• Title/Summary/Keyword: Relevant Factors

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Soil-to-Plant Transfer of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ Deposited during the Growing Season of Potato (감자의 재배기간 중 토양에 침적한 $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr,\;^{137}Cs$의 작물체로의 전이)

  • Choi, Yong-Ho;Lim, Kwang-Muk;Jun, In;Keum, Dong-Kwon
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.33 no.3
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    • pp.105-112
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    • 2008
  • To measure the soil-to-plant transfer factors ($TF_a,\;m^2\;kg^{-1}$-fresh) of radionuclides deposited during the growing season of potato, a radioactive solution containing $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ was applied to the soil surfaces in soil boxes 2 d before seeding and three different times during the plant growth. For the pre-seeding application (PSA), radionuclides were mixed with the topsoil (loamy sand and 5.2 in pH). The plant parts investigated were leaves, stems, tuber skin and tuber flesh. The $TF_a$ values of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ from the PSA were in the ranges of $1.9{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}1.5{\times}10^{-2}$, $1.8{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}7.5{\times}10^{-4}$, $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}1.6{\times}10^{-2}$, $1.5{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}3.9{\times}10^{-4}$ respectively, for different plant parts. The TFa values from the growing-time applications were on the whole a few times lower than those from the PSA. For $^{54}Mn,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$, the $TF_a$ values from the early- or middle-growth-stage application were higher than those from the late-growth-stage application, whereas the opposite was true for $^{60}Co$. Leaves and tuber flesh had the highest and lowest $TF_a$ values, respectively, in most cases. The total uptake from soil by the four plant parts was in the range of $0.05{\sim}3.16%$. In the third year following the PSA, the $TF_a$ values of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co$ and $^{137}Cs$ were $11{\sim}25%$, $21{\sim}25%$ and $38{\sim}67%$ of those in the first year, respectively, depending on the plant parts. The present results can be used for estimating the radiological impact of an acute radioactive deposition during the growing season of potato and for testing the validity of relevant food-chain models.

Evaluation of Ecosystem Service for Distribution of Korean fir using InVEST Model (InVEST모델을 이용한 생태계서비스의 가치 평가 - 구상나무 분포지를 대상으로 -)

  • Choi, Jiyoung;Lee, Sangdon
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.181-193
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    • 2018
  • The present study was conducted to analyze the quality of the habitats of Abies koreana WILS. by using the InVEST model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique and to evaluate the economic value by estimating the carbon fixation. Abies koreana WILS., an original biological species of South Korea, may be an essential element in establishing the national biological sovereignty in the future. The subjects of the present study were the national parks in Mt. Halla, Mt. Jiri, and Mt. Sobaek, which are the habitats of Abies koreana WILS. As suggested by previous studies as a limitation of the InVEST model, the utilization of the data from relevant international publications as the input data, due to the lack of the domestic input data, may decrease the accuracy of the modeling. Therefore, the AHP technique was applied for the input data. The modeling was performed with reference to the years of 1980, 1990, and 2000 for the scenario analysis. The result of the modeling showed that the habitat quality was changed most in the national park in Mt. Halla, as the habitat quality score was decreased from 0.96 in 1980 to 0.97 in 1990 and 0.94 in 2000. In the national part of Mt. Sobeak, the habitat quality was changed most in the sub-alpine zone, as the habitat quality score was decreased from 0.98 in 1980 and 0.98 in 1990 to 0.97 in 2000. The habitat quality was best conserved in the national part in Mt. Jiri, as the habitat quality score was 0.98 in 1980, 0.99 in 1990, and 0.99 in 2000. The estimated economic loss by the change of the habitat quality was 19,280,000 USD for Mt. Halla and 8,030,000 USD for Mt. Sobeak. In the present study, the habitat quality of the Abies koreana WILS, the original species of South Korea, was evaluated and the economic value of the ecological services provided by the habitats was estimated quantitatively. The result showed that the ecosystem service model may be used to qualitatively analyze the quality of a habitat located in a specific region and to estimate the economic value quantitatively. The objective evaluation of ecosystem services demonstrated in the present study may be applied to promote sustainable utilization of natural resources and conservation of the ecosystem by predicting the changes that may be caused by external factors including the development of preservation areas.

Research Trends and Future Directions for R&D Vitalization of Domestic Dairy Industry (국내 유가공산업의 R&D활성화를 위한 연구 동향과 방향)

  • Yoon, Sung-Sik
    • Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.23-31
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    • 2011
  • Domestic dairy industry is now standing at the crossroad for planning next fifty years, mainly because economic and environmental situations surrounding Korean peninsula are fast changing. For the aspects of dairy consumption, fresh milk consumed less, while consumption of the other milk and dairy products is slightly increasing every year. In 2010, it is approximately estimated that 1,939,000 tons of raw milk was used and the supply would be short by about 35,000 tons, based on the amounts in the previous year. Currently, multilateral negotiations against US and EU are underway. When it will be in effect in the future, significant damage would be expected in the dairy and livestock sectors, leading to cut domestic milk supply. Quality of farm-gate milk is graded as 1A on average 90% or more, loaded with very low in microbial and somatic cell counts. Therefore, policy implications have to be placed toward switch currently the UHT processing method to Pasteurization or the LTLT technology, by which natural flavors and nutrients in milk mostly remain after heat treatment. Domestic cheese products comprise only 10% and the rest is occupied by the various kinds of imported natural products. The market size keeps increasing up to 65,423,000 tons last year. When it comes to vitalization of our natural cheese industry, cheese whey, which is a main by-product in cheese manufacture, is a critical issue to be solved and also "On-Farm Processing" would be combined with a growth of big dairy companies when few immediate issues among the relevant regulations will be eased and alleviated in the near future. Fermented milk market is recorded as a single area of gradual increase in the past 10 years, Korea. Fermented yogurts with health claims targeted stomach, liver, and intestine are popular and has grown fast in sales amounts. In this context, researches on beneficial probiotic lactic acid bacteria are one of the important projects for domestic milk and dairy industries. Labelling regulations on efficacy or health-promoting effects of functional dairy products, which is the most important issue facing domestic dairy processors, should be urgently examined toward commercial expression of the functionality by lawful means. Colostrum, a nutrition-rich yellowish fluid, is roaded with immune, growth and tissue repair factors. Bovine colostrum, a raw material for immune milk preparations and infant formula, can be used to treat or prevent infections of the gastrointestinal tract. Nanotechnology can be applied to develop new milk and dairy products such as micro-encapsulated lactase milk for consumers suffering lactose intolerance. Raw milk is suggested to be managed by its usage in the processing line because imbalance of supply and demand is structural problem in every country and thus the usage systems as in the advanced dairy countries is worth of bench-marking to stabilize milk supply and demand. Raw milk produced is desirable to divide into the three parts; domestic, import, and buffering purposes. It is strongly recommended that a domestic dairy control center as an institutional framework should be urgently established as is Dairy Board in New Zealand and Australia. Lastly, government policy should be directed to foster the highly-educated people who are majoring in Dairy Sciences or working in the dairy industry by means of financial support in studying and training abroad as well.

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A Survey of the Current Information Activities in the Advanced Developing Countries (중진국의 정보유통체제 연구)

  • Choi Sung-jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.7
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    • pp.89-195
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    • 1980
  • The advanced developing countries including Korea are assumed to have reached a developmental stage which necessitates them to formulate and implement a plan for a national information network. Most of the governments in the advanced developing countries are well aware of the necessity for such a plan and some of them have actually commenced their studies on the feasibility of a national network of their own hoping to achieve maximum utility of their limited information resources. Two urgent problems facing planners in the design of a national information network are identified. One is lack of an optimum organisational model to enable them to meet their own situations, and the other is lack of a guideline to help designers evaluate the alternative structures and models when they are available. In resolving these two problems, network planners in the advanced developing countries would benefit from the achievement of the objectives of the present study. The major objective is to elicit and describe common information needs, desires and value of the people using information, and other common factors which are responsible for the present information services in the advanced developing countries and which have implications for the basic structure of the national information network. The value of this study is to aid administrators in Korea and those in the other advanced developing countries who are responsible for making national policies and who are now beginning to recognise the need for information services with the planning of economic and social development so as to enable all the groups in the community to have access to the information which are essential for decision making, research work, studies and even for recreational reading. This recognition will hopefully give them a rational basis for formulating right policies on information services. The methodology utlised for collecting the required data in this study falls under the category of observation and largely consists of the two techniques: literature review and postal questionnaire. Background information on the individual advanced developing: countries was gathered from monographic and periodical literature. and country reports presented at the various international conferences were analysed for other relevant data. For most of the data needed for the present study, a questionnaire on 'Library and Information Services as They Are Available in the Selected Countries' was formulated. This questionnaire was designed to be completed without help, by an expert who was well informed of the library and information services in his or her country. The questionnaire was intended to look in details at what information services in the advanced developing countries were doing-whom they were serving, in what way, and how well and establish to what extent they were meeting the nation's information requirements. It was also intended to ascertain the respondents' ideas on possible future developments in information provision in their countries, that is, in the advanced devanced developing countries. The questionnaire was posted to a total of 63 natinal librarians, directors of national information centres and those of other major libraries or information centres in 21 selected countries. Complete usable responses were received from 34 persons in 14 countries. In order to identify common characteristics of the information needs and desires in the advanced developing countries and the present situation of the information services to meet them, and the requirements and constraints peculiar to those countries which bought to be considered in the design of a national information network for advanced developing countries, an individual report on the current status of information activities for each of the fourteen countries chosen for this study, was presented. The procedure used was to arrange the data acquired in the questionnaire responses and other sources, in the form of fifteen country reports to be summarised by cross-section characteristics later.

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Determinants of IPO Failure Risk and Price Response in Kosdaq (코스닥 상장 시 실패위험 결정요인과 주가반응에 관한 연구)

  • Oh, Sung-Bae;Nam, Sam-Hyun;Yi, Hwa-Deuk
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.5 no.4
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    • pp.1-34
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    • 2010
  • Recently, failure rates of Kosdaq IPO firms are increasing and their survival rates tend to be very low, and when these firms do fail, often times backed by a number of governmental financial supports, they may inflict severe financial damage to investors, let alone economy as a whole. To ensure investors' confidence in Kosdaq and foster promising and healthy businesses, it is necessary to precisely assess their intrinsic values and survivability. This study investigates what contributed to the failure of IPO firms and analyzed how these elements are factored into corresponding firms' stock returns. Failure risks are assessed at the time of IPO. This paper considers factors reflecting IPO characteristics, a firm's underwriter prestige, auditor's quality, IPO offer price, firm's age, and IPO proceeds. The study further went on to examine how, if at all, these failure risks involved during IPO led to post-IPO stock prices. Sample firms used in this study include 98 Kosdaq firms that have failed and 569 healthy firms that are classified into the same business categories, and Logit models are used in estimate the probability of failure. Empirical results indicate that auditor's quality, IPO offer price, firm's age, and IPO proceeds shown significant relevance to failure risks at the time of IPO. Of other variables, firm's size and ROA, previously deemed significantly related to failure risks, in fact do not show significant relevance to those risks, whereas financial leverage does. This illustrates the efficacy of a model that appropriately reflects the attributes of IPO firms. Also, even though R&D expenditures were believed to be value relevant by previous studies, this study reveals that R&D is not a significant factor related to failure risks. In examing the relation between failure risks and stock prices, this study finds that failure risks are negatively related to 1 or 2 year size-adjusted abnormal returns after IPO. The results of this study may provide useful knowledge for government regulatory officials in contemplating pertinent policy and for credit analysts in their proper evaluation of a firm's credit standing.

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The Effect of the 'Silver Consumer's Product Satisfaction and Knowledge on the Health Functional Consumer's Well-being (실버소비자의 건강기능 제품에 대한 만족과 지식이 웰빙에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Soon-Keum;Kim, Yong-Man
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.131-140
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    • 2011
  • On 1 July 2000, as the over-65 year-old population numbered 3,371,000 and accounted for over 7.1% of Korea's total population, an aging society was revealed. The over-65 percentage climbed to 11.0% by late 2010. A truly aged society is expected soon, by 2019. This aging society requires marketing research concerning the consumer behaviour and well-being of the elderly, because the 'silver generation' is emerging as a large part of the consumer market. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyse one effect among several satisfaction factors in the consuming cycle of various health functional products on consumer's well-being and the effect of product knowledge on the relationship between product satisfaction and well-being. To achieve this purpose, we established a research model after reviewing previous studies on product satisfaction, product knowledge, and consumer's well-being. The following hypotheses were developed from the research model. Hypothesis 1: When elderly consumers' satisfaction with health functional products increases, their well-being will increase. Hypothesis 2: The effect of their satisfaction with health functional products on their well-being will be strengthened according to the level of their knowledge of the products. Those hypotheses were tested by multiple and moderated regressions to the empirical data through a questionnaire survey. As a result, Hypothesis 1 was totally adopted, and Hypothesis 2 was only partially adopted. The study has many practical implications for well-being marketing. First, in order to heighten the elderly consumer's well-being, the level of his or her satisfaction with the health functional products has to be raised in every stage: during the acquisition, preparation, use, maintenance, and disposition of the consumption cycle. Moreover, promoting positive emotional experiences while diminishing negative ones requires effort because a consumer's well-being is made up of various needs. Second, the marketing of health functional products should be invigorated in order to raise the level of elderly consumers' knowledge of them. In other words, it is important to give them an expertise in the health functional products through different channels. A statistical analysis showed, however, that their knowledge has a decisive effect on only two satisfaction stages, preparation and maintenance. Nevertheless, this merely confirmed the intuitive assumption that the knowledge of health functional products is most relevant to their preparation and maintenance. In conclusion, this study is timely because few empirical studies exist on the relationships between silver consumer behaviour and well-being marketing. It contributes to our understanding of this subject by revealing the causality between the silver consumer's satisfaction and his or her well-being in the consumption cycle and by discovering the moderating influence of knowledge in that process.

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Family Planning as a Part of the Nursing-Staff In - Service Education Program (임상 간호원을 위한 실무교육 과정으로서의 가족계획)

  • 전춘영
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.112-132
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    • 1975
  • When Korean family planning services began as a part of the National Policy in 1962, the annual population growth was 3.0%. This growth rate has been decreased to 2.0% during last ten year period. And it seems imperative that all hospitals, as well as related organizations, should participate in family planning in order to contribute to achieving the National goal of 1.5% population growth by 1976, the end of the Third Five Year Economic Development Plan. Nurses should be considered the most important human resources in charge of the core of family planning services in any setting. For the family planning services in the general hospital setting, nurses as a core members contribute much as change agent, motivators, counsellors, educators etc. A nurse can work with patients and their relatives when she is equipped with relevant knowledge and skills. Fur the more family planning cannot be ignored even in hospital setting where more comprehensive nursing care is needed Thus, the general objective of this study is to provide baseline data for better programming of In-service education in family planning so that effective hospital family planning nursing services can be made a part of comprehensive nursing care contributing to the national population program and human welfare. In order to meet the general objective, this study has the following specific objectives : 1. To find out the general characteristics of the clinical nurses working in Y Hospital 2. To evaluate their attitudes and practices of family planning 3. To assess their knowledge, attitudes and practices of population and family planning as professional nurses. 4. To examine and compare data collecting methods for the planning of an In-service Educational Program 5. To explore the contents to be included in this In-service Education Program. The study population randomly selected one hundred nurses working in Y Hospital A cross-sectional survey with questionnaires developed for this study was chosen for the study method. To collect reliable data, the questionnaires were distributed to and answered by the study population in a controlled situation. X²test and t-test was employed in analyzing the data. The findings of this study are as follows: 1. Y Hospital nurses had a lower ideal number of children (X=2.02) and showed no strong preference for male children, and 74% of them expressed the desire to use permanent methods of birth control 2. of this thirty Y Hospital nurses who were married 66.7% stated they were already practicing contraceptive methods. Most of them preferred male methods of contraception. 3. According to objective evaluation about knowledge of various aspects of population and family planning, respondents from collegiate programs significantly knew better the subjects on the average than did respondents from diploma programs of nursing. 4. There was a marked difference in the results of self-evaluation and objective evaluation in their family planning knowledge. It was found that the self-evaluation family planning knowledge seemed to be unreliable. Accordingly, the objective test methods appeared to be more reliable in the evaluation of knowledge levels. 5. The subject areas needed to be included in In-service education for the Hospital family planning services in Y Hospital are 1) rhythm methods, 2) tubal-legation, 3) family planning effects of contraceptives, 4) population growth, 5) demographic traction, 6) population structure and 7) infant mortality facts. In addition, 1) various oral contraceptives, 2) basal temperature method, 3) laparoscopic female sterilization, 4) interfering factors of family planning, 5) anatomy and physiology of the female reproductive organs were additional areas to be taught to respondents from 3-year diploma schools of nursing. Demographic transition was one subject area in which the four-year graduates need further study. 6. Population problems guidance and counselling in family planning instruction in the theory and practice of contraceptives should be included in future In-service Education Programs in order to provide more effective hospital Family Planning Services, stated 77.0% of the respondents.

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A Baseline Survey on Development of Primary Health Care in the Rural Korea -Sanpuk Village, Kumsa-Myun, Yuju- Gun, Kyunggi-Do- (농촌지역의 일차보건사업 개발을 위한 기초조사 연구 - 경기도 여주군 금사면 산북부락을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Myung-Ho;Yun, Suk-Woo;Rhee, Hae-Soak
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.5-27
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    • 1987
  • It is widely recognized that primary health care in the community is one of the most important and effective health measures in these days. However, it is reality that unsatisfactory health care system, ineffective utilization of health care by the community people in the rural area are hampering better understanding for primary health care. Therefore promoting health for the rural people and increasing understanding about primary health care, the baseline survey in the community focused in examination for safe community water supply was carried out. The survey was conducted through August 25-31, 1986 in order to find out health problems and relevant factors and to define the demographic characteristics of $^*$Sanpuk village, Kumsa-Myun, Yuju-Gun, Kyunggi-Do, Korea. Household survey was carried out for every home by trained interviewers. The major results are found out as follows : 1) 84.2%(400 houses) of total households were surveyed because 15.8%(75 houses) were unable to survey due to either refusal against interview or absence of family. These 400 households were composed of 1,697 residents(male:830, female 867). Educational level of respondents showed 34.1% as elementary school graduated. Religion distribution showed Buddism(23.8%) as the most dominant. 50.7% of respondents married in the area. 2) Most households(91.5%) have lived in their own house in Sanpuk area. Average family size showed 4.3. More than half of residents(64.2%) have used public supplied water tap. Only 1.5% of the households had a flush toliet. The rest of households have still used primitive insanitary latrines. 3) 32.5% of residents have used gas burner for cooking and for heating in the house, and the coal briquet were used for boiler. Lack of convenient public transportation was the chief complaint for their day life. 4) Each household occupied 1,990 pyungs of rice paddy and 1,170 pyungs of ordinary field in average. Beside farming products, mushroom was the highest product. 5) Sixth percent of households in the survey area regularly participated in community meeting one hand and on the other hand 39.5% never participated. Most of respondents closely contacted with their neighbours and they seemed very friendly each other. 6) The prevalence rate of illness and injury during recent 15 days showed 48.3 per 1,000. The prevalence rate of chronic illnesses during the past one year showed 74 per 1,000. Injury and accident lead the higher portion(22.0%) in the former and in the latter pain(arthritis, back-pain) showed 27.0% as the dominant sickness. 87.8% of the ill residents in the former received medical treatment. As the most frequently utilized medical facility, the clinic or hospital were counted. Among the residents suffering from chronic illnesses, 77.3% in Sanpuk area get some kind of medical treatments and they rarely utilized the clinic or hospital. The reason why the patient did not receive any medical care was found out the fact that symptoms of illness was light or mild and economic problems was serious. 7) Average age of marriage showed 21.6 years old in the women and the average duration of marital period was shown for 15.1 years. The married woman in reproductive age in Sanpuk area had experienced pregnancies 4 times in the aver-age including 0.7 time of pregnancy in average were interrupted by induced abortion and 0.3 time by spontaneous abortion respectively. The practicing rate of the family planning of the married woman during reproductive ages showed 70.7% and the tuballigation was found out as the most frequently used contraceptives. 8) Among woman who has children under 2 years old, 70.0% had received the prenatal care for the last pregnancy. However, the average number of prenatal care visitis per woman showed 3.3 times. Fifty-two % of woman who received the postnatal care for the last delivery showed only 37.5%. 9) Immunization rate of the children under 2 years old showed relatively high and looked successful. The breast feeding for these children showed dominantly in the most. Most of the mothers in Sanpuk area had started the supplementary diet during weaning period of their infants of 6th and 7th month after birth. * : Sanpuk area is a demstration area for community development which has been supported by the Community Development Foundation during the part 10 years. The village is relatively closer to urban area such as Seoul, However, it has a similar characteristics shown as a remote village because of geographical location and inconvenient transportation at present.

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The NACUFOK Business Consulting's Influence on the Management Performance of the Primary Credit Unions (신협중앙회 경영컨설팅이 단위신협의 경영성과에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Seong Moo;Ryu, Duk Wi
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.101-112
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    • 2012
  • Business consulting which aims at advising overall management, comparative advantage in competitive environment, administration and so forth is deemed to be significant so that a credit union may flexibly respond to rapid and complicated financial environment. Accordingly, business consulting has been initiated and implemented in credit union since 2002, which seemingly leads to positive outcome to enhance its competitiveness. However, very few research exists which analyze the credit union's competitiveness and business performance after the business consulting. Thus, the research intends to verify how consulting influences on management performance by its various factors. With the above studies in mind, hypothesis is formed that the characteristics of a consulting comsumer and the characteristics of supplier will give a meaningful impact on management performance. The test shows the result as followings: Firstly, a primary credit union's trust and NACUFOK's expertise demonstrate that they are closely relevant to financial and non financial management performance. Secondly, support and willingness to apply states that they influences on non financial performance, while no direct impact is found to financial performance. Thirdly, NACUFOK's capability is rarely interrelated to financial and non financial performance. The present study implies that the credit union as a consulting beneficiary should participate in the consulting, accept the result, and make effort to solve the management problems. In addition, NACUFOK as a consulting supplier should initiate the organization in exclusive charge, perform the professional group, and foster the professional consultant for the development of consulting method, the improvement of consulting process, and the specialization of consultant including the enhancement of core competencies. When these perspectives are sufficient, it will be connected to the management outcomes, further, it will be boosted up the competitiveness of the Credit Union. Hopefully the present study helps to motivate the consulting of primary credit union, boost up the effectiveness of consulting, further, providing the perspective on consulting the credit union. And these may result in the indication of consulting development direction and the competitiveness of Credit Union.

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The Impact of Amalgam Exposure an Urinary Mercury Concentration in Children (어린이의 구강 내 아말감 노출이 요중 수은농도에 미치는 영향)

  • Jeon, Eun-Suk;Jin, Hye-Jung;Kim, Eun-Kyong;Im, Sang-Uk;Song, Keun-Bae;Choi, Youn Hee
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.7-14
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    • 2014
  • This study aims to evaluate the impact of varying exposure to dental amalgam on urinary mercury levels in children by measuring the number of amalgam-filled teeth and the variance of mercury concentration in urine over a period of 2 years. A total of 317 (male 158, female 159) elementary school children (1st~4th graders) attending 2 schools in urban regions participated in this study. At 6-month intervals, 4 oral examinations were conducted to check any variance in the conditions of dental caries and the status of dental fillings. Also, urine tests were conducted followed by a questionnaire survey. To elucidate the factors potentially affecting the mercury concentration in urine, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test and a mixed model were used for the analysis. Regarding the status of dental fillings in line with examination time periods, deciduous teeth had more amalgam-filled surfaces than those filled with resin, whereas permanent teeth had more resin-filled surfaces than those filled with amalgam. A significant relevance was found between the exposure to dental amalgam and urinary mercury levels. Specifically, subjects whose teeth surfaces had been filled with dental amalgam showed higher urinary mercury levels than those who had no dental amalgam fillings. Based on the analysis using the mixed model, the increase in the number of teeth surfaces filled with amalgam was found to be the factor affecting the increase in urinary mercury levels. The urinary mercury levels were found to be highly associated with the exposure to dental amalgam. The more the teeth surfaces filled with amalgam, the higher the urinary mercury levels. Hence, even a trace of dental amalgam fillings can liberate mercury, affecting the variance in the urinary mercury levels. These findings suggest that some criteria or measures should be developed to minimize the exposure to dental amalgam. Moreover, relevant further studies are warranted.