• Land and Housing Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.33-45
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• 2021

Due to recent changes in government policy, officetels have received attention as alternative assets, along with the uplift of office and apartment prices in Seoul. However, the current officetel price indexes use small-size samples and, thus, there is a critique on their accuracy. They rely on valuation prices which lag the market trend and do not properly reflect the volatile nature of the property market, resulting in 'smoothing'. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to create the officetel price index using transaction data. The data, provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport from 2005 to 2020, includes sales prices and rental prices - Jeonsei and monthly rent (and their combinations). This study employed a repeat sales model for sales, jeonsei, and monthly rent indexes. It also contributes to improving conversion rates (between deposit and monthly rent) as a supplementary indicator. The main findings are as follows. First, the officetel price index and jeonsei index reached 132.5P and 163.9P, respectively, in Q4 2020 (1Q 2011=100.0P). However, the rent index was approximately below 100.0. Sales prices and jeonsei continued to rise due to high demand while monthly rent was largely unchanged due to vacancy risk. Second, the increase in the officetel sales price was lower than other housing types such as apartments and villas. Third, the employed approach has seen a potential to produce more reliable officetel price indexes reflecting high volatility compared to those indexes produced by other institutions, contributing to resolving 'smoothing'. As seen in the application in Seoul, this approach can enhance accuracy and, therefore, better assist market players to understand the market trend, which is much valuable under great uncertainties such as COVID-19 environments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1895-1904
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• 2015

Foodborne illness associated with food service establishments is an important food safety issue in Korea. In this study, foodborne pathogens (Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, pathogenic Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and hygiene indicator organisms [total viable cell counts (TVC), coliforms] were analyzed for food and environmental samples from foodservice establishments at schools in Gyeonggi province. Virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance of detected foodborne pathogens were also characterized. A total of 179 samples, including food (n=66), utensil (n=68), and environmental samples (n=45), were collected from eight food service establishments at schools in Gyeonggi province. Average contamination levels of TVC for foods (including raw materials) and environmental samples were 4.7 and 4.0 log CFU/g, respectively. Average contamination levels of coliforms were 2.7 and 4.0 log CFU/g for foods and environmental swab samples, respectively. B. cereus contamination was detected in food samples with an average of 2.1 log CFU/g. E. coli was detected only in raw materials, and S. aureus was positive in raw materials as well as environmental swab samples. Other foodborne pathogens were not detected in all samples. The entire B. cereus isolates possessed at least one of the diarrheal toxin genes (hblACD, nheABC, entFM, and cytK enterotoxin gene). However, ces gene encoding emetic toxin was not detected in B. cereus isolates. S. aureus isolates (n=16) contained at least one or more of the tested enterotoxin genes, except for tst gene. For E. coli and S. aureus, 92.7% and 37.5% of the isolates were susceptible against 16 and 19 antimicrobials, respectively. The analyzed microbial hazards could provide useful information for quantitative microbial risk assessment and food safety management system to control foodborne illness outbreaks in food service establishments.