• Title/Summary/Keyword: Information Providing

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Korean Clinical Imaging Guidelines for the Appropriate Use of Chest MRI (한국형 흉부 MRI 영상 진단 정당성 권고안)

  • Jiyoung Song;Bo Da Nam;Soon Ho Yoon;Jin Young Yoo;Yeon Joo Jeong;Chang Dong Yeo;Seong Yong Lim;Sung Yong Lee;Hyun Koo Kim;Byoung Hyuck Kim;Kwang Nam Jin;Hwan Seok Yong
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.82 no.3
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    • pp.562-574
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    • 2021
  • MRI has the advantages of having excellent soft-tissue contrast and providing functional information without any harmful ionizing radiation. Although previous technical limitations restricted the use of chest MRI, recent technological advances and expansion of insurance coverage are increasing the demand for chest MRI. Recognizing the need for guidelines on appropriate use of chest MRI in Korean clinical settings, the Korean Society of Radiology has composed a development committee, working committee, and advisory committee to develop Korean chest MRI justification guidelines. Five key questions were selected and recommendations have been made with the evidence-based clinical imaging guideline adaptation methodology. Recommendations are as follows. Chest MRI can be considered in the following circumstances: for patients with incidentally found anterior mediastinal masses to exclude non-neoplastic conditions, for pneumoconiosis patients with lung masses to differentiate progressive massive fibrosis from lung cancer, and when invasion of the chest wall, vertebrae, diaphragm, or major vessels by malignant pleural mesothelioma or non-small cell lung cancer is suspected. Chest MRI without contrast enhancement or with minimal dose low-risk contrast media can be considered for pregnant women with suspected pulmonary embolism. Lastly, chest MRI is recommended for patients with pancoast tumors planned for radical surgery.

Use of ChatGPT in college mathematics education (대학수학교육에서의 챗GPT 활용과 사례)

  • Sang-Gu Lee;Doyoung Park;Jae Yoon Lee;Dong Sun Lim;Jae Hwa Lee
    • The Mathematical Education
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    • v.63 no.2
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    • pp.123-138
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    • 2024
  • This study described the utilization of ChatGPT in teaching and students' learning processes for the course "Introductory Mathematics for Artificial Intelligence (Math4AI)" at 'S' University. We developed a customized ChatGPT and presented a learning model in which students supplement their knowledge of the topic at hand by utilizing this model. More specifically, first, students learn the concepts and questions of the course textbook by themselves. Then, for any question they are unsure of, students may submit any questions (keywords or open problem numbers from the textbook) to our own ChatGPT at https://math4ai.solgitmath.com/ to get help. Notably, we optimized ChatGPT and minimized inaccurate information by fully utilizing various types of data related to the subject, such as textbooks, labs, discussion records, and codes at http://matrix.skku.ac.kr/Math4AI-ChatGPT/. In this model, when students have questions while studying the textbook by themselves, they can ask mathematical concepts, keywords, theorems, examples, and problems in natural language through the ChatGPT interface. Our customized ChatGPT then provides the relevant terms, concepts, and sample answers based on previous students' discussions and/or samples of Python or R code that have been used in the discussion. Furthermore, by providing students with real-time, optimized advice based on their level, we can provide personalized education not only for the Math4AI course, but also for any other courses in college math education. The present study, which incorporates our ChatGPT model into the teaching and learning process in the course, shows promising applicability of AI technology to other college math courses (for instance, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, engineering mathematics, and basic statistics) and in K-12 math education as well as the Lifespan Learning and Continuing Education.

A Study of Students' Knowledge Level of Dental Health Care (초중등학생의 구강보건관리에 대한 인식도 조사)

  • Kim, Kyo-Woong;Nam, Chul-Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.295-317
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    • 2000
  • This study was conducted to prevent oral disease of primary school, middle school, and high school students, providing basic data for the development of oral health education programs. Data were collected from 898 primary school, middle school, and high school students from March 2, 1999 to May 31, 1999. The results of this study are summarized as follows; 1) The subjects of this study were primary school students(32.6%), middle school students(33.0%), and high school students(34.4%). Boy students were slightly more prevalent than girl students. That is, primary school boys were 56.3%, middle school boys were 53.2%, and high school boys were 52.6%. 2) According to the self-judgement of oral health, primary school students were better than middle/high school students and boy students were better than girl students, 63.5% of primary school students and 57.8% of middle/high school students brushed their teeth once or twice a day. 3) 76.3% of middle/high school students and 63.5% of primary school students experienced dental caries. Girl students were higher than boy students in experiencing dental caries, 35.9% of primary school students and 27.6% of middle/high school students experienced periodontal disease. 4) 22.9% of primary school students and 7.9% of middle/high school students received oral examinations periodically. Girl students showed a higher rate than boy students in primary school, while boy students showed a higher rate than girl students in middle/high school. 5) Explaining to the reasons for reluctant visits to dental hospitals and clinics, 'no time to go' was highest(22.9% of primary school students; 27.4% of middle/high school students) and the rate of 'feeling scared' was second highest. Middle/high school students were more reluctant to visit dental hospitals and clinics than primary school students. In case of problematic symptoms in the mouth, the rate of 'feeling painful or cold in teeth when eating cold or hot foods' was highest, 71.3% of primary school students was concerned about oral health, while 68.6% of middle/high school students was concerned about it. 6) In gathering to the sources of information on oral health, the rate of medical institutions was highest(30.0%) in primary school students, while the rate of family members or persons around them was highest in middle/high school students. 7) 54.9% of primary school students received oral health education, while 13.1% of middle/high school students received it. Only 4.7% of middle school and high school girls received it. In relation to dental health education, the rate of 'possibility of prevention of oral caries or disease of the gum' was highest. 79.5% of primary school students and 80.3% of middle school students answered that they would attend oral health education. 8) 60.4% of primary school students and 60.2% of middle/high school students think the purpose of oral health is to prevent dental caries and disease of the gums. In preventing dental caries, 78.8% of primary school students and 71.8% of middle school students thought that periodical oral examination was effective, 88.4% of primary school students and 88.8% of middle/high school thought that brushing one's teeth was effective and 64.1% of primary school students and 50.7% of middle school students thought that the use of toothpaste containing fluoride was effective. In preventing periodontal disease, 91.1% of primary school students and 90.2% of middle/high school students thought that brushing one's teeth was effective, while 72.4% of primary school students and 70.3% of middle/high school students thought that teeth cleaning was effective. 9) 16.0% of middle school students and 12.7% of high school students thought that their oral health condition was healthy. According to individual experiences in dental treatment, the rate of experience of middle school students was higher than that of high school students, 12.7% of middle school students received oral examinations periodically, while only 3.3% of high school students did so. 10) In cases of 'having no problematic symptoms in the mouth' and 'concerns about oral health', the rate of middle school students was higher than that of high school students. In gathering obtaining information on oral health, the rate of obtaining it through broadcast media including TV, Radio, etc. was highest in middle school students, while the rate of obtaining it through family members or persons around them was highest in high school students. 11) 81.7% of middle school students have not received oral health education. In case of girl students, 97.3% have not received it in high school students. 85.6% of middle school students and 151.2% of high school students think that oral health education is necessary. 12) According to the knowledge level of oral health, the point of high school students($26.33{\pm}2.33$) was similar to the point of high school students($26.23{\pm}2.30$). It appeared that the point of primary school students was highest($26.35{\pm}2.50$) The more concerned about oral health the students were the higher the knowledge level of oral health was. In conclusion, the middle/high school students' knowledge level of oral health was lower than primary school students. The rate of middle/high School students' experience in oral health education was too low. Therefore, it is necessary to intensify oral health education for middle/high school students. Especially, the necessity of oral health education to girl students is strongly recommended. Developing an oral health education program for primary school, middle school, and high school students, related public authority and organizations, teachers; and dentists must actively make efforts together in order to maintain healthy teeth through having students prevent dental caries and periodontal disease.

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Interpreting Bounded Rationality in Business and Industrial Marketing Contexts: Executive Training Case Studies (집행관배훈안례연구(阐述工商业背景下的有限合理性):집행관배훈안례연구(执行官培训案例研究))

  • Woodside, Arch G.;Lai, Wen-Hsiang;Kim, Kyung-Hoon;Jung, Deuk-Keyo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.49-61
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    • 2009
  • This article provides training exercises for executives into interpreting subroutine maps of executives' thinking in processing business and industrial marketing problems and opportunities. This study builds on premises that Schank proposes about learning and teaching including (1) learning occurs by experiencing and the best instruction offers learners opportunities to distill their knowledge and skills from interactive stories in the form of goal.based scenarios, team projects, and understanding stories from experts. Also, (2) telling does not lead to learning because learning requires action-training environments should emphasize active engagement with stories, cases, and projects. Each training case study includes executive exposure to decision system analysis (DSA). The training case requires the executive to write a "Briefing Report" of a DSA map. Instructions to the executive trainee in writing the briefing report include coverage in the briefing report of (1) details of the essence of the DSA map and (2) a statement of warnings and opportunities that the executive map reader interprets within the DSA map. The length maximum for a briefing report is 500 words-an arbitrary rule that works well in executive training programs. Following this introduction, section two of the article briefly summarizes relevant literature on how humans think within contexts in response to problems and opportunities. Section three illustrates the creation and interpreting of DSA maps using a training exercise in pricing a chemical product to different OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers. Section four presents a training exercise in pricing decisions by a petroleum manufacturing firm. Section five presents a training exercise in marketing strategies by an office furniture distributer along with buying strategies by business customers. Each of the three training exercises is based on research into information processing and decision making of executives operating in marketing contexts. Section six concludes the article with suggestions for use of this training case and for developing additional training cases for honing executives' decision-making skills. Todd and Gigerenzer propose that humans use simple heuristics because they enable adaptive behavior by exploiting the structure of information in natural decision environments. "Simplicity is a virtue, rather than a curse". Bounded rationality theorists emphasize the centrality of Simon's proposition, "Human rational behavior is shaped by a scissors whose blades are the structure of the task environments and the computational capabilities of the actor". Gigerenzer's view is relevant to Simon's environmental blade and to the environmental structures in the three cases in this article, "The term environment, here, does not refer to a description of the total physical and biological environment, but only to that part important to an organism, given its needs and goals." The present article directs attention to research that combines reports on the structure of task environments with the use of adaptive toolbox heuristics of actors. The DSA mapping approach here concerns the match between strategy and an environment-the development and understanding of ecological rationality theory. Aspiration adaptation theory is central to this approach. Aspiration adaptation theory models decision making as a multi-goal problem without aggregation of the goals into a complete preference order over all decision alternatives. The three case studies in this article permit the learner to apply propositions in aspiration level rules in reaching a decision. Aspiration adaptation takes the form of a sequence of adjustment steps. An adjustment step shifts the current aspiration level to a neighboring point on an aspiration grid by a change in only one goal variable. An upward adjustment step is an increase and a downward adjustment step is a decrease of a goal variable. Creating and using aspiration adaptation levels is integral to bounded rationality theory. The present article increases understanding and expertise of both aspiration adaptation and bounded rationality theories by providing learner experiences and practice in using propositions in both theories. Practice in ranking CTSs and writing TOP gists from DSA maps serves to clarify and deepen Selten's view, "Clearly, aspiration adaptation must enter the picture as an integrated part of the search for a solution." The body of "direct research" by Mintzberg, Gladwin's ethnographic decision tree modeling, and Huff's work on mapping strategic thought are suggestions on where to look for research that considers both the structure of the environment and the computational capabilities of the actors making decisions in these environments. Such research on bounded rationality permits both further development of theory in how and why decisions are made in real life and the development of learning exercises in the use of heuristics occurring in natural environments. The exercises in the present article encourage learning skills and principles of using fast and frugal heuristics in contexts of their intended use. The exercises respond to Schank's wisdom, "In a deep sense, education isn't about knowledge or getting students to know what has happened. It is about getting them to feel what has happened. This is not easy to do. Education, as it is in schools today, is emotionless. This is a huge problem." The three cases and accompanying set of exercise questions adhere to Schank's view, "Processes are best taught by actually engaging in them, which can often mean, for mental processing, active discussion."

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Recognition and Attitude to Implement at ion of Service Area Assigned System of Public Health Programs among the Health Officer (공공보건사업의 지역담당제 실시에 관한 보건기관 근무 공무원의 인식과 태도)

  • Kim, Mi-Soon;Lee, Moo-Sik;Kim, Nam-Song
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.15-41
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    • 2001
  • Since medical clients and the community they live in are expected to be center of future public health and medical care system, new service programs must be developed with patients focused on in line with widening public access of information and social participation. Patients- focused service shall mean the area- oriented provision of public health service. In this study, health officers working at public health centers, public health sub- centers and medical offices in Jeonbuk- do area were taken for population in order to investigate their attitudes toward and knowledge about the service area assigning system under the public health programs. Findings from the survey to 260 health officers, divided by general category, are as follows : Government officers at public health organizations appeared to have high grade of understanding to the service area assigning system and also great appreciation for the necessity of it. Regarding the timing for the system to be introduced, they support the gradual implementation and, as for the type of service to be provided, they preferred home nursing and treatment of chronic diseases. Highly positive responses were centered on the health classes under the health promotion projects, and as far as health projects for the old are concerned, services for home nursing, for the disabled and for home- alone people are favored most. On the other hand, budgeting, manpower and reorganization are rated as prerequisite to establishment of the service area assigning system. From the viewpoint of system side, the improvement of working conditions is rendered as most urgent, while the information system for establishing the service area assigning system is conceived far from satisfactory. Proper assignment of specialists was noted as mostly important to establish the delivery system for medical service through the service area assigning system by team. As merits of the service area assigning system, it is pointed out that, through the system, health clients can better be managed and the nursing quality will be improved thank to the enhanced specialization. It is also perceived that the district health service is not well prepared to respond to the increased and diversified needs of community people and, furthermore, service programs of health centers have not been fully developed. The most serious problem standing in the way to expansion of health projects is, it is noted, uniformity (formality) of the project. Based on the results of the survey which suggest time has ripen to introduce the service area assigning system, following strategies are proposed to anchor down the system as soon as possible: First, we should introduce the system gradually, starting from the area selected, and in consideration of area specialities, refraining from the hitherto stereotyped way of providing health service. Second, we should seek to properly assign the specialists and improve the working conditions of the assigned officers by securing sufficient budget, since it is a most urgent step to lay foundation for the service area assigning system. Third, best service program should be developed to meet the satisfaction of community people by responding to their needs and solidifying the management of medical clients. Fourth, wide scope of study should further be conducted in order to help this system take roots in the central living of community residents since pilot project on the experimental base attended by specialists only can not win popularity among the masses.

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Professional Speciality of Communication Administration and, Occupational Group and Series Classes of Position in National Public Official Law -for Efficiency of Telecommunication Management- (통신행정의 전문성과 공무원법상 직군렬 - 전기통신의 관리들 중심으로-)

  • 조정현
    • The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.26-27
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    • 1978
  • It can be expected that intelligence and knowledge will be the core of the post-industrial society in a near future. Accordingly, the age of intelligence shall be accelerated extensively to find ourselves in an age of 'Communication' service enterprise. The communication actions will increase its efficiency and multiply its utility, indebted to its scientic principles and legal idea. The two basic elements of communication action, that is, communication station and communication men are considered to perform their function when they are properly supported and managed by the government administration. Since the communication action itself is composed of various factors, the elements such as communication stations and officials must be cultivated and managed by specialist or experts with continuous and extensive study practices concerned. With the above mind, this study reviewed our public service officials law with a view to improve it by providing some suggestions for communication experts and researchers to find suitable positions in the framework of government administration. In this study, I would like to suggest 'Occupational Group of Communication' that is consisted of a series of comm, management positions and research positions in parallel to the existing series of comm, technical position. The communication specialist or expert is required to be qualified with necessary scientific knowledge and techniques of communication, as well as prerequisites as government service officials. Communication experts must succeed in the first hand to obtain government licence concerned in with the government law and regulation, and international custom before they can be appointed to the official positions. This system of licence-prior-to-appointment is principally applied in the communication management position. And communication research positions are for those who shall engage themselves to the work of study and research in the field of both management and technical nature. It is hopefully expected that efficient and extensive management of communication activities, as well as scientific and continuous study over than communication enterprise will be upgraded at national dimensions.

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Change Acceptable In-Depth Searching in LOD Cloud for Efficient Knowledge Expansion (효과적인 지식확장을 위한 LOD 클라우드에서의 변화수용적 심층검색)

  • Kim, Kwangmin;Sohn, Yonglak
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.171-193
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    • 2018
  • LOD(Linked Open Data) cloud is a practical implementation of semantic web. We suggested a new method that provides identity links conveniently in LOD cloud. It also allows changes in LOD to be reflected to searching results without any omissions. LOD provides detail descriptions of entities to public in RDF triple form. RDF triple is composed of subject, predicates, and objects and presents detail description for an entity. Links in LOD cloud, named identity links, are realized by asserting entities of different RDF triples to be identical. Currently, the identity link is provided with creating a link triple explicitly in which associates its subject and object with source and target entities. Link triples are appended to LOD. With identity links, a knowledge achieves from an LOD can be expanded with different knowledge from different LODs. The goal of LOD cloud is providing opportunity of knowledge expansion to users. Appending link triples to LOD, however, has serious difficulties in discovering identity links between entities one by one notwithstanding the enormous scale of LOD. Newly added entities cannot be reflected to searching results until identity links heading for them are serialized and published to LOD cloud. Instead of creating enormous identity links, we propose LOD to prepare its own link policy. The link policy specifies a set of target LODs to link and constraints necessary to discover identity links to entities on target LODs. On searching, it becomes possible to access newly added entities and reflect them to searching results without any omissions by referencing the link policies. Link policy specifies a set of predicate pairs for discovering identity between associated entities in source and target LODs. For the link policy specification, we have suggested a set of vocabularies that conform to RDFS and OWL. Identity between entities is evaluated in accordance with a similarity of the source and the target entities' objects which have been associated with the predicates' pair in the link policy. We implemented a system "Change Acceptable In-Depth Searching System(CAIDS)". With CAIDS, user's searching request starts from depth_0 LOD, i.e. surface searching. Referencing the link policies of LODs, CAIDS proceeds in-depth searching, next LODs of next depths. To supplement identity links derived from the link policies, CAIDS uses explicit link triples as well. Following the identity links, CAIDS's in-depth searching progresses. Content of an entity obtained from depth_0 LOD expands with the contents of entities of other LODs which have been discovered to be identical to depth_0 LOD entity. Expanding content of depth_0 LOD entity without user's cognition of such other LODs is the implementation of knowledge expansion. It is the goal of LOD cloud. The more identity links in LOD cloud, the wider content expansions in LOD cloud. We have suggested a new way to create identity links abundantly and supply them to LOD cloud. Experiments on CAIDS performed against DBpedia LODs of Korea, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. They present that CAIDS provides appropriate expansion ratio and inclusion ratio as long as degree of similarity between source and target objects is 0.8 ~ 0.9. Expansion ratio, for each depth, depicts the ratio of the entities discovered at the depth to the entities of depth_0 LOD. For each depth, inclusion ratio illustrates the ratio of the entities discovered only with explicit links to the entities discovered only with link policies. In cases of similarity degrees with under 0.8, expansion becomes excessive and thus contents become distorted. Similarity degree of 0.8 ~ 0.9 provides appropriate amount of RDF triples searched as well. Experiments have evaluated confidence degree of contents which have been expanded in accordance with in-depth searching. Confidence degree of content is directly coupled with identity ratio of an entity, which means the degree of identity to the entity of depth_0 LOD. Identity ratio of an entity is obtained by multiplying source LOD's confidence and source entity's identity ratio. By tracing the identity links in advance, LOD's confidence is evaluated in accordance with the amount of identity links incoming to the entities in the LOD. While evaluating the identity ratio, concept of identity agreement, which means that multiple identity links head to a common entity, has been considered. With the identity agreement concept, experimental results present that identity ratio decreases as depth deepens, but rebounds as the depth deepens more. For each entity, as the number of identity links increases, identity ratio rebounds early and reaches at 1 finally. We found out that more than 8 identity links for each entity would lead users to give their confidence to the contents expanded. Link policy based in-depth searching method, we proposed, is expected to contribute to abundant identity links provisions to LOD cloud.

Different Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes of Elementary, Middle, and High School Students regarding Irradiated Food, Nuclear Power Generation, and Medical Radiation (초, 중, 고등학생의 방사선조사식품, 원자력발전, 의료방사선에 대한 인식, 지식, 태도 차이)

  • Han, Eun Ok;Kim, Jae Rok;Choi, Yoon Seok
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.39 no.2
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    • pp.118-126
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    • 2014
  • A survey was conducted on perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes of elementary, middle, and high school students, who will lead public opinion in the future, regarding irradiated food, nuclear power generation, and medical radiation. These topics urgently require general social acceptability among various fields in which radiation is used. Educational methods to enhance social acceptability were partially discovered. First, it is necessary to implement different strategies when designing courses for female and male students. Male students have higher levels of objective knowledge (p<0.039) of irradiated food, necessity (p<0.001) and objective knowledge (p<0.001) of nuclear power generation, approval of building a nuclear power plant in the nation (p<0.001), necessity (p<0.001) and objective knowledge (p<0.001) of medical radiation, and attitudes regarding using medical radiation (p<0.007, p<0.001). Second, the educational effect of explanations to help increase national understanding of the necessity and safety of nuclear power generation will increase if information on the necessity and safety of medical radiation is provided as well. Both male and female students perceived that medical radiation is the most necessary (p<0.001), medical radiation is the safest (p<0.001), and nuclear power generation is the least safe (p<0.013). Moreover, the correlation between medical radiation and nuclear power generation was the highest. Third, there is a need for different lectures between classes, since the patterns of perception vary according to the field of radiation use among elementary, middle, and high school students. Elementary school students had high interest in education on nuclear power generation (p<0.005), perceived that irradiated food is safe (p<0.001), and had the most positive attitude toward consuming irradiated food (p<0.001). Middle school students had high interest in education on nuclear power generation (p<0.018), perceived that nuclear power generation (p<0.001) and medical radiation (p<0.002) are safe, and had the most positive attitude toward using radiation for treatment (p<0.001). High school students had the highest level of objective knowledge on nuclear power generation (p<0.001) and medical radiation (p<0.001), and perceived that medical radiation is the most necessary (p<0.017); however, they perceived that nuclear power generation is the least safe (p<0.001). Attitudes toward irradiated food intake (p<0.001) and approving construction of a nuclear power plant in their neighborhood (p<0.001) were both low. Fourth, it is necessary to provide educational programs to change perceptions and improve attitudes rather than providing education focused on objective knowledge. There was no correlation between objective knowledge and necessity of irradiated food, objective knowledge and safety and interest in education on nuclear power generation, and objective knowledge and interest in education and information acquirement regarding medical radiation. In particular, high school students had the highest level of objective knowledge and yet had the least positive attitudes toward approving construction of nuclear power plants in their neighborhood and intake of irradiated food. Therefore, to increase the social acceptability of using nuclear energy and radiation in Korea, it is desirable to provide strategic educational programs to improve perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes regarding the necessity and safety of their use.

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

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

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Clinical Applications and Efficacy of Korean Ginseng (고려인삼의 주요 효능과 그 임상적 응용)

  • Nam, Ki-Yeul
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.111-131
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    • 2002
  • Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) received a great deal of attention from the Orient and West as a tonic agent, health food and/or alternative herbal therapeutic agent. However, controversy with respect to scientific evidence on pharmacological effects especially, evaluation of clinical efficacy and the methodological approach still remains to be solved. Author reviewed those articles published since 1980 when pharmacodynamic studies on ginseng have intensively started. Special concern was paid on metabolic disorders including diabetes mellitus, circulatory disorders, malignant tumor, sexual dysfunction, and physical and mental performance to give clear information to those who are interested in pharmacological study of ginseng and to promote its clinical use. With respect to chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, malignant disorders, and sexual disorders, it seems that ginseng plays preventive and restorative role rather than therapeutics. Particularly, ginseng plays a significant role in ameliorating subjective symptoms and preventing quality of life from deteriorating by long term exposure of chemical therapeutic agents. Also it seems that the potency of ginseng is mild, therefore it could be more effective when used concomitantly with conventional therapy. Clinical studies on the tonic effect of ginseng on work performance demonstrated that physical and mental dysfunction induced by various stresses are improved by increasing adaptability of physical condition. However, the results obtained from clinical studies cannot be mentioned in the indication, which are variable upon the scientist who performed those studies. In this respect, standardized ginseng product and providing planning of the systematic clinical research in double-blind randomized controlled trials are needed to assess the real efficacy for proposing ginseng indication. Pharmacological mode of action of ginseng has not yet been fully elucidated. Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic researches reveal that the role of ginseng not seem to be confined to a given single organ. It has been known that ginseng plays a beneficial role in such general organs as central nervous, endocrine, metabolic, immune systems, which means ginseng improves general physical and mental conditons. Such multivalent effect of ginseng can be attributed to the main active component of ginseng,ginsenosides or non-saponin compounds which are also recently suggested to be another active ingredients. As is generally the similar case with other herbal medicines, effects of ginseng cannot be attributed as a given single compound or group of components. Diversified ingredients play synergistic or antagonistic role each other and act in harmonized manner. A few cases of adverse effect in clinical uses are reported, however, it is not observed when standardized ginseng products are used and recommended dose was administered. Unfavorable interaction with other drugs has also been suggested, which the information on the products and administered dosage are not available. However, efficacy, safety, interaction or contraindication with other medicines has to be more intensively investigated in order to promote clinical application of ginseng. For example, daily recommended doses per day are not agreement as 1-2g in the West and 3-6 g in the Orient. Duration of administration also seems variable according to the purpose. Two to three months are generally recommended to feel the benefit but time- and dose-dependent effects of ginseng still need to be solved from now on. Furthermore, the effect of ginsenosides transformed by the intestinal microflora, and differential effect associated with ginsenosides content and its composition also should be clinically evaluated in the future. In conclusion, the more wide-spread use of ginseng as a herbal medicine or nutraceutical supplement warrants the more rigorous investigations to assess its effacy and safety. In addition, a careful quality control of ginseng preparations should be done to ensure an acceptable standardization of commercial products.