• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.131-145
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• 2020

Purpose - The recent growth of South Korean products in the international market is the benchmark for both developed as well as developing countries. According to the development index, the role of international trade is indeed crucial for the development of the national economy. However, the visualization of the international trade profile of the country is the prerequisite of governmental policy decision-makers and guidance for forecasting of foreign trade. Design/methodology - We have utilized data visualization techniques in order to visualize the import & export product space and trade partners of South Korea. Economic Complexity Index (ECI) and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) were used to identify the Korean international trade diversification, whereas the time series approach is used to forecast the economy and foreign trade variables. Findings - Our results show that Chine, U.S, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan are the leading trade partners of Korea. Overall, the ECI of South Korea is growing significantly as compared to China, Hong Kong, and other developed countries of the world. The expected values of total import and export volume of South Korea are approximately US$535.21 and US$ 781.23B, with the balance of trade US$ 254.02B in 2025. It was also observed from our analysis that imports & exports are equally substantial to the GDP of Korea and have a significant correlation with GDP, GDP per capita, and ECI. Originality/value - To maintain the growth rate of international trade and efficient competitor for the trade partners, we have visualized the South Korea trade profile, which provides the information of significant export and import products as well as main trade partners and forecasting.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.181-207
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• 2008

With recent emphasis on evidence based medicine, clinical practice guidelines are seen as a potential mechanism by which unify various managerial and professional approaches to improving the quality of care. The development process of guidelines has been the subject of much research. and it is need translating the medical evidence of research into a clinical practice guidelines. the gathered evidence needs to be interpreted into a clinical, public health, policy, or payment context. The term 'clinical practice guidelines' can evoke a diverse range of responses from healthcare personnel. Clinical practice guidelines are increasingly used in patient management but some clinicians are not familiar with their origin or appropriate applications. Understanding the limitations as well as benefits of CPG could enable clinicians to have clearer view of the place of guidelines in every practice. In the context of increasing complaints and litigation in healthcare, the legal implications of clinical practice guidelines are of increasing importance. Clinical practice guidelines could, in theory, influence the manner in which the courts establish negligence by suggesting the doctor breached the duty of care by failing to provide the required standard of medical care. In several studies, the CPGs were relevent to and played a pivotal role in the proof of negligence. Much depends on the quality of guidelines and the tools developed and the authoritativeness of a guideline. Recently, there are several opinions the court also should review the validity and reliability of expert testimony including medical evidence. and widespread use of guidelines in malpractice lawsuit could lead the physicians to greater compliance with guidelines in the long term. In conclusion, Health care reformers, physicians as well as guidelines developers should understand that guidelines have both medical and legal aspects as a double-edges sword. so clinicians, legal representatives and decision-makers should not defer unduly to guidelines.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.658-667
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is 1) to research how practitioners in fashion industry in South Korea perceive concepts of Technical Design/Designer, 2) to compare and analyze issues at work by occupation, 3) to research specific works in garment development process, and 4) to compare and analyze work involvement by occupation, type of a company and etc, and 5) to propose the role of Technical Designers in apparel companies in South Korea. There were two methods to conduct this study, which were in-depth interview and survey. Both methods were conducted to designers, merchandisers, pattern makers, technical designers, and production coordinators. Frequency analysis, ANOVA, Duncan test, and Factor analysis were performed to get results by using SPSS 18.0 program. The results are following. There were 50 works during garment development process from the result of in-depth interview, and 6 factors were obtained from the result of Factor analysis, which were 'Works about Sample in Sample Development Process', 'Works about Product's Pattern and Size Spec', 'Works about Development of Garment's Design', 'Works about Planning of Product Development and Management of Product in Stock', 'Works about Production Process', and 'Preparation Works for Sample Development'. In conclusion, technical designer in apparel companies in South Korea should be in charge of works about sample in sample development process and decision making of product' size spec, which is included in works about product's pattern and size spec. Also, they should complete technical package after product is developed by designers.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.353-358
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• 2017

This study aims to propose an assessment tool of port service quality (PSQ) in the context of container transport logistics (CTLs), by taking the perspectives from port users. The CTLs defined in this study are the relevant activities of serving the physical flows of a container box from a point of origin via a container port to a point of destination. To address the ports' role in collaboration between its channel members in CTLs, the PSQ measures for all port user groups (i.e. common PSQ measures) are selected based on the relevant CTLs activities involved by port, and its users within terminal/port area as well as throughout the CTLs chain. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) is applied as a diagnostic tool to analyse the status quo of Busan Port in CTLs contexts, by comparing the importance and performance (IP ) scores against each individual CTLs criterion. The findings from the IPA reveal that port managers and policy makers at the Busan Port should concentrate on six PSQ measures (i.e. SR1, SR4, ITS1, VAS1, VAS4, ICI3) to enhance PSQ in CTLs. However, four measures (i.e. ITS2, ITS3, ITS4, VAS2) are identified as a possible overkill, indicating an area of inefficiency where a remedial action of the cost-cutting decision is necessary. On the other hand, the Busan port shows an outstanding performance on four measures such as SR2, SR3, ICI1 and ICI2. The measures are not only important but also high performance. The study findings provide managerial guidance to port managers in Busan Port, in view of searching for managerial and operational strategies for sustainable port growth.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.376-387
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• 2017

The creative class is the class of workers whose job is to create meaningful new forms. Recently, much attention has been focused on the role of the creative class in regional development. Many policy makers have invested to amenities to attract more creative class into their cities or regions for regional economic growth. However, there are only a few studies about the migration of the creative class in Korea. The purpose of this study is to make an analysis of the movement of the creative class by using the 17th Korean Labor & Income Panel Study. According to empirical results, the creative class are more likely to move than the non-creative class. The characteristic of creative class who moved is related to married man aged 20s and 30s without own house. Also, there is the difference between determinants of migration of the creative class and the non-creative class. It was founded that the most important determinants of migration of the creative class are housing related reasons such as home ownership and job reasons. Relationship, convenient facilities are not important factors when the creative class make a decision to move.

• Strategy21
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• s.39
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• pp.163-197
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• 2016

The completion of Jeju Naval Base on February 2016 made the Republic of Korea Navy(ROKN) review the size and role of the Maritime Task Flotilla(MTF). The new strategic environment for the 12st century and the new challenges require the Navy to counter North Korea's provocations and prevent potential enemy's threat. The Navy is also required to take part in the variety of international roles and missions commensurated with Korea's global status to maximize the national interest. Despite these changes, Korea's military construction concept is still unable to break away from the old paradigm of the North Korean threat largely centered. In order to develop the current MTF into the Task Group with the construction of Jeju Naval Base, the Navy must newly not only establish new force development plan and fleet management concepts but also go to persuade and convince policy decision makers. To this end, the following efforts should be promoted. First, the ROK Navy steps up efforts in order to share with the Task Group's vision and strategy. The Navy should also provide the size and structure as well as the missions and roles of the Task Group to react to new maritime security environment. Second, the Navy analyse the MTF's ability and what is required and necessary to perform its duty. After that, it must set out the direction of the Task Group's force development. Third, the current missions and roles of the MTF should be re-established to respond various threats. Finally, accommodating of new technology to the MTF should intensify its strengths. The ROK Navy has a mixed force structure consisting of three fixed- base fleets and a MTF. The fixed base fleet has a passive force to defend and protect its own sea areas, but the MTF should actively not only counter North Korea's threats, including ballistic missiles, but also fight potential threats and takes international missions as a primary task force. However, the MTF has a limited capability to accomplish given missions and long-range operations, and thus, the ROK Navy is strongly required to construct the Task Group.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.278-285
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• 2016

Epidemiological studies have shown the association between transportation of live animals and the potential transmission of infectious disease between premises. This finding was also observed in the 2014-2015 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Korea. Furthermore, slaughterhouses played a key role in the global spread of the FMD virus during the epidemic. In this context, in-depth knowledge of the structure of direct and indirect contact between slaughterhouses is paramount for understanding the dynamics of FMD transmission. But the social network structure of vehicle movements to slaughterhouses in Korea remains unclear. Hence, the aim of this study was to configure a social network topology of vehicle movements between slaughterhouses for a better understanding of how they are potentially connected, and to explore whether FMD outbreaks can be explained by the network properties constructed in the study. We created five monthly directed networks based on the frequency and chronology of on- and off-slaughterhouse vehicle movements. For the monthly network, a node represented a slaughterhouse, and an edge (or link) denoted vehicle movement between two slaughterhouses. Movement data were retrieved from the national Korean Animal Health Integrated System (KAHIS) database, which tracks the routes of individual vehicle movements using a global positioning system (GPS). Electronic registration of livestock movements has been a mandatory requirement since 2013 to ensure traceability of such movements. For each of the five studied networks, the network structures were characterized by small-world properties, with a short mean distance, a high clustering coefficient, and a short diameter. In addition, a strongly connected component was observed in each of the created networks, and this giant component included 94.4% to 100% of all network nodes. The characteristic hub-and-spoke type of structure was not identified. Such a structural vulnerability in the network suggests that once an infectious disease (such as FMD) is introduced in a random slaughterhouse within the cohesive component, it can spread to every other slaughterhouse in the component. From an epidemiological perspective, for disease management, empirically derived small-world networks could inform decision-makers on the higher potential for a large FMD epidemic within the livestock industry, and could provide insights into the rapid-transmission dynamics of the disease across long distances, despite a standstill of animal movements during the epidemic, given a single incursion of infection in any slaughterhouse in the country.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.92-102
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• 2016

While there have many completions of large parks recently under development, there has been a dearth of quality assessments. Studies focused on post-evaluation have been made to resolve this, but most of these are biased toward user satisfaction after completion and therefore behaviour analysis has limitations on solving problemsduring the actual design implementation processes. Therefore, this study examined the internal phenomenon and structure of the implementation process of design competition through the ground theory and microscopic independent perspective. As a result, maintaining the identity and differentiation of parks derived from the preserved design competition scheme contributed greatly to completeness and satisfaction. Outcomes were mainly caused by the trust of public officials as the ordering organization, the will of policy decision-makers, and the competence of operational enterprises, etc. Negative factors such as undermining the whole concept of the park and landscape occurred as external pressure and related subjects intruded on change design factors due to variations in social conditions. Additionally, illogical construction processes occurred, such as a reinvestigation of the budget for restoration after damaging on original landscape. There have been needs for the improvement of the work processing system. On balance, an interventional role is very important in the park construction process, especially the PA and operation committee in terms of maintaining the basic direction, landscape design supervision for detailed designs, and expert construction management on LA in terms of rational work management in the field. The study, using the microscopic perspective of the designer and ground theory, deliver significant meaning as an early study by suggesting alternative methods for the after-evaluation of large parks and structurally looking into main influence factors driven during the construction process.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.136-142
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• 2015

The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (KSPID) has participated in the task force team consisting of government authorities as well as civil medical experts and facilities to block the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015. KSPID posted the "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Pop-up" in the homepage of The Korean Pediatric Society and The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. KSPID also released the "Guidelines for testing for MERS in children and adolescents" and the "Instructions for the Operation of National Safe Hospital" for children and adolescents in a timely manner. Such actions were aimed to prevent unnecessary anxieties, studies and isolation of pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms and signs caused by other common microbial etiologies as being suspected for MERS patients. This strategy relieved the doctors and parents from unnecessary fear and prevented the loss of unnecessary health care costs, and has proven to be a well-judged guideline and management protocol as evaluated after the final end of MERS outbreak. KSPID and its members should support the presence of pediatric infectious disease (PID) specialists in every medium size hospitals in Korea by developing the need for consultation fees for PID consultation in the hospital based practice and promoting the potential for cost savings related to prevention of health care associated infections and optimal prescription of antimicrobial agents. KSPID and its members need to approach and develop a communication plan to political decision makers to demonstrate and convince them of the importance of a PID specialist service.