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The Determination of Trust in Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships in China (중국 프랜차이즈 시스템에서의 본부와 가맹점간 신뢰의 영향요인)

  • Shin, Geon-Cheol;Ma, Yaokun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.65-88
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    • 2008
  • Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

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An Intelligent Decision Support System for Selecting Promising Technologies for R&D based on Time-series Patent Analysis (R&D 기술 선정을 위한 시계열 특허 분석 기반 지능형 의사결정지원시스템)

  • Lee, Choongseok;Lee, Suk Joo;Choi, Byounggu
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.79-96
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    • 2012
  • As the pace of competition dramatically accelerates and the complexity of change grows, a variety of research have been conducted to improve firms' short-term performance and to enhance firms' long-term survival. In particular, researchers and practitioners have paid their attention to identify promising technologies that lead competitive advantage to a firm. Discovery of promising technology depends on how a firm evaluates the value of technologies, thus many evaluating methods have been proposed. Experts' opinion based approaches have been widely accepted to predict the value of technologies. Whereas this approach provides in-depth analysis and ensures validity of analysis results, it is usually cost-and time-ineffective and is limited to qualitative evaluation. Considerable studies attempt to forecast the value of technology by using patent information to overcome the limitation of experts' opinion based approach. Patent based technology evaluation has served as a valuable assessment approach of the technological forecasting because it contains a full and practical description of technology with uniform structure. Furthermore, it provides information that is not divulged in any other sources. Although patent information based approach has contributed to our understanding of prediction of promising technologies, it has some limitations because prediction has been made based on the past patent information, and the interpretations of patent analyses are not consistent. In order to fill this gap, this study proposes a technology forecasting methodology by integrating patent information approach and artificial intelligence method. The methodology consists of three modules : evaluation of technologies promising, implementation of technologies value prediction model, and recommendation of promising technologies. In the first module, technologies promising is evaluated from three different and complementary dimensions; impact, fusion, and diffusion perspectives. The impact of technologies refers to their influence on future technologies development and improvement, and is also clearly associated with their monetary value. The fusion of technologies denotes the extent to which a technology fuses different technologies, and represents the breadth of search underlying the technology. The fusion of technologies can be calculated based on technology or patent, thus this study measures two types of fusion index; fusion index per technology and fusion index per patent. Finally, the diffusion of technologies denotes their degree of applicability across scientific and technological fields. In the same vein, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent are considered respectively. In the second module, technologies value prediction model is implemented using artificial intelligence method. This studies use the values of five indexes (i.e., impact index, fusion index per technology, fusion index per patent, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent) at different time (e.g., t-n, t-n-1, t-n-2, ${\cdots}$) as input variables. The out variables are values of five indexes at time t, which is used for learning. The learning method adopted in this study is backpropagation algorithm. In the third module, this study recommends final promising technologies based on analytic hierarchy process. AHP provides relative importance of each index, leading to final promising index for technology. Applicability of the proposed methodology is tested by using U.S. patents in international patent class G06F (i.e., electronic digital data processing) from 2000 to 2008. The results show that mean absolute error value for prediction produced by the proposed methodology is lower than the value produced by multiple regression analysis in cases of fusion indexes. However, mean absolute error value of the proposed methodology is slightly higher than the value of multiple regression analysis. These unexpected results may be explained, in part, by small number of patents. Since this study only uses patent data in class G06F, number of sample patent data is relatively small, leading to incomplete learning to satisfy complex artificial intelligence structure. In addition, fusion index per technology and impact index are found to be important criteria to predict promising technology. This study attempts to extend the existing knowledge by proposing a new methodology for prediction technology value by integrating patent information analysis and artificial intelligence network. It helps managers who want to technology develop planning and policy maker who want to implement technology policy by providing quantitative prediction methodology. In addition, this study could help other researchers by proving a deeper understanding of the complex technological forecasting field.

KNU Korean Sentiment Lexicon: Bi-LSTM-based Method for Building a Korean Sentiment Lexicon (Bi-LSTM 기반의 한국어 감성사전 구축 방안)

  • Park, Sang-Min;Na, Chul-Won;Choi, Min-Seong;Lee, Da-Hee;On, Byung-Won
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.219-240
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    • 2018
  • Sentiment analysis, which is one of the text mining techniques, is a method for extracting subjective content embedded in text documents. Recently, the sentiment analysis methods have been widely used in many fields. As good examples, data-driven surveys are based on analyzing the subjectivity of text data posted by users and market researches are conducted by analyzing users' review posts to quantify users' reputation on a target product. The basic method of sentiment analysis is to use sentiment dictionary (or lexicon), a list of sentiment vocabularies with positive, neutral, or negative semantics. In general, the meaning of many sentiment words is likely to be different across domains. For example, a sentiment word, 'sad' indicates negative meaning in many fields but a movie. In order to perform accurate sentiment analysis, we need to build the sentiment dictionary for a given domain. However, such a method of building the sentiment lexicon is time-consuming and various sentiment vocabularies are not included without the use of general-purpose sentiment lexicon. In order to address this problem, several studies have been carried out to construct the sentiment lexicon suitable for a specific domain based on 'OPEN HANGUL' and 'SentiWordNet', which are general-purpose sentiment lexicons. However, OPEN HANGUL is no longer being serviced and SentiWordNet does not work well because of language difference in the process of converting Korean word into English word. There are restrictions on the use of such general-purpose sentiment lexicons as seed data for building the sentiment lexicon for a specific domain. In this article, we construct 'KNU Korean Sentiment Lexicon (KNU-KSL)', a new general-purpose Korean sentiment dictionary that is more advanced than existing general-purpose lexicons. The proposed dictionary, which is a list of domain-independent sentiment words such as 'thank you', 'worthy', and 'impressed', is built to quickly construct the sentiment dictionary for a target domain. Especially, it constructs sentiment vocabularies by analyzing the glosses contained in Standard Korean Language Dictionary (SKLD) by the following procedures: First, we propose a sentiment classification model based on Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM). Second, the proposed deep learning model automatically classifies each of glosses to either positive or negative meaning. Third, positive words and phrases are extracted from the glosses classified as positive meaning, while negative words and phrases are extracted from the glosses classified as negative meaning. Our experimental results show that the average accuracy of the proposed sentiment classification model is up to 89.45%. In addition, the sentiment dictionary is more extended using various external sources including SentiWordNet, SenticNet, Emotional Verbs, and Sentiment Lexicon 0603. Furthermore, we add sentiment information about frequently used coined words and emoticons that are used mainly on the Web. The KNU-KSL contains a total of 14,843 sentiment vocabularies, each of which is one of 1-grams, 2-grams, phrases, and sentence patterns. Unlike existing sentiment dictionaries, it is composed of words that are not affected by particular domains. The recent trend on sentiment analysis is to use deep learning technique without sentiment dictionaries. The importance of developing sentiment dictionaries is declined gradually. However, one of recent studies shows that the words in the sentiment dictionary can be used as features of deep learning models, resulting in the sentiment analysis performed with higher accuracy (Teng, Z., 2016). This result indicates that the sentiment dictionary is used not only for sentiment analysis but also as features of deep learning models for improving accuracy. The proposed dictionary can be used as a basic data for constructing the sentiment lexicon of a particular domain and as features of deep learning models. It is also useful to automatically and quickly build large training sets for deep learning models.

Current feeding practices and maternal nutritional knowledge on complementary feeding in Korea (이유기 보충식 현황과 어머니 인식 조사)

  • Yom, Hye Won;Seo, Jeong Wan;Park, Hyesook;Choi, Kwang Hae;Chang, Ju Young;Ryoo, Eell;Yang, Hye Ran;Kim, Jae Young;Seo, Ji Hyun;Kim, Yong Joo;Moon, Kyung Rye;Kang, Ki Soo;Park, Kie Young;Lee, Seong Soo;Shim, Jeong Ok
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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    • v.52 no.10
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    • pp.1090-1102
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    • 2009
  • Purpose:To evaluate current feeding practices and maternal nutritional knowledge on complementary feeding. Methods:Mothers of babies aged 9-15 months who visited pediatric clinics of 14 general hospitals between September and December 2008 were asked to fill questionnaires. Data from 1,078 questionnaires were analyzed. Results:Complementary food was introduced at 4-7 months in 89% of babies. Home-made rice gruel was the first complementary food in 93% cases. Spoons were used for initial feeding in 97% cases. At 6-7 months, <50% of babies were fed meat (beef, 43%). Less than 12-month-old babies were fed salty foods such as salted laver (35%) or bean-paste soup (51%) and cow's milk (11%). The following were the maternal sources of information on complementary feeding: books/magazines (58%), friends (30%), internet web sites (29%), relatives (14%), and hospitals (4%). Compared to the 1993 survey, the incidence of complementary food introduction before 4 months (0.4% vs. 21%) and initial use of commercial food (7% vs. 39%) had decreased. Moreover, spoons were increasingly used for initial feeding (97% vs. 57%). The average maternal nutritional knowledge score was 7.5/10. Less percentage of mothers agreed with the following suggestions: bottle formula weaning before 15-18 months (68%), no commercial baby drinks as complementary food (67%), considering formula (or cow's milk) better than soy milk (65%), and feeding minced meat from 6-7 months (57%). Conclusion:Complementary feeding practices have considerably improved since the last decade. Pediatricians should advise timely introduction of appropriate complementary foods and monitor diverse information sources on complementary feeding.

Health Concern, Health Practice and ADL of The Elderly Who Stay at Home in a Rural Community (농촌(農村) 재택노인(財宅老人)들의 건강관심도(健康關心度), 건강실천행위(健康實踐行爲)와 일상생활동작능력(日常生活動作能力))

  • Eom, Young-Hee;Kam, Sin;Han, Chang-Hyun;Cha, Byung-Jun;Kim, Sang-Soon
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.269-289
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    • 1999
  • This study was conducted to examine the relationship among health concern, health practice and ADL of elderly staying at home in a rural community and their affecting factors. Data were collected through direct interviews made with 480 old people aged more than sixty-five from November 15, 1998 to December 20, 1998. Out of 189 male and 291 female, the high-level group that showed high health concern accounted for 44.4%, the medium-level group for 13.1%, and the low-level group for 42.5%, in the health practice, the high-level group accounted for 3.8%, the medium-level group for 18.8%, and the low-level group for 77.5%. In the self-rated health status, the high-level group accounted for 29.0%, the medium-level group for 31.0%, and the low-level group for 40.0%, and in the ADL, the high ADL group accounted for 91.5%, and the low-level ADL group for 8.5%. The result of the chi-square test showed that for male, there was a significant relation between the health concern and the health practice index score. In the relation between the health practice index score and the self-rated health status, there was significant positive relationship between health practice index and self-rated health status, and in the relation between the health practice Index score and the ADL, old people with higher health practices showed good ADL(but not significant). Old people with good ADL also showed good self-rated health status. In the multiple regression analysis where the health practice was used as a dependent variable, the health concern was added to the sociodemographic variables as an independent variables, a formula was formed for male old people only and ones with high concern in health showed good health practice. In the multiple logistic regression analysis where the sociodemographic variables to which the health practices was added were used as an independent variable and the ADL as a dependent variable, the ADL appeared to be not good if for male old people the living costs were born by their sons and daughters and as for female old people their ages increased, but it was good if old people had sources of health information such as hospitals or health centers. The self-rated health status was worse, for male old people, if they had short living costs or diseases and for female old people, if they had spouses, living costs born by their sons and daughters or diseases, but it was better, for male old people, if they had periodical gatherings or carried out health practices a lot, and for female old people, if they had sources of health information such as hospitals or health centers or carried out health practices a lot. In view of the results stated above, the higher the old people had health concern, the more they carried out health practices, and the more they carried out health practices, the better they had ADL and self-rated health status that served as the level of health. Further, the better ADL, the better self-rated health status.

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Analysis of Manganese Contents in 30 Korean Common Foods (한국인 상용식품 중 30종류 식품의 망간 함량 분석)

  • 최미경
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.32 no.8
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    • pp.1408-1413
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    • 2003
  • This study was conducted to analyze manganese contents of Korean common foods. Contents of manganese in 30 foods were analyzed by ICP spectrometer. And daily manganese intake through 30 common foods was calculated using analysis data of this study and daily food intakes cited from report on 1998 national health and nutrition survey. The average manganese contents of foods analyzed were 949.6 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for rice, 236.1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for Korean chinese cabbage kimchi, 27.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for citrus fruit, 2.6 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for milk, 214.6 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for radish root, 40.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for apple, 60.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for persimmon, 13.9 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for pork, 9.5 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for beef, 638.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for soybean curd, 184.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for radish kimchi, 56.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for pear, 18.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for beer, 11.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for egg, 9.5 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for carbonated beverage, 345.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for bread, 50.7 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for soju, 270.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for potato, 236.1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for sweet potato, 91.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for ramyeon, 32.5 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for onion, 68.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for nabak kimchi, 538.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for soybean sprout, 112.5 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for welsh onion, 336.7 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for rice cake, 589.9 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for Korean chinese cabbage, 430.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for somyeon, 144.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for pumpkin, 3.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for yoghurt, and 614.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for spinach per 100 g of each food. The daily manganese intake through 30 common foods of Koreans in 1998 was 3420.7 $\mu\textrm{g}$. Major sources of dietary manganese were rice, kimchi, and soybean curd. Especially, rice supplied 68.1% of total dietary manganese intake through 30 common foods. Further studies are required to establish database and RDA of manganese.

Sesquiterpenoids Bioconversion Analysis by Wood Rot Fungi

  • Lee, Su-Yeon;Ryu, Sun-Hwa;Choi, In-Gyu;Kim, Myungkil
    • 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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    • 2016.05a
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    • pp.19-20
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    • 2016
  • Sesquiterpenoids are defined as $C_{15}$ compounds derived from farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), and their complex structures are found in the tissue of many diverse plants (Degenhardt et al. 2009). FPP's long chain length and additional double bond enables its conversion to a huge range of mono-, di-, and tri-cyclic structures. A number of cyclic sesquiterpenes with alcohol, aldehyde, and ketone derivatives have key biological and medicinal properties (Fraga 1999). Fungi, such as the wood-rotting Polyporus brumalis, are excellent sources of pharmaceutically interesting natural products such as sesquiterpenoids. In this study, we investigated the biosynthesis of P. brumalis sesquiterpenoids on modified medium. Fungal suspensions of 11 white rot species were inoculated in modified medium containing $C_6H_{12}O_6$, $C_4H_{12}N_2O_6$, $KH_2PO_4$, $MgSO_4$, and $CaCl_2$ for 20 days. Cultivation was stopped by solvent extraction via separation of the mycelium. The metabolites were identified as follows: propionic acid (1), mevalonic acid lactone (2), ${\beta}$-eudesmane (3), and ${\beta}$-eudesmol (4), respectively (Figure 1). The main peaks of ${\beta}$-eudesmane and ${\beta}$-eudesmol, which were indicative of sesquiterpene structures, were consistently detected for 5, 7, 12, and 15 days These results demonstrated the existence of terpene metabolism in the mycelium of P. brumalis. Polyporus spp. are known to generate flavor components such as methyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethyl benzoate; 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-6-methyl benzoic acid; 3-hydroxy-5-methyl phenol; and 3-methoxy-2,5-dimethyl phenol in submerged cultures (Hoffmann and Esser 1978). Drimanes of sesquiterpenes were reported as metabolites from P. arcularius and shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (Fleck et al. 1996). The main metabolites of P. brumalis, ${\beta}$-Eudesmol and ${\beta}$-eudesmane, were categorized as eudesmane-type sesquiterpene structures. The eudesmane skeleton could be biosynthesized from FPP-derived IPP, and approximately 1,000 structures have been identified in plants as essential oils. The biosynthesis of eudesmol from P. brumalis may thus be an important tool for the production of useful natural compounds as presumed from its identified potent bioactivity in plants. Essential oils comprising eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoids have been previously and extensively researched (Wu et al. 2006). ${\beta}$-Eudesmol is a well-known and important eudesmane alcohol with an anticholinergic effect in the vascular endothelium (Tsuneki et al. 2005). Additionally, recent studies demonstrated that ${\beta}$-eudesmol acts as a channel blocker for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction, and it can inhibit angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo by blocking the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway (Seo et al. 2011). Variation of nutrients was conducted to determine an optimum condition for the biosynthesis of sesquiterpenes by P. brumalis. Genes encoding terpene synthases, which are crucial to the terpene synthesis pathway, generally respond to environmental factors such as pH, temperature, and available nutrients (Hoffmeister and Keller 2007, Yu and Keller 2005). Calvo et al. described the effect of major nutrients, carbon and nitrogen, on the synthesis of secondary metabolites (Calvo et al. 2002). P. brumalis did not prefer to synthesize sesquiterpenes under all growth conditions. Results of differences in metabolites observed in P. brumalis grown in PDB and modified medium highlighted the potential effect inorganic sources such as $C_4H_{12}N_2O_6$, $KH_2PO_4$, $MgSO_4$, and $CaCl_2$ on sesquiterpene synthesis. ${\beta}$-eudesmol was apparent during cultivation except for when P. brumalis was grown on $MgSO_4$-free medium. These results demonstrated that $MgSO_4$ can specifically control the biosynthesis of ${\beta}$-eudesmol. Magnesium has been reported as a cofactor that binds to sesquiterpene synthase (Agger et al. 2008). Specifically, the $Mg^{2+}$ ions bind to two conserved metal-binding motifs. These metal ions complex to the substrate pyrophosphate, thereby promoting the ionization of the leaving groups of FPP and resulting in the generation of a highly reactive allylic cation. Effect of magnesium source on the sesquiterpene biosynthesis was also identified via analysis of the concentration of total carbohydrates. Our current study offered further insight that fungal sesquiterpene biosynthesis can be controlled by nutrients. To profile the metabolites of P. brumalis, the cultures were extracted based on the growth curve. Despite metabolites produced during mycelia growth, there was difficulty in detecting significant changes in metabolite production, especially those at low concentrations. These compounds may be of interest in understanding their synthetic mechanisms in P. brumalis. The synthesis of terpene compounds began during the growth phase at day 9. Sesquiterpene synthesis occurred after growth was complete. At day 9, drimenol, farnesol, and mevalonic lactone (or mevalonic acid lactone) were identified. Mevalonic acid lactone is the precursor of the mevalonic pathway, and particularly, it is a precursor for a number of biologically important lipids, including cholesterol hormones (Buckley et al. 2002). Farnesol is the precursor of sesquiterpenoids. Drimenol compounds, bi-cyclic-sesquiterpene alcohols, can be synthesized from trans-trans farnesol via cyclization and rearrangement (Polovinka et al. 1994). They have also been identified in the basidiomycota Lentinus lepideus as secondary metabolites. After 12 days in the growth phase, ${\beta}$-elemene caryophyllene, ${\delta}$-cadiene, and eudesmane were detected with ${\beta}$-eudesmol. The data showed the synthesis of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons with bi-cyclic structures. These compounds can be synthesized from FPP by cyclization. Cyclic terpenoids are synthesized through the formation of a carbon skeleton from linear precursors by terpene cyclase, which is followed by chemical modification by oxidation, reduction, methylation, etc. Sesquiterpene cyclase is a key branch-point enzyme that catalyzes the complex intermolecular cyclization of the linear prenyl diphosphate into cyclic hydrocarbons (Toyomasu et al. 2007). After 20 days in stationary phase, the oxygenated structures eudesmol, elemol, and caryophyllene oxide were detected. Thus, after growth, sesquiterpenes were identified. Per these results, we showed that terpene metabolism in wood-rotting fungi occurs in the stationary phase. We also showed that such metabolism can be controlled by magnesium supplementation in the growth medium. In conclusion, we identified P. brumalis as a wood-rotting fungus that can produce sesquiterpenes. To mechanistically understand eudesmane-type sesquiterpene biosynthesis in P. brumalis, further research into the genes regulating the dynamics of such biosynthesis is warranted.

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A Survey on Patients도 Nursing Needs Following Discharge from Hospital (퇴원시 환자의 간호요구도 조사)

  • 이은옥;이선자;박성애
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.33-54
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    • 1981
  • The purposes of this study were to determine the relevant nursing needs of patients following discharge; to identify the degree of their nursing needs; to identify types and status of discharge order and information given to patients; and to determine their specific nursing needs according to their diagnosis. In addition, opinions toward home care services provided by hospitals or by public health nurses and appointment plans with their physicians were also asked in order to determine the necessity of follow-up care for the patient after discharge. Nine hundred and eighty eight subjects were collected among patients being discharged from one national university hospital and four city hospitals. Data were collected from June,1979 to December,1979 using questionnaires and interviews. On the bases of these data the following findings were observed; 1) Almost 40 percents of total subjects discharged from the hospital with some or great degree of nursing needs in general. The most problematic nursing needs were needs for comfort which include needs for releaving pain, for sound sleep and rest, because these needs can only be met by professional help. More than 50% of total subjects have this problem. 2) Needs for mental health, general metabolism, general hygiene and activities and safety were observed in more than 20 percent of subjects. 3) Discharge orders on diet and oral medication were recorded in patients' charts in 70% of all cases. However, more than fifty percents of patients have not been told these information from doctors or nurses. Even though some of them might have had appointment plans with their physicians, they would not keep the appointments unless they completely understood the necessity of the follow-up care. If they have not had any appointment or would not visit the out-patient clinic, there is no method of caring them and prerenting funther discomfort or complications. Even in injection, ski care, dressing and bath, only one thirds of the subjects having recorded discharge orders understood what they need after discharge. The rest of cases have not known what to do for their further care. 4) More than 80 percents and 70 percents of total subjects agreed to a system of home care services provided by hospitals or public health nurses respectively. That is, regardless of sources of medical expenses, most of patients wanted to be taken care of at home following discharge. 5) While more than half of the patients having benefit of medical insurance or paying fully by themselves had appointment plans with their physicians, only one thirds of the patients fully or partially paid by government had appointment plans with their physicians. These results ex-plain that the appointment plan is directly associated with their economic power. This indicates that the home care services are more needed to the people with lower economical status. 6) Those who have been in the hospital more than 24 days wanted !o have home care services more than those who had less hospital days. They also had more appointment plans than other groups. 7) More than 70 percents of the subjects who had been in a university hospital and approximately 30 percents of the subjects in the city hospitals had appointment plans with their physicians. 8) Those who had the cerebrovascular disease, cancer or hypertension demanded more nursing needs such as needs for comfort, for general metabolism and for mental health. 9) Factors which were associated with the degree of patients' nursing needs were age, duration of hospitalization, opinion toward home care services given by public health nurses, hospital appointments and types of hospital. That is, the older they were and the longer the periods of hospitalization were, the higher were their nursing needs. The more they had nursing needs, the more they wanted to have nursing services and had appointment plans. It can be concluded that there is a great demand for a positive and systematic home care services to the people who have been discharged from hospitals following critical care. This program is definitely demanded for the low income groups of people with less education with the financial assistance of the government or other funding agencies.

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A Study on Chemical Composition of Fine Particles in the Sungdong Area, Seoul, Korea (서울 성동구 지역 미세먼지의 화학적 조성에 관한 연구)

  • 조용성;이홍석;김윤신;이종태;박진수
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.12 no.6
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    • pp.665-676
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    • 2003
  • To investigate the chemical characteristics of PM$\_$2.5/ in Seoul, Korea, atmospheric particulate matters were collected using a PM$\_$10/ dichotomous sampler including PM$\_$10/ and PM$\_$2.5/ inlet during the period of October 2000 to September 2001. The Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectromety (ICP-MS), ion Chromatography (IC) methods were used to determine the concentration of both metal and ionic species. A statistical analysis was performed for the heavy metals data set using a principal component analysis (PCA) to derived important factors inherent in the interactions among the variables. The mean concentrations of ambient PM$\_$2.5/ and PM/sub10/ were 24.47 and 45.27 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥, respectively. PM$\_$2.5/ masses also showed temporal variations both yearly and seasonally. The ratios of PM$\_$2.5/PM$\_$10/ was 0.54, which similar to the value of 0.60 in North America. Soil-related chemical components (such as Al, Ca, Fe, Si, and Mn) were abundant in PM$\_$10/, while anthropogenic components (such as As, Cd, Cr, V, Zn and Pb) were abundant in PM2s. Total water soluble ions constituted 30∼50 % of PM$\_$2.5/ mass, and sulfate, nitrate and ammonium were main components in water soluble ions. Reactive farms of NH$_4$$\^$+/were considered as NH$_4$NO$_3$ and (NH$_4$)$_2$SO$_4$ during the sampling periods. In the results of PCA for PM$\_$2.5/, we identified three principal components. Major contribution to PM$\_$2.5/ seemed to be soil, oil combustion, unidentified source. Further study, the detailed interpretation of these data will need efforts in order to identify emission sources.

Characterization and Formation Mechanisms of Clogging Materials in Groundwater Wells, Mt. Geumjeong Area, Busan, Korea (부산 금정산 일대 지하수공내 공막힘 물질의 특징과 형성원인)

  • Choo, Chang-Oh;Hamm, Se-Yeong;Lee, Jeong-Hwan;Lee, Chung-Mo;Choo, Youn-Woo;Han, Suk-Jong;Kim, Moo-Jin;Cho, Heuy-Nam
    • The Journal of Engineering Geology
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.67-81
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    • 2012
  • The physical, chemical, and biological properties of clogging materials formed within groundwater wells in the Mt. Geumjeong area, Busan, Korea, were characterized. The particle size distribution (PSD) of clogging materials was measured by a laser analyzer. XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses were performed to obtain mineralogical information on the clogging materials, with an emphasis on identifying and characterizing the mineral species. In most cases, PSD data exhibited an near log-normal distribution; however, variations in frequency distribution were found in some intervals (bi-or trimodal distributions), raising the possibility that particles originated from several sources or were formed at different times. XRD data revealed that the clogging materials were mainly amorphous ironhydroxides such as goethite, ferrihydrite, and lapidocrocite, with lesser amounts of Fe, Mn, and Zn metals and silicates such as quartz, feldspar, micas, and smectite. Reddish brown material was amorphous hydrous ferriciron (HFO), and dark red and dark black materials were Fe, Mn-hydroxides. Greyish white and pale brown materials consisted of silicates. SEM observations indicated that the clogging materials were mainly HFO associated with iron bacteria such as Gallionella and Leptothrix, with small amounts of rock fragments. In TEM analysis, disseminated iron particles were commonly observed in the cell and sheath of iron bacteria, indicating that iron was precipitated in close association with the metabolism of bacterial activity. Rock-forming minerals such as quartz, feldspar, and micas were primarily derived from soils or granite aquifers, which are widely distributed in the study area. The results indicate the importance of elucidating the formation mechanisms of clogging materials to ensure sustainable well capacity.