• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.341-366
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• 2013

The term, Mittelstand, has no exact english translation for the definition, but, today, Mittelstand refers to small and medium-sized enterprises(SME), mostly family-owned firms in Germany. The Mittelstand is called the backbone of the German economy because it drove the economic miracle after World War II. During the global recession and the euro zone's debt crisis in recent years, in which european businesses have faced the near-collapse of competitiveness particularly in manufacturing, the German exports are booming and exceeded exports of China in 2012. Most importantly, the Germany economic performance has been widely attributed to the strength of the Mittelstand. Many of countries, even some leading public companies are seeking to emulate the success of the Mittelstand. Investors evaluate that many of Germany's investable "hidden champions" are Mittelstand companies. The purpose of this study is to present some of answers to the following questions: Firstly, what makes the German Mittelstand so successful? Secondly, what does the success of the German Mittelstand mean for the Korean SMEs in global competitiveness? Thirdly, what Korean government has to do improve the global competitiveness of the Korean SMEs? Some discussions in this study mention the managerial implications for Korean exporting SMEs particularly in manufacturing. Several factors that account for the success of the German Mittelstand are technological excellence and the tradition of family-owned management, concentration on niche market and globalization, and institutional supports. There are some of important lessons to be learned from the German Mittelstand. If the purposes of Korean SMEs want to remain in the sustainable competitive advantage and withstand unforeseen economic turbulences in the future, they must be able to meet the followings: 1) Technology that meets the global standard or exceeding it 2) Competitiveness in price in the global market 3) Active involvement in the globalization process, utilizing various entry modes Innovative products at globally competitive price are a crucial point for Korean exporting SMEs to achieve their competitive edge over others in the target markets abroad. It is time for Korean SMEs to cultivate a core competence in manufacturing in order to position Korea as a global manufacturing hub with SMEs leading.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2015

Objectives : This study was designed to assess the general distribution and clinical effectiveness of Korean medical treatment on lumbar disc herniation. Methods : This is an observational study. 72 patients admitted to Daejeon Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine with a diagnosis of herniated intervertebral disc(HIVD) by lumbar-CT of lumbar-MRI were observed from July, 2014 to April, 2015. They were analyzed according to sex, age, the period of disease, causal factors, symptoms on admission, admission day, disc herniation type and treatment efficacy. All patients received a combination of treatments during hospitalization, including acupuncture, Chuna, herbal medicines and physical therapy. A zero to ten numerating rating scale(NRS) assessing pain, Oswestry disability index(ODI) and EuroQol-5 dimension(EQ-5D) was used before and after treatments. Results : Average admission duration was $28.00{\pm}12.85$ days in lumbar disc patients. For lumbar patients, lower back pain NRS decreased from $5.89{\pm}2.00$ to $3.42{\pm}1.87$(p<0.001) and radiating pain from $5.96{\pm}2.12$ to $3.38{\pm}1.83$(p<0.001). ODI decreased from $46.69{\pm}19.25$ to $35.69{\pm}16.67$(p<0.001), and EQ-5D index increased from $0.63{\pm}0.26$ to $0.71{\pm}0.20$(p<0.05) after treatment in lumbar disc patients. Conclusions : Korean medical combination treatment might be effective in reducing pain and improving quality of life for patients with lumbar disc herniation. This study further confirmed the efficacy of Korean medical treatment on HIVD.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.193-199
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate electric moxibustion on patients with back pain caused by road traffic accidents. Methods: This was a retrospective study (n = 112) comparing treatment with Korean medicine combined with electric moxibustion (n = 56), and Korean medicine alone (n = 56). Patient gender, age, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) was recorded for each group at the time of hospital admission. Mean NRS measured weekly, mean ODI and EQ-5D scores were measured 2 weeks post-treatment, and evaluated by paired sample t test. using the Statistical Program for Social Science v. 25.0 for Windows. An independent, two-sample t test was used to test for a significant difference in the decrement of NRS, ODI and increment EQ-5D scores between groups. Results: NRS scores decreased in both groups after 1 week of treatment (electric moxibustion, from $5.13{\pm}0.79$ to $3.86{\pm}0.67$; Korean medicine alone, from $5.18{\pm}0.92$ to $4.30{\pm}0.94$; both p < 0.001). There was a significantly greater reduction in NRS score in the electric moxibustion group ($1.27{\pm}0.59$) than in the Korean medicine alone group ($0.88{\pm}0.61$; p = 0.001). After 2 weeks of treatment, EQ-5D scores increased significantly in the moxibustion group ($0.19{\pm}0.12$) compared with the Korean medicine alone group ($0.13{\pm}0.20$; p = 0.043). After 2 weeks of treatment, NRS and ODI scores decreased in both groups. EQ-5D increased in both groups. Conclusion: We suggest that electric moxibustion treatment may be effective for reducing early-stage back pain in patients with road traffic accident injuries.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.392-399
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• 2003

This paper discusses the validities of insulating curing of cold weather concreting at early stage by applying insulation forms. Tests were carried out using modified insulating form combining existing insulating form and various other insulations in order to develop improved insulation form. Temperature history of concrete using various insulating forms and insulation was measured to determine most effective combination of insulting form. According to results, as for the wall form, under the curing temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$, the temperature of concrete using Euro form drops sharply before 24 hours and lasts below $0^{\circ}C$ for 7 hours. The temperature of concrete using the form combining Polypropylene panel, styrofoam and plywood panel keep above $0^{\circ}C$. And, it is confirmed that the form mentioned above has a favorable effects on enhancing strength development of concrete and the cost to make the forms shows more reasonable than that of existing forms. However, as for the combination methods of insulation form for slab, which is composed of insulating form at the bottom of slab and various surface curing materials at the top of slab, in case of exposed condition at the top of slab, temperature history of concrete goes below $0^{\circ}C$ after 10 hours. In case of the combination of vinyl sheet and curing blanket, it drops below $0^{\circ}C$ after 42 hours. However, in case of the combination of vinyl, styrofoam and curing blanket, it does not go below $0^{\circ}C$ until 55 hours. Accordingly, compared to the case of exposure and the combination of vinyl and curing blanket, it indicates that the combination mentioned above has more effective insulating performance.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.723-730
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• 2011

It is very important to experimentally evaluate concrete behavior at elevated temperature because aggregates make up approximately 80 percent of volume in concrete. In this study, an experiment to evaluate mechanical properties of normal weight and light weight concrete of 60 MPa was conducted. Based on loading level of 0, 20 and 40 percent, the tests of 28 days compressive strength, elastic modulus, thermal strain, total strain, and transient creep using ${\phi}100{\times}200mm$ cylindrical specimens at elevated temperature were performed. Then, the results were compared with CEB (Committes Euro-international du Beton) model code. The results showed that thermal strain of light weight concrete was smaller than normal weight concrete. Also, the results showed that compressive strength of light concrete at $700^{\circ}C$ was higher than normal weight concrete and CEB code, similar to that obtained at ambient temperature. Transient creep developed from loading at a critical temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ caused the concrete strains to change from expansion to compression. The transient creep test result showed that internal force was high when the ratio of shrinkage between concrete and aggregate was more influential than thermal expansion.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.165-178
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• 2020

Objectives This survey study is designed to check the awareness and satisfaction of Korean herbal medicine in patients suffering from acute traffic accidents. Methods From May 1 to 20, 2020, patients who visited the hospital within 7 days after the accident and received prescription of Korean herbal medicine for the first-time symptoms were selected. Survey was conducted 10 days after the first visit to confirm the perception of Korean herbal medicine and expected to be used as a prior study to improve the quality of Korean medicine led by Korean herbal medicine. Results Most patients answered that they were aware of the prescribed Korean herbal medicine's dosage and treatment effects. 65% of the patients said they would like to receive other forms of prescription if possible. Most patients answered that portability is convenient and tastes better than normal. 48% of the respondents said that it was the first to time to take Korean herbal medicine, and 68% said that they were willing to take the Korean herbal medicine later. At the time of the first visit, the health condition assessed using EuroQol visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) was 46.84, but 10 days after the treatment began, it increased significantly to 61.93. Conclusions The improvement of symptoms and high satisfaction with Korean medicine medical services contributed to the patient's willingness to visit the Korean medicine hospital again and to respond that they were willing to take further medication. EQ-VAS elevation suggests that overall patients' subjective health conditions have improved since treatment.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.203-211
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• 2010

Purpose: We aimed to test the validity of the EQ-5D (Euro-Quality of Life-5 Dimension), a brief and simple instrument, in measuring health related quality of life in the patients with osteoarthritis. Methods: 183 participants attending the education programs for osteoarthritis patients at the Health Centers located in Seoul and Gyunggi province area during the periods of June to December in 2009 were interviewed with the EQ-5D and KWOMAC (Korean version of Western Ontario and McMaster Scale). The data were analysed with Spearman correlation coefficents and t-test by using of SPSS/WIN 12.0 version. Results: There was a negative correlation between knee pain, stiffness and difficulty in usual activity of sub category items of KWOMAC and EQ-5Dindex, while there was no correlation between these categories and EQ-VAS. Moreover, as a result of comparing the score of physical function measured by KWOMAC according to the severity degree of the EQ-5Dindex, the group of advanced stage having moderate and severe symptoms reported significantly higher scores of physical function than those of groups having no health problems. Conclusion: The EQ-5D is an acceptable and valid instrument for measuring health-related quality of life in patients with osteoarthritis.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.111-117
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• 2009

Considering the entire critical path, underground works in construction projects occupy a large part of the total construction period, as well as a large part of the construction costs. Particularly in the downtown area, the scale of underground work has been increasing every year. Currently, underground retaining walls, which are built at construction sites, require many skilled workers, and the works are being undertaken by means of the Euroform+Soldier system, which is quite disadvantageous in terms of the construction period. In order to complement this, forms made of new materials and new construction methods have been developed. Now more than eyer, the shortening of construction periods and the reduction of construction costs is required. Considering this, in this study, the researcher has tried to compare the Euroform+Soldier system, which has been the system most frequently used on construction sites, to the non-supporting form system, which has been used on the sites of civil engineering work. The results of the research revealed that although the Euroform+Soldier system was advantageous from the perspective of material costs, it was disadvantageous in terms of labor costs. It is thought that an additional study on a method for reducing the material costs is required, so as to revitalize the application of non-supporting forms to the construction site.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 2020

Objectives : We investigated the efficacy and safety of miniscalpel acupuncture (MA) treatment combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for chronic neck pain (CNP) in an assessor-blinded randomized controlled pilot trial to establish a basis for larger-scale randomized controlled studies on this subject. Methods : Participants (n=36) were recruited and randomly allocated to the MA group, NSAIDs and combined treatment group. The MA group received MA three times over three weeks. The NSAIDs group was administered orally with zaltoprofen 80mg t.i.d. over three weeks. The combined treatment group received MA and zaltoprofen in the same manner as MA and NSAIDs groups. The primary outcome was pain as assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the secondary outcomes were assessed using the Neck Disability index (NDI), EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D), and Patients' Global Impression of Change scale (PGIC). Assessments were made at week 0 (baseline), 1, 2, 3 (primary end point) during treatment and at week 7 (4 weeks after the end of treatment). Results : 35 participants completed the study. No serious adverse event occurred and blood test results were within normal limits. The improvement of VAS and NDI was significantly greater in combined and MA group than that in NSAIDs group (p<0.017). The combined group showed better outcomes in EQ-5D at visit 2 and 5, in PGIC at visit 4 than the NSAIDs group (p<0.017). No significant differences were found between combined and MA group. Conclusions : Our results suggest that both combined and MA group can be more effective in improving pain control than NSAIDs group. A large-scale clinical study is warranted to further clarify these findings.

• Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.957-963
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• 2015

Objective To compare the pain-reducing effect of forest bathing alone versus forest bathing in combination with stretching and strengthening exercises in patients with chronic posterior neck pain. Methods Sixty-four subjects with posterior neck pain that had lasted more than 3 months were enrolled. They were randomly divided into a forest bathing alone (FBA) group and a forest bathing with exercise (FBE) group; each group included 32 subjects. All subjects from both groups walked every morning in the forest for about 2 hours for 5 days. In the afternoon, the FBE group did a stretching and strengthening exercise for about 4 hours; the FBA group had free time in the woods. Visual analog scale (VAS) on one day, VAS over the previous week, neck disability index (NDI), EuroQol 5D-3L VAS (EQ VAS) and index (EQ index), McGill pain questionnaire (MPQ), the number of trigger points in the posterior neck region (TRPs), and the range of motion of the cervical spine were evaluated on the first and last day of the program and compared between the two groups. Results The number of TRPs were significantly reduced in the FBE group compared with the FBA group (p=0.013). However, the other scales showed no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion When patients with chronic posterior neck pain underwent a short-term forest bathing (less than 7 days) program, FBE was more effective in the reduction of the number of TRPs than FBA. However, all other pain measurement scales we evaluated showed no statistically significant difference between the two protocols.