• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 2022

The goal of this study is to understand better the relationship between hospital bed occupancy rate and cost rigidity as a proxy for the degree of hospital bed congestion, as well as the relationship between the risk of changes in hospital bed occupancy rate and congestion cost, targeting public hospitals. As public hospitals for analysis, we selected hospital projects from the Public Enterprises Survey Reports published by the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Finance, and obtained unbalanced panel data consisting of 1,505 hospitals and 15 years, totaling 12,595 hospitals and years. The analysis revealed that the risk of changes in the bed occupancy rate increases the degree of cost rigidity and leads to a decrease in the variable cost ratio; furthermore, an increase in the bed occupancy rate decreases the degree of cost rigidity and leads to an increase in the variable cost ratio. These findings suggest that although public hospitals are taking managerial actions to avoid congestion costs, congestion costs resulting from higher bed occupancy rates have not been eliminated. The regression analysis results show that even if congestion costs arise as the occupancy rate increases, they are covered by the increase in revenue associated with the increase in the occupancy rate.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2006

Objectives: Obesity is one of risk factors for psychological and social adjustment problems (depression, low self esteem, low school function etc). Quality of life(QOL) is comprehensive and multidimensional construct including physical, emotional, social and school functioning. Some authors reported that child and adolescent obesity is associated with impaired QOL. This study was to examine the association between QOL and body mass index (BMI) in middle school students. Methods : Cross sectional analysis of 471 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 14 years ($mean{\pm}SD,\;13.4{\pm}0.6$), who attended one of middle schools in Seoul, Korea. Participants' QOL were scored by using Korean version of pediatric QOL inventory generic score scale ($PedsQL^{TM}$ 4.0). Participants had a $mean{\pm}SD\;BMI\;of\;21.3{\pm}4.0$. Self reports and parent proxy reports using $PedsQL^{TM}$ 4.0 were administered to measure participant's QOL. Participants were divided into four groups by BMI (Male: obesity group >26.5, at risk group 23.2-26.5, normal weight group 15.8-23.1, underweight group <15.8, Female : obesity group >25.2, at risk group 22.9-25.2, normal weight group 16.0-22.8, underweight group <16.0). Results : Compared with other groups, obese adolescents reported significantly(p<0.01) love. QOL in all domains. Obese adolescents were more likely to have impaired QOL than normal weight adolescents (Odds Ratio, 8.3, 95% confidence interval, 4.0-16.7). Conclusion : Obese adolescents have lower QOL than normal weight adolescents. Psychiatrist, parents, and teachers need to be informed of the risk fur impaired QOL in obese adolescents to target interventions that could enhance health outcomes.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.221-246
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• 2012

The study examines the effects that non-audit service and firm's ownership structure might have on the value relevance directly or indirectly. This investigation is based on prior research which suggests that the audit firms' non-audit services is likely to adversely affect investors' perceptions of the credibility of financial reporting and that corporate governance are likely to mitigate the adverse this kind of non-audit services effects. The sample consists of non-banking firms listed on the Korea Exchange that reported annual financial statements over the period from 2004 to 2008. In the setting, stock returns as proxy for capital market response, auditor quality(measured as the discretionary accruals) is endogenously determined. This study employs a structural equation model to take into account the endogenous variables under study. The analysis influences through the path analysis that ownership structure suppress the market response through audit quality and also the non-audit service have influence on the market response through audit quality. The results of this study contribute to the literature in the following ways. First, this provides direct evidence that there is a negative association between audit firms' client importance and the value relevance. Second, the findings that the negative association is attenuated for audit quality support the findings of prior studies which present that corporate governance provide higher credibility of financial reports.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-81
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper is to seek ways to improve the competitiveness of Korea's fashion industry by utilizing the source of competitiveness of Japan's fashion industry, which represents the world's leading countries in terms of fashion, so that Korea can better enter the global fashion market. The study shall first compare the competitiveness of the Japanese and Korean fashion industries by utilizing the generalized double diamond model; second, provide an understanding of what the Japanese fashion industry can offer to Korean fashion industry and companies - that is, understand what the Japanese fashion industry's competitive edge is; and third, study the kind of global competitiveness that Korea's fashion industry must achieve. To adopt a generalized double diamond model to compare the competitiveness of the Korean and Japanese fashion industries, we selected 31 sub-variables to act as determinants of the model. That is, we extracted 31sub-variables by doing research of literature to analyze national competitiveness of the fashion industries. To measure these 31 sub-variables, secondary data was gathered. We collected data related to each sub-variable from various sources of Korea and Japan. And to calculate the competitiveness index, we took three steps with reference to previous studies. We found that status of the fashion industry of the two countries as it stands. That is, Japan is an advanced country of which fashion industry is domestic market-oriented while Korea is a small open economy that mainly focuses on the foreign market. Out of 31 proxy variables, Korea's fashion industry shows higher measurements relating to production and export than Japan, but Japan's fashion industry reports higher measurements than Korea in the fields of R&D, design and brand power, the rate of value added, the efficiency of companies and globalization. In order for Korea's fashion industry to achieve competitiveness in the global market, it should pursue the following development direction. First, it is very difficult for Korea to follow the footsteps of the U.S. and Japanese fashion industries that are able to take advantage of economies of scale, because Korea is smaller than those countries. Therefore, in the case of small economies such as Singapore, strengthening of international activities will practically improve domestic determinants that Korea should improve its domestic diamond by enhancing the current competitiveness of its international diamond. In other words, Korea needs to further endeavor to develop and expand global resources and markets as well as improve its competitiveness in terms of R&D, design and brand power, the rate of value-added, and the efficiency of companies. As the Korean fashion industry shows relatively advanced level of information technology and the fashion education system, it has considerable potential to grow. Korea is expected to have a huge growth potential since it has relatively higher level of information technology, fashion education system and activities than those of Japan in both the domestic diamond and international diamond. In particular, a better environment is laid out before Korea to gain competitiveness in the fashion industry due to the recently growing influence of the Korean Wave that Korea is expected to grow as a leader in the Asian market as well as in the global market.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.64-79
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• 2017

We have reported the petrographic properties on the soda straw primarily based on the field measurements and discussed the causes of their traits. 156 soda straws in district B of the Baeg-nyong Cave nominated with the natural monument No. 260 have been investigated to estimate physical, sedimentological and textural characteristics. The soda straws have an average length of 3.05 cm with a standard deviation of 1.7 cm and a mean diameter of 6.0 mm. This result shows that the average diameter of the soda straws measured in this study is thicker than previous reports by 20%. Although the drip rates of cave water from 85.3% of all the soda straws are exceedingly lower than 1 drop per 10 minutes, almost all soda straws have a dripping water. We firstly report growth lamina in the Korean soda straw from 85.3% of all samples, and this textural dominance indicates that the growth lamina are one of the common features of the soda straws at least in the study area. Secondary precipitations inside the soda straw were identified from 68.6%. Notably, the strong inverse correlation between growth lamina and secondary precipitates was represented from 70.5% of all samples. This finding might be explained by the seasonality of cave drip water supplied into the soda straws or the increased opacity caused by secondary precipitates. Based on petrograhic characteristics, the soda straws in the study area can be classified into normal and erratic types. Hopefully our results on the soda straws in Baeg-nyong Cave would provide a basis for the descriptions of soda straws from other caves and paleoclimatic applications.