• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 1996

This study examines the spatial characteristics of postal office patronage in rural areas. in the light of future possible relocation and closures of the postal facilities. Most of private services have flown out small rural central places due to the decrease of supporting population, and there consequently remain only a few public services including government-run post offices at the Myon seats, the lowest level among rural central places in Korea. The small local population and its further decline undermine the rationale for maintaining such public services in depleted rural areas. For the worse of it, the government recently plans to transform the postal system to a quasi-private, corporational structure. One can fear that the profit-seeking nature of the new postal corporation will inevitably force to close many of such small rural facilities. The study first analysed nation-wide censuses of postal offices for the years of 1986 and 1992. The postal services examined are per capita number of postal stamps and revenue stamps sold, and letters, parcels, telegrams and monetary transactions handled at the post offices. It is found that, while the usage of postal services has increased substantially throughout the nation during the period of 1986-1992, the increment has largely been occurred by urban post offices rather than by those in Gun seats (i.e., rural counties); and that the gap of the service levels between urban and rural post offices is ever widening. The study further examined the service differentials among the post offices within rural counties to find that those post offices adjacent to the county (Gun) seats and larger urban centers rendered less amount of services than remote rural post offices, indicating that rural residents tend to partonize larger centers more and more than local Myon seats. At the second stage of the study, questionnaire surveys were conducted in Muju, Kimpo, and Hongsung-Gun's. These three counties are meant to represent respectively the remote, suburban, and intermediary counties in Korea. The analyses of survey data reveal that the postal hinterlands of the county seats extend to much of nearby Myons, the subdivisions of a Gun. It is also found that the extent of postal hinterlands of the three counties and the magnitude of patronage and quite different from each other depending upon the topography, population density, and the propinquity of the counties to metropolitan centers. The findings suggest to reappraise the current flat allocation scheme of public facilites to each of rural subdivisions throughout the nation. A detailed analysis on the travel behavior of the survey respondents yields that age is the most salient variable to distinguish activity spaces of rural residents. The activity spaces of older respondents tend to be more limited within their Myon, whereas those of younger respondents extend across the Myon boundary, toward the central towns and even distant larger cities. The very existence of several activity spaces in rural areas calls for an attention in the future locational decisions of public facilities. The locational criteria, employed by the Ministry of Communication of Korean government to establish a post office, are the size of hinterland population and the distance from adjacent postal facilities. The present study findings suggest two additional criteria: the order in rural central place hierarchy and the propinquity to the upper-level centers of the central hierarchy. These old and new criteria are complementary each other in that the former criteria are employed to determine new office locations, whereas the latter are appropriate to determine facility relocation and closures.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.51-69
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• 2009

This study is intended to provide fundamental information to improve the quality of student activities presented in the Clothing & Textiles How to Dress Appropriately' section of the current middle school 'Technology Home Economics' textbooks so that Home Economics may better reflect students' interests, making it applicable in real life. The survey was conducted to 154 male and 160 female students on their preferences regarding student activities. The results are as follows. First, students who like clothing & textiles section regard "Opportunities to take part in various kinds of practices and student activities" as the major reason for preference. And the single biggest reason why they dislike the unit was due to "Too much contents to be memorized." Among various contents regarding dress in the unit, "How to Wear Clothes That Look Good on Me, and the Right Ways to Wear Them" attracted the most attention, regardless of what contents they consider necessary, interesting, or helpful in real life. Second, as for the time of implementation of the activities, students preferred "End of each class". They also preferred small-group activities (group size), well-structured problems (type of problems) and tasks that require analysis based on theoretical principles through experiments and practices (methods of implementation). Third, the findings as to the actual experience of conducting the student activities indicated that, in most cases, student activities were conducted in accordance to what was suggested in the textbooks, but not to what the students preferred. Therefore, in order to make home economics more applicable to students, it is desirable to focus on their everyday lives as is favored by the students, and increase small-group activities. Also, suggesting various and comprehensive problematic situations such as non-structured, open-ended problems and encouraging diverse implementation would be helpful in improving students' critical and creative thinking abilities.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.1 s.96
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• pp.72-78
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• 2006

This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidative effects of mycelium cultural extract from mushroom. Mushroom mycelium was grown in a defined synthetic liquid medium and citrus extracts, and the culture extracts were examined for antioxidant and antibacterial activity. Myceliums of Phellinus linteus, Cordyceps militaris, Coriolus versicolor, Sparassic crispa, Agaricus blazei, lnonotus obliquus, Lentinus edodes, Hericium erinacium, Gonoderma lucidium in 10% citrus extract supplemented medium and synthesis medium were incubated in a shaking incubator (120 rpm, $24{\sim}30^{\circ}C$ ) for $7{\sim}15$ days. The antimicrobial activity of the culture fluid of mushroom mycelium grown in submerged liquid culture was tested against 12 microorganisms which were fish pathogens and common bacterial species. The culture extracts showed high activity against Vibrio sp. and had poor effect on Streptocouus sp., S. parauberis, S. iniae. The culture extracts obtained from the synthetic medium showed $30{\sim}93%$ of the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenger activity, the culture extracts obtained from the citrus extracts medium exhibited antioxidant activity up to 55%.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2004

Background : Many diseases like lung cancer and tuberculosis can involve cervical lymph node. Fine needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) was known as a useful screening test for the evaluation of enlarged lymph node. But the usefulness and limitations of FNAC according to disease category or physical characteristics of lymph node were not yet fully established. Methods : Retrospective analysis of three hundred forty two adult patients who performed FNAC due to enlarged cervical lymph nodes at the Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital during the period from January 1999 to December 2002 and final diagnosis could be made by surgical biopsy, microbiology or clinical observation. Results : Among the 342 cases, 176(51.5 %) were finally diagnosed as benign nature ncluding reactive hyperplasia, Kikuchi's disease and acute suppuration. Eighty eight(25.7 %) were diagnosed as tuberculous lymphadenitis, 66(19.3 %) as metastasis, and 12(3.5 %) as lymphoma. Tuberculosis, metastasis, and lymphoma all showed significantly larger diameter, longer duration of lymph node enlargement. There were higher frequency of supraclavicular involvement in the cases of tuberculosis and metastasis. The overall diagnostic sensitivity of FNAC was 88.0 %, and 88.6 % in benign nature lesion, 77.3 % in tuberculosis, 90.1% in metastasis and 58.3 % in lymphoma. The diagnosis of tuberculosis was made by FNAC in 68 cases (77.3 %) among 88 cases. Lung cancer(43.9 percent) was most frequent cause of cervical lymph node metastasis. Diagnostic sensitivity of FNAC was significantly lower in the supraclavicular than other cervical lymph node(80 % vs. 91.3 %) and not correlated with disease nature, node size or number. Conclusion : Though FNAC was a reliable screening test for enlarged cervical lymph node enlargement, the diagnostic sensitivity was low in the case of lymphoma or when the enlarged lymph node was located at the supraclavicular area.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2009

Purpose: Glomus tumors are rare benign vascular tumors, usually located in the skin or soft tissue of extremities. Approximately 30-50% of glomus tumors occur in subungal area, but glomus tumors have been described in every location even where glomus bodies are not or rarely present. The purpose of this study was to identify clinical, histologic and MRI characteristics of soft tissue glomus tumor. Materials and Methods: Between 1993 and 2008, eight patients underwent surgery of soft tissue Glomus tumor at our institution. Exclusion criteria were patients with Glomus tumors in digits, stomach, trachea and glomus tympanicum. We analyzed medical records, interviews, physical examinations, MR findings and histolocial types retrospectively. Results: There were four men and four women. The mean age was fourty-seven years. The mean prevalence time was eight-point-nine years. In the classic triad of symptoms, all eight patients had pain and tenderness. Two patients complained of cold sensitivity. Two showed skin color changes. After surgery, two showed symptom improvement (VAS $9^{\circ}{\rightarrow}8$, $8^{\circ}{\rightarrow}5$) and?six showed complete disappearance of symptoms. Slightly symptom improvemented (VAS $9^{\circ}{\rightarrow}8$) one had additional surgery two times after first surgery due to relapse/remaining Glomus tumor. The mean size was 13.9 mm. In histology, six were 'solid glomus tumor', one was a mixture of 'solid glomus tumor' and 'lomangioma' and one was 'malignant glomus tumor'. MR findings showed isointense signal on T1 image, high signal on T2 image and strong enhancement on the Gadolinium enhanced image. Conclusion: Glomus tumor has low recurrence rate and malignant change, rapid diagnosis and surgical excision is critical in treatment to prevent unnecessary pain of patient.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.99-123
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• 2004

We focus in this study on incremental financing decisions and estimate a logit model for the probability a firm will choose a private placement over a public bond issue. We hypothesize that information asymmetry, financial risk, agent cost, and proprietary information may affect a firm's choice between public debt and private placements. We find that as the size of firm increases, the probability of choosing a private placement declines significantly. The age of the firm, however, is not a significant factor affecting the firm's choice between public and privately-placed bond. The coefficients on the firm's leverage and non-investment grade dummy are significantly positive, meaning firms with high financial risk and credit risk select private placements. The findings regarding agency-related variables, PER and Tobin's Q, are somewhat complex. We find significant evidence that firms with high PER prefer private placements to public bonds, suggesting that borrowers with options to engage in asset substitution or underinvestment are more likely to choose private placements. The coefficient of Tobin's Q is negative, but not significant, which weakly support the hold-up hypothesis. When we construct an interaction term on the Tobin's Q with a non-investment rating dummy, however, the Tobin's Q interaction term becomes positive and significant. Thus, high Tobin's Q firms with a speculative rating are significantly more likely to choose a private placement, regardless of the potential hold-up problems. The ratio of R&D to sales, proxy for proprietary information, is positively significant. This result can be interpreted as evidence in favor of a role for proprietary information in the debt sourcing decision process for these firms.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.181-208
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• 2010

In July 2007, Korean government has passed "The Capital Market and Financial Investment Services Act" to further develop the capital markets and the Act was to become effective in February 2009. Using a large sample of Korean firms, we have examined (i) the effect of underwriting activities on the firm value (bond spread) comparing commercial bank and investment bank, and (ii) the determinants of the firm value changes following underwriting activities of bank. To test our goal, we collected a wide range of samples of data for bond issuing activities executed by Korean firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) between 2000 and 2003. Our paper is distinguished from previous studies on this subject in a way that we analyzed the effect of corporate bond underwriting activities with regard to commercial banking and investment banking. Initially, we set up a hypothesis that "Certification View" and "Conflict-of-interest View" are major driving forces behind cross-firm differences in performance following bond issuance. We find that, in general, underwriting by investment bank (securities company) brings a positive effect on the firm value (spread between bench mark rate and bond issuing rate). This result indicates that firm value has been negatively affected by the bank underwriting and provides the evidence for "Conflict-of-interest View" in Korea. Our studies have also revealed that any change in firm value following bond issuance is positively related with the firm size (total asset), operating performance, liquidity (cashflow), and equity ownership by foreign investors. Overall, our results support the view that bank underwriting activities can play an important role in determining firm value and financial strategies under "The Capital Market and Financial Investment Services Act" of 2007.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.119-129
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• 2009

Building construction trends have been changed dramatically in terms of size and mass. With the need to maximize land usage, there has been an increase in the construction of high-rise buildings. This affects not only the entire construction duration and cost, but also subsequent construction activities, such as work to increase underground facilities and in reclamation land area construction. These types of site conditions require soft ground reinforcement and the proper uplift water pressure treatment. In general, two kinds of methods have been used for uplift water pressure treatment systems. However, there have been some problems arising as the result of a lack of research and analysis on underground construction techniques, and a reliance on experiments over actual survey and analysis of site conditions. This paper focused on the problems of conventional selection procedure, by analyzing drawings and proposing a kind of modeling for a reasonable procedure. The results were applied to OO project as a sample construction case to be verified in this research. The initial plan in the case project was the Rock Anchor System. However, as there were terrible miscalculations of basic site conditions that had an extraordinary influence on the underground water level, such as the site's proximity to the Han-river, it was necessary to change the plan to include apermanent drainage system. This achieved a direct construction cost reduction \ 406,702,000 and a maximum sayings of 4% of operational cost, based on the 50-year building Life Cycle Cost.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.5 no.5 s.21
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• pp.183-192
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• 2004

Even in Korea the number of steel structure buildings that allow internal space and easy change of their layouts in accordance with the purpose of buildings and box-type steel bridges constructed with thick plates with thickness in a rage just from a few $\beta$AE to \$100\beta$AE is increasing these days and therefore, domestic fabrication and processing technology of members for steel structures is being improved at a pace faster than in the past to meet the growing requirements of consumers for high reliability on quality control on the related steel structures. However, most domestic fabricators os steel structures who are turning out their steel products in accordance with the designs prepared by engineering companies in their respective works for the sake of cost cut more than anything else, hesitating to introduce any advanced new technology into themselves. In the case of the steel structure design application for small and mid-size buildings in particular, it is quite meaningful not only for those who are involved in steel structure business, but also for the people working at construction work fields to review the result of the study on the connections of steel structure members deigned to obtain superb quality of steel structures within short period for steel fabrication and erection at fields in economical ways, as there is a glowing tendency seeking standardization of connection of steel structure members as well as whole structure together with the development on design of construction system of buildings including their exterior and interior decoration materials, manufacture of the related members and fabrication technique structure. This paper has been prepared with the aim to review the peculiar characteristics of buildings constructed with the main frames of steel structures and actual cases of the change made ing the connections between steel structure columns and between columns and girder members in order to reduce the work period necessary for fabrication and erection of steel structures at the maximum as well as the some examples of steel structures fabricated through automatic welding by robots for box-type columns in addition to the description of the problems found in the course of fabricating those steel structures, suggesting possible counter-measures to solve them.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.63-72
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• 2015

The importance of the appropriate use and procurement of Safety and Health Expense has been increasing along with the recent increase of construction projects in height, size and complexity. However, the current standards for deducting the Safety and Health Expense have shown limitations in applying the properties and environment of the construction project due to its Safety and Health Expense Rate's classification method. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a prediction model for the Safety and Health Expense that enables the consideration of different environment and properties of construction projects. The study uses multiple regression analysis to analyze the Safety and Health Expense of Ordinary(A) of less than 0.5 billion WON. The research results have shown that the use of multiple regression analysis reduces the error rate to 4.38% which the current standard calculation method have shown 18.48%. Therefore, the use of the suggested model provides reliable Safety and Health Expense prediction values that considers the properties of the project. It is expected that the results of this study contributes to the effective safety management by providing the appropriate amount of Safety and Health Expense to the project. In this study, only projects of less than 5 billion WON have been considered in the analysis. Therefore, more data is required for future studies to suggest an overall Safety and Health Expense predict ion model that covers the whole construction industry.