• Title/Summary/Keyword: Facilitating

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Structural Features of Korean Legislative Communication: Focus on the U.S. Beef Imports Bill Evaluations from Legislative Expert Groups (국내 입법 커뮤니케이션의 구조적 특징: 쇠고기 수입 법안에 대한 입법 전문가 집단의 인식과 평가를 중심으로)

  • Lee, Wan-Soo;Kim, Chan-Souk;Lee, Min-Kyu
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.60
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    • pp.52-74
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    • 2012
  • Legislation needs to be understood within a political, societal relationship among lawmaking bodies rather than by legal provision itself. In order to examine features and functions of communication in the process of legislation, this study conducted focus group interviews with experts as well as in-depth individual interviews. The result of this research as follows: First, the study found that although the domestic legislative process has been made by active interactions among lawmaking subjects, it was hard to conclude that this procedure is providing effective and productive legislative agenda because of chaotic communications made along the process. Second, the study found that national legislative process has been gradually moving, although restricted, to an open political space, the National Assembly, from a closed space, the executive branch. Third, the study found a remarkable feature including growing influence of experts groups and civic organizations in the legislative process. It is a significant change that legislative staff such as National Assembly aides, investigators, expert committeemen and deputy director generals played a role of "insiders," unnoticeably influencing the legislative process, and that civic organizations and NGOs, which have been excluded in the previous legislative processes, emerged as a new influencing circle in the process. Lastly, the study found that media organizations, in the process of developing agenda, had a strong impact on the National Assembly as a subject forming public issues and as a messenger of the legislative agenda while they played a limited role in affecting the government. This study discusses why communication in the domestic legislative process is important and what are some hindering and facilitating factors in the process.

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Biocompatibility study of lithium disilicate and zirconium oxide ceramics for esthetic dental abutments

  • Brunot-Gohin, Celine;Duval, Jean-Luc;Verbeke, Sandra;Belanger, Kayla;Pezron, Isabelle;Kugel, Gerard;Laurent-Maquin, Dominique;Gangloff, Sophie;Egles, Christophe
    • Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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    • v.46 no.6
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    • pp.362-371
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    • 2016
  • Purpose: The increasing demand for esthetically pleasing results has contributed to the use of ceramics for dental implant abutments. The aim of this study was to compare the biological response of epithelial tissue cultivated on lithium disilicate ($LS_2$) and zirconium oxide ($ZrO_2$) ceramics. Understanding the relevant physicochemical and mechanical properties of these ceramics will help identify the optimal material for facilitating gingival wound closure. Methods: Both biomaterials were prepared with 2 different surface treatments: raw and polished. Their physicochemical characteristics were analyzed by contact angle measurements, scanning white-light interferometry, and scanning electron microscopy. An organotypic culture was then performed using a chicken epithelium model to simulate peri-implant soft tissue. We measured the contact angle, hydrophobicity, and roughness of the materials as well as the tissue behavior at their surfaces (cell migration and cell adhesion). Results: The best cell migration was observed on $ZrO_2$ ceramic. Cell adhesion was also drastically lower on the polished $ZrO_2$ ceramic than on both the raw and polished $LS_2$. Evaluating various surface topographies of $LS_2$ showed that increasing surface roughness improved cell adhesion, leading to an increase of up to 13%. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that a biomaterial, here $LS_2$, can be modified using simple surface changes in order to finely modulate soft tissue adhesion. Strong adhesion at the abutment associated with weak migration assists in gingival wound healing. On the same material, polishing can reduce cell adhesion without drastically modifying cell migration. A comparison of $LS_2$ and $ZrO_2$ ceramic showed that $LS_2$ was more conducive to creating varying tissue reactions. Our results can help dental surgeons to choose, especially for esthetic implant abutments, the most appropriate biomaterial as well as the most appropriate surface treatment to use in accordance with specific clinical dental applications.

Influence Factors of Online-Based Interpersonal Relationships by Developmental Level -Centered on Social Networking Service Users - (대인관계 발달 단계에 따른 온라인기반 대인관계에 미치는 영향요인 - 소셜네트워크 서비스(SNS) 사용자를 중심으로 -)

  • Heo, Song-Ji;Kim, Ja-Young;Jang, Hee-Jin;Ko, Hye-Young;Park, Su-E
    • Journal of Korea Game Society
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.75-89
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    • 2012
  • In this paper, the correlation which is at work between affecting factors and interpersonal relationships' dimension depend on developmental level has been studied to search for clues about how to develop the online based interpersonal relationships -the fundamental aims of SNS related services- efficiently. People who'd ever entered into a relation through the 'online-based generated relationship' by SNS were divided into two groups on the development level. They were conducted a survey, and the results were derived using PLS statistics. As the result, 7 kinds of factors as social attraction, physical attraction, reciprocity, content quality, coexistence perception, information provision and similarity had an impact on the initial level of relationships, and 6 kinds of factors as social attraction, physical attraction, reciprocity, content quality, web appearance and coexistence perception had an impact on the developed level of relationships. This study could be utilized for the service design for facilitating interpersonal relationships efficiently by their level of development.

Transfer Impedence of Trip Chain with a Railway Mode Embedded - Using Seoul Metroplitan Transportation Card Data - (철도수단이 내재된 통행사슬의 환승저항 추정방안 - 수도권 교통카드자료를 활용하여 -)

  • Lee, Mee young;Sohn, Jhieon
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.36 no.6
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    • pp.1083-1091
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    • 2016
  • This research uses public transportation card data to analyze the inter-regional transfer times, transfer frequencies, and transfer resistance that passengers experience during transit amongst the metropolitan public transportation modes. Currently, mode transfers between bus and rail are recorded up to five times during one transit movement by Trip Chain, facilitating greater comprehension of intermodal movements. However, lack of information on what arises during these transfers poses a problem in that it leads to an underestimation of transfer resistances on the Trip Chain. As such, a path choice model that reflects passenger movements during transit activities is created, which attains explanatory power on transfer resistance through its inclusion of transfer times and frequencies. The methodology adopted in this research is to first conceptualize the idea of metropolitan public transportation transfer, and in the case that mode transfers include the city-rail, to newly conceptualize the idea of transfer resistance using transportation card data. Also, the city-rail path choice model within the Trip Chain is constructed, with transfer time and frequency used to reevaluate transfer resistance. Further, in order to align bus and city-rail station administrative level small-zone coordinates to state and regional level mid-zone coordinates, the big node methdod is utilized. Finally, case studies on trip chains using at least one transfer onto the city-rail is used to determine the validity of the results obtained.

Influence of Phytase and Xylanase Supplementation on Growth Performance and Nutrient Utilisation of Broilers Offered Wheat-based Diets

  • Selle, P.H.;Ravindran, V.;Ravindran, G.;Pittolo, P.H.;Bryden, W.L.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.394-402
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    • 2003
  • Individual and combined supplementation of phosphorus-adequate, wheat-based broiler diets with exogenous phytase and xylanase was evaluated in three experiments. The effects of the enzyme combination in lysine-eficient diets containing wheat and sorghum were more pronounced than those of the individual feed enzymes. The inclusion of phytase plus xylanase improved (p<0.05) weight gains (7.3%) and feed efficiency (7.0%) of broilers (7-28 days post-hatch) and apparent metabolisable energy (AME) by 0.76 MJ/kg DM. Phytase plus xylanase increased (p<0.05) the overall, apparent ileal digestibility of amino acids by 4.5% (0.781 to 0.816); this was greater than the responses to either phytase (3.6%; 0.781 to 0.809) or xylanase (0.7%; 0.781 to 0.784). Absolute increases in amino acid digestibility with the combination exceeded the sum of the individual increases generated by phytase and xylanase for alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, threonine, tyrosine and valine. These synergistic responses may have resulted from phytase and xylanase having complementary modes of action for enhancing amino acid digestibilities and/or facilitating substrate access. The two remaining experiments were almost identical except wheat used in Experiment 2 had a higher phytate concentration and a lower estimated AME content than wheat used in Experiment 3. Individually, phytase and xylanase were generally more effective in Experiment 2, which probably reflects the higher dietary substrate levels present. Phytase plus xylanase increased (p<0.05) gains (15.4%) and feed efficiency (7.0%) of broiler chicks from 4-24 days post-hatch in Experiment 2; whereas, in Experiment 3, the combination increased (p<0.05) growth to a lesser extent (5.6%) and had no effect on feed efficiency. This difference in performance responses appeared to be 'rotein driven'as the combination increased (p<0.05) nitrogen retention in Experiment 2 but not in Experiment 3; whereas phytase plus xylanase significantly increased AME in both experiments. In Experiments 2 and 3 the combined inclusion levels of phytase and xylanase were lower that the individual additions, which demonstrates the benefits of simultaneously including phytase and xylanase in wheat-based poultry diets.

Plasma Nuclear Factor Kappa B and Serum Peroxiredoxin 3 in Early Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

  • Ismail, Saber;Mayah, Wael;Battia, Hassan El;Gaballah, Hanaa;Jiman-Fatani, Asif;Hamouda, Hala;Afifi, Mohamed A.;Elmashad, Nehal;Saadany, Sherif El
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.1657-1663
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    • 2015
  • Background: Early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most important step in successful treatment. However, it is usually rare due to the lack of a highly sensitive specific biomarker so that the HCC is usually fatal within few months after diagnosis. The aim of this work was to study the role of plasma nuclear factor kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$) and serum peroxiredoxin 3 (PRDX3) as diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of HCC in a high-risk population. Materials and Methods: Plasma nuclear factor kappa B level (NF-${\kappa}B$) and serum peroxiredoxin 3 (PRDX3) levels were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in addition to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in 72 cirrhotic patients, 64 patients with HCC and 29 healthy controls. Results: NF-${\kappa}B$ and PRDX3 were significantly elevated in the HCC group in relation to the others. Higher area under curve (AUC) of 0.854 (for PRDX3) and 0.825 (for NF-${\kappa}B$) with sensitivity of 86.3% and 84.4% and specificity of 75.8% and 75.4% respectively, were found compared to AUC of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (0.65) with sensitivity of 72.4% and specificity of 64.3%. Conclusions: NF-${\kappa}B$ and PRDX3 may serve as early and sensitive biomarkers for early detection of HCC facilitating improved management. The role of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$) as a target for treatment of liver fibrosis and HCC must be widely evaluated.

National Strategic Planning For Facilitating the Development of New Drugs in the Korea Food and Drug Administration (국내 신약개발 촉진을 위한 식약청의 국가연구개발 사업 전략수립)

  • Kim, Jong-Wook;Kwon, Kwang-Il;Yoo, Kwang-Soo;Park, So-Hyun;Lim, Chul-Joo;Choi, Don-Woong
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.539-555
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    • 2008
  • It is well understood that developing new drugs is one of the highest value-added businesses in a country; however, the current governments' spending in pharmaceutical research and development(R&D) is minimal in Korea. This paper suggests that different governmental bodies should take in charge of different stages of the R&D process in order to maximize the use of limited government research funding. First, during the initial phase of the drug development, including clinical trials, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is the most appropriate governmental organization to support the research. For later procedures such as supporting the industries for exporting developed drugs, legislative approvals, and building infrastructure for future clinical trials should be supported by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy and the Ministry of Health and Welfare along with the Korea Food and Drug Administration(KFDA). The KFDA, which is the main governmental agency approving newly developed drugs in the market, will need to take a crucial responsibility in the initial phase of the pharmaceutical R&D by guiding the industries with timely and proper information. As a first step, it is recommended to set up and operate a center for supporting new drugs, so that the industries can facilitate the development of marketable drugs which meet customers' needs. Later, in order to expedite the process of exporting and getting approvals of the newly developed drugs from foreign countries, it is necessary to develop new approval system, which includes introduction of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), mandatory validation system, and education program for supporting expertise. Lastly, the KFDA needs to take an active role in developing Korean pharmaceutical industries by communicating with other foreign governments with regards to the globalization of the Korean pharmaceutical industries. For example, as a follow up after the Free Trade Agreement(FTA), active discussion on GLP of Mutual Recognition Agreement(MRA) with the United States of America, should be seriously considered.

A Study on the Cash Policies of Retail Firms (유통 상장기업의 현금정책에 관한 연구)

  • Son, Sam-Ho
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.69-77
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    • 2015
  • Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine whether the cash policies of retail firms listed on Korean stock markets are consistent with the evidence provided in the study of Almeida et al. (2004). Liquidity management is an important issue for financially constrained firms relative to financially unconstrained firms. Because there are few sources of external funding, the optimal liquidity policies of financially constrained firms should reflect their own earnings or cash inflows to create opportunities for current and future real investments. According to this simple idea, we estimate the sensitivity of cash to cash flows and simply check whether the estimated sensitivity to cash flows of the cash retained by constrained retail firms is greater than that of the cash retained by unconstrained retail firms. Through this work, we aim to explain why the cash policies of the retail firms listed on the Korean stock markets differ from those of listed manufacturing enterprises. Research design, data, and methodology - To explain a firm's cash holdings, we use only three explanatory variables: earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), Tobin's q, and size. All the variables are defined as the value of the numerator divided by aggregate assets. Thanks to this definition, it is possible to treat all the sample firms as a single large firm. The sample financial data for this study are collected from the retail enterprises listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 1991 to 2013. We can obtain these data from WISEfn, the financial information company. This study's methodology has its origin in Keynes's simple idea of precautionary liquidity demand: When a firm faces financial constraints, cash savings from earnings or cash inflows become important from the corporate finance perspective. Following this simple idea, Almeida et al. (2004) developed their theoretical model and found empirical evidence that the sensitivity of cash to cash flows varies systematically according to different types of financing frictions. To find more empirical evidence for this idea, we examined the cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by Korean retail firms. Results - Through several robustness tests, we empirically showed that financially constrained Korean retail firms display significant positive propensity to save cash from earnings before interest and taxes, while the estimated cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by unconstrained retail firms is not significant. Despite the relatively low earnings of retail firms, their sensitivity is three times greater than that of manufacturing enterprises. This implies that Korean retail firms have greater intentions of facilitating future investments rather than current investments. Conclusions - The characteristics of the cash policies of Korean retail firms differ from those of manufacturing firms. This contrast may be attributable to industry-oriented policy planning, regulations, and institutional differences. However, the industrial policymakers should observe signals of the long-term growth options of retail firms based on their high propensity to save from their cash inflows.

Development a System to Manage the Code of Construction Specifications and Design Standards (국가건설기준 코드 관리시스템 구축)

  • Jung, In-Su
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.18 no.10
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    • pp.88-96
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    • 2017
  • The construction standards in Korea consist of design standards and specifications. They are provided by the national transportation electronic information center in file format, not in a DB, which may lead to their incomplete utilization and versatility, such as a lack of history management and reference functions. This also makes it difficult to cross-refer to standards and manage revision history. In this study, we developed a code management system for the national construction standards by analyzing domestic and overseas related systems, in order to pinpoint the problems in the current system and its development direction and, thus, to suggest a detailed plan for the design and implementation of a code management system. The developed system comprises four subsystems, namely a construction standards making system, construction standards service system, construction standards maintenance system and construction standards portal system. The results of this study are expected to improve the user's convenience by facilitating the revision, operation and history management of the complex and various construction standards, and to provide high-quality national construction standards by effectively supporting the revision and operation of the national construction standards with minimum duplication and conflicts.

The Effect of Cohesive Devices on Memory and Understanding of Scientific Text (응집장치가 과학텍스트의 기억과 이해에 미치는 효과)

  • 김세영;한광희;조숙환
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.1-13
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    • 2002
  • This Paper is concerned with the impact of linguistic markers of coherence, such as causal connectives. repetitions. and anchoring devices. on the comprehension of a scientific text in Korean. A scientific text on the process of lightning formation was selected. and two versions of the text were constructed by varying the strength of coherence. Eighty-two undergraduate students took Part in the experiment in which they were instructed to fill in the blanks in each text in a recall and a recognition task and to respond to a set of question in a comprehension test. The results of this experiment revealed a selective effect of the cohesive markers. It was found that the different linguistic signals seem to Play a facilitating role in varying degrees in accordance with the type of tasks involved Moreover an analysis of topic continuity from the beginning paragraphs through the last revealed that the text was better understood in the paragraphs containing the main topic better than those without it. This finding seems to indicate that the off-line processing of scientific text is not influenced solely by the local bottom-up processing alone The effect of topic continuity seems to suggest that a global. top-down processing effect has an important role to play. overriding the impact of cohesive devices.

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