On the Improvement of Precision in Gravity Surveying and Correction, and a Dense Bouguer Anomaly in and Around the Korean Peninsula (한반도 일원의 중력측정 및 보정의 정밀화와 고밀도 부우게이상)

  • Shin, Young-Hong;Yang, Chul-Soo;Ok, Soo-Suk;Choi, Kwang-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.205-215
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    • 2003
  • A precise and dense Bouguer anomaly is one of the most important data to improve the knowledge of our environment in the aspect of geophysics and physical geodesy. Besides the precise absolute gravity station net, we should consider two parts; one is to improve the precision in gravity measurement and correction of it, and the other is the density of measurement both in number and distribution. For the precise positioning, we have tested how we could use the GPS properly in gravity measurement, and deduced that the GPS measurement for 5 minutes would be effective when we used DGPS with two geodetic GPS receivers and the baseline was shorter than 40km. In this case we should use a precise geoid model such as PNU95. By applying this method, we are able to reduce the cost, time, and number of surveyors, furthermore we also get the benefit of improving in quality. Two kind of computer programs were developed to correct crossover errors and to calculate terrain effects more precisely. The repeated measurements on the same stations in gravity surveying are helpful not only to correct the drifts of spring but also to approach the results statistically by applying network adjustment. So we can find out the blunders of various causes easily and also able to estimate the quality of the measurements. The recent developments in computer technology, digital elevation data, and precise positioning also stimulate us to improve the Bouguer anomaly by more precise terrain correction. The gravity data of various sources, such as land gravity data (by Choi, NGI, etc.), marine gravity data (by NORI), Bouguer anomaly map of North Korea, Japanese gravity data, altimetry satellite data, and EGM96 geopotential model, were collected and processed to get a precise and dense Bouguer anomaly in and around the Korean Peninsula.

A Fluid Analysis Study on Centrifugal Pump Performance Improvement by Impeller Modification (원심펌프 회전차 Modification시 성능개선에 관한 유동해석 연구)

  • Lee, A-Yeong;Jang, Hyun-Jun;Lee, Jin-Woo;Cho, Won-Jeong
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2020
  • Centrifugal pump is a facility that transfers energy to fluid through centrifugal force, which is usually generated by rotating the impeller at high speed, and is a major process facility used in many LNG production bases such as vaporization seawater pump, industrial water and fire extinguishing pump using seawater. to be. Currently, pumps in LNG plant sites are subject to operating conditions that vary depending on the amount of supply desired by the customer for a long period of time. Pumps in particular occupy a large part of the consumption strategy at the plant site, and if the optimum operation condition is not available, it can incur enormous energy loss in long term plant operation. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to identify the performance deterioration factor through the flow analysis and the result analysis according to the fluctuations of the pump's operating conditions and to determine the optimal operation efficiency. In order to evaluate operation efficiency through experimental techniques, considerable time and cost are incurred, such as on-site operating conditions and manufacturing of experimental equipment. If the performance of the pump is not suitable for the site, and the performance of the pump needs to be reduced, a method of changing the rotation speed or using a special liquid containing high viscosity or solids is used. Especially, in order to prevent disruptions in the operation of LNG production bases, a technology is required to satisfy the required performance conditions by processing the existing impeller of the pump within a short time. Therefore, in this study, the rotation difference of the pump was applied to the ANSYS CFX program by applying the modified 3D modeling shape. In addition, the results obtained from the flow analysis and the curve fitting toolbox of the MATLAB program were analyzed numerically to verify the outer diameter correction theory.

A Study on the Propensity to Purchase Babies' Cosmetics (베이비화장품의 구매행태에 관한 연구 - 대구, 경북 지역을 중심으로 -)

  • Lee Kyung-Hwa;Kim Ju-Duck
    • Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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    • v.31 no.2 s.51
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    • pp.169-177
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    • 2005
  • The propensity to purchase babies' cosmetics is investigated and analysed for this research. The synopsis of this research paper is as follows. The first, the $68\%$ of all respondents do not how a manufacturer or brand name in the reality of variously emerging domestic and import cosmetics for babies. The second, in case of a child haying a fair, sensitive skin or atopy (atopic dermatitis), the respondents are careful in choosing babies cosmetics but in case of a child having a normal skin the older a child grows from a stage of a new-born, a baby and an infant to a primary-school child, the older its mother is, the more respondents use adults' cosmetics in common rather than use cosmetics only for babies. $7.6\%$ of respondents do not use babies' cosmetirs at ail. Especially, in using bathing goods such as a shampoo or a body cleanser, they frequently use adults' cosmetics in common. The third, the qualify is taken into the utmost consideration in purchasing babies' cosmetics. The Quality of imports is trusted and preferred better than that of domestic goods. The cost of purchasing babies cosmetics is less than 10,000 Won. consumers recognize that the price or cosmetics is rather high. The last, the improvement or babies cosmetics is 'the safety of goods', answered by $56.5\%$ of respondents. The respondents are generally not satisfied with babies' cosmetics. So, a baby's skin is threatened by a newly-built house syndrome, the increase of atopic dermatitis, etc., caused by an environmental pollutions, a change of diet and a change of residential life. Under these actual conditions, babies' cosmetics which can protect a delicate and sensitive skin of a baby should be developed immediately. Consumers should have a correct choice with precise recognition and information on a baby's skin and cosmetics and continually use the efficacious and excellent babies' cosmetics to prevent a baby from a skin irritation, and need to show a keen interest in a healthy skin of a baby.

Characteristics of Fatty Acid Composition and Properties by Blending of Vegetable Oils (식물성 기름의 혼합을 통한 지방산 조성 및 이화학적 특성 변화)

  • Lee, Tae Sung;Lee, Yong Hwa;Kim, Kwang Soo;Kim, Wook;Kim, Kwan Su;Jang, Young Seok;Park, Kwang Geun
    • Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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    • v.25 no.5
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    • pp.624-632
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    • 2012
  • As there have been lately many worldwide resource challenges such as potential exhaustion of fossil fuels, sudden rise of oil price and ever-rising grain pricing due to global food crisis, there have been more interests focused on recycling vegetable oils and fats into clean natural fuel and producing new resources based on waste cooking oil as a part of reusing waste resources. An Experiment was performed by using ratio of 50:50, 75:25 (w/w) mixture of based rapeseed oil, camellia oil, and olive oil. 50:50, 25:75 (w/w) mixture of based palm oil. The result was that the oleic acid ($C_{18:1}$) got the lowest percentage of 42.8%, when we combined the mixture of rapeseed oil and soybean oil. While the highest percentage of 72.1% was when the mixture of camellia oil and rapeseed oil were combined at 50:50 ratio. In 75:25 (w/w) case, mixture of rapeseed oil and soybean oil got the lowest. The highest ratio was the mixture of camellia oil and olive oil. Based on the component of palm oil, the total saturated fatty acid was decreased. It is expected that stabilizing oxidation through controlling of fatty acid after mixture and that liquidity at a low temperature. The acid value indicated that stabilizing oxidation got a range of highest to lowest. Camellia oil ranked as the highest, followed by olive oil, and the oil seeds as the lowest in rank. Controlling iodine value through mixture and improvement of stabilizing oxidation will provide a good quality. The quality of color has no significant change about mixture in ratio and maintenance. The reduction of the cost of refining process is expected by controling of mixture ratio at biodiesel production in the future.

A Study of Cause of Employee Turnover and Countermeasures against Turnover in Shipping and Port Logistics Firms (중소항만물류기업의 이직원인 분석과 대책에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jae-Hun;Shin, Yong-John
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.39 no.6
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    • pp.545-552
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    • 2015
  • This study One of the key elements of corporate competitiveness in the modern world of unlimited competition is human resource management. The reason that the world's leading companies are devoting a lot of investment and effort for good human resource development and management is that human resource can impact firm survival. In particular, there is little research on the internal and external environmental stimuli and job stress in the employee of small business which are often led to turnover, while they have suffered from chronic shortage of manpower. The purpose of this study is to determine the turnover factors in the small logistics companies and contribute to stable maintenance of workforce, facilitating human resource management and minimizing turnover. This study empirically analyzed the factors of the turnover in the organization of logistics companies from Busan Port, South Korea, which became one of the national infrastructure and the fifth world largest harbor. The conclusion proposed the development and direction of the human resource management which could promote the job environment improving the turnover factors and creating sustainable work condition through conducting preventive measures. The results indicated that the highest turnover rates was found in the category of field work, and the highest turnover group was from the 'less than one year', which implies that high turnover rates after and during job training might be greater cost to the companies than early turnover. The most common reasons for the high employee turnover were 'excessive workload' and 'dissatisfaction with wages'. Followed reasons including 'troubles with managers' and 'failure in organizational adaptation' can be understood in line with worse working conditions of the small logistic companies. It turned out that the preventive programs of the logistic enterprises had little effect through 'incentives system' and 'improving wage system' which are mainly conducted. The human resource managers appreciated the importance of 'wage raise' and 'benefits improvement'. This study is aimed at contributing to efficient human resource management through understanding of the turnover causes and human resource managers applying preventive measures. In particular, this can benefit small port logistics companies securing competitiveness and promoting persistent growth and development.

Feasibility Study of Wetland-pond Systems for Water Quality Improvement and Agricultural Reuse (습지-연못 연계시스템에 의한 수질개선과 농업적 재이용 타당성 분석)

  • Jang, Jae-Ho;Jung, Kwang-Wook;Ham, Jong-Hwa;Yoon, Chun-Gyeong
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.37 no.3 s.108
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    • pp.344-354
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    • 2004
  • A pilot study was performed from September 2000 to April 2004 to examine the feasibility of the wetland-pond system for the agricultural reuse of reclaimed water. The wetland system was a subsurface flow type, with a hydraulic residence time of 3.5 days, and the subsequent pond was 8 $m^3$ in volume (2 m ${\times}$ 2 m ${\times}$ 2 m) and operated with intermittent-discharge and continuous flow types. The wetland system was effective in treating the sewage; median removal efficiencies of $BOD_5$ and TSS were above 70.0%, with mean effluent concentrations of 27.1 and 16.8 mg $L^{-1}$, respectively, for these constituents. However, they did often exceed the effluent water quality standards of 20 mg $L^{-1}$. Removal of T-N and T-P was relatively less effective and mean effluent concentrations were approximately 103.2 and 7.2 mg $L^{-1}$, respectively. The wetland system demonstrated high removal rate (92 ${\sim}$ 90%) of microorganisms, but effluent concentrations were in the range of 300 ${\sim}$ 16,000 MPN 100 $mL^{-1}$ which is still high for agricultural reuse. The subsequent pond system provided further treatment of the wetland effluent, and especially additional microorganisms removal in addition to wetland-pond system could reduce the mean concentration to 1,000 MPN 100 $mL^{-1}$ from about $10^5$ MPN 100 $mL^{-1}$ of wetland influent. Other parameters in the pond system showed seasonal variation, and the upper layer of the pond water column became remarkably clear immediately after ice melt. Overall, the wetland system was found to be adequate for treating sewage with stable removal efficiency, and the subsequent pond was effective for further polishing. This study concerned agricultural reuse of reclaimed water using natural systems. Considering stable performance and effective removal of bacterial indicators as well as other water quality parameters, low maintenance, and cost-effectiveness, wetland- pond system was thought to be an effective and feasible alternative for agricultural reuse of reclaimed water in rural area.

Association of diet-related quality of life with dietary regimen practice, health-related quality of life, and gastrointestinal symptoms in end-stage renal disease patients with hemodialysis (혈액투석을 실행중인 말기 신부전 환자의 식사관련 삶의 질(Diet-Related Quality of Life)과 식사요법 실천도, 건강관련 삶의 질 및 위장관 증상과의 관련성 연구)

  • Lee, JinJu;Kim, Ji-Myung;Kim, Yuri
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.46 no.2
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    • pp.137-146
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    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate diet-related Quality of Life (QOL) and to analyze the relationship among diet-related QOL, dietary regimen practice, health-related QOL, and gastrointestinal symptoms in hemodialysis patients. Subjects were recruited from an artificial kidney center in Seoul. The self-report questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic characteristics, diet-related QOL, compliance with dietary regimen practice, health-related QOL, and gastrointestinal symptoms was distributed. Diet-related QOL includes a 'Quality of Life and Related to Dietary Change Questionnaire', 'Satisfaction Survey', and 'Dietary Impact Survey'. According to their responses, participants had experienced the greatest difficulty with 'Dietary Impact'. In particular, the mean score for general health was low. Association of dietary regimen practice showed a positive association with 'Cost' and 'Self-care' score. In addition, diet-related QOL showed positive correlation with health-related QOL, particularly in 'taste'. Scores for 'Taste', 'Convenience', and 'Dietary Impact' were lower for subjects with constipation compared to those of subjects without constipation. Scores for 'Taste' and 'Dietary Impact' were lower in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome compared to those of subjects without the syndrome (p < 0.05). Diet-related QOL showed a positive association with health-related QOL (p < 0.05), whereas it showed a negative association with constipation (p < 0.01). In conclusion, hemodialysis patients in Korea suffer from burden of dietary regimen practice and most scores for diet-related QOL and health-related QOL from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms were low. Therefore, appropriate nutrition education considering gastrointestinal symptoms is necessary for improvement of patients' QOL during dietary regimen practice.