A manufacturing/remanufacturing system is investigated with the consideration of required minimum quality of end-of-used products. A constant demand is satisfied by remanufacturing end-of-used products and manufacturing raw materials outsourced from outside. It is assumed in this system that the buyback price and remanufacturing cost are related to the different quality level of end-of-used products. For remanufacturing, only the used products that satisfy a required minimum quality level will be recycled. Thus, the returning rate is a function of the required minimum quality level. Functions of returning rate, buyback price and remanufacturing cost, which are closely connected to the quality level of end-of-used products, are investigated here. Treating the required minimum quality level of end-of-used products, the length of a cycle, the number of manufacturing lots and remanufacturing lots in a cycle as decision variables, the mathematical models with the objective of minimizing the average total cost are constructed. Through construction of a solution process based on Tabu Search algorithm and calculating examples, the validity of the models is illustrated.
The purpose of this study was to confirm the extent of the reduction in the total cost of ownership of the open source software in comparison to the commercial software installed for information system, PC and cloud computing. Accordingly, the actual reduction rates in the total cost of ownership, when open source software is installed in the information system, PC and cloud computing, were computed and analyzed for 51 companies in the area of information system, 18 companies in the area of PC and 6 companies in the area of cloud computing, which included government institution, educational institution and private enterprises. The results of expert survey illustrated that the reduction rates are (1)63.3% on the average for the 4areas of information system, namely, DBMS, WAS, Web and OS, (2) 59.4% on the average for the 6 areas of PC, namely, OS, Documentation Program, Back-up and Restoration, Screen Capture, Vaccine and Others and (3) 61.2% on the average for the 6 areas of cloud computing, namely, Virtualization, OS, WEM/WAS, DBMS, DFS and Cloud Management.
The objective of this study is to collect basic data which can lead effective direction in performing nutritional education, by investigating 273 homemakers' knowledge and attitudes about nutrition. This study was performed using questionnaire about the knowledge and the attitudes of nutrition according to the age, education level, occupation, food cost, and total income. Results were summarized as follows; 1) sources in the knowledge of nutrition appeared by order of T.V., cookbooks, magazines newspapers, mothers, friends, lecturers in cooking school, and nutritionist. 2) A level in the knowledge of nutrition which scord an average marks 154.7(the highest marks 210) was higher compared to other studies. Informations about food composition scord lower marks than other studies. 3) Attitudes about nutrition showed high score in the aspects that nutrition has an important role in health, and desirable eating habits were formed in childhood. 4) The knowledge of nutrition had no significant differences with age, occupation, and food cost whereas it had significant correlation with education level and total income. The higher the level in education and total income, the higher the level in the knowledge of nutrition. 5) The attitudes about nutrition had no correlation with age, occupation, but it had a significant correlation with education level, food cost and total income. 6) There was an significant correlation between the knowledge and attitudes about nutrition. In order to promote children's nutrition status, nutrition education for mothers must be accomplished in the first place. Development of T.V. program for children's nutrition education is desirable.
Kim, Bong Joo;Kang, Hyung Won;Kim, Nam-Kwen;Seo, Eun-Sung
Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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v.29
no.3
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pp.135-144
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2018
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the medical cost for patients with vertigo and to examine associations between chronic vertigo and mental disorder using 2014 Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service-National Patients Sample (HIRA-NPS). Methods: We analyzed sociodemographic characteristics, medical cost and medical care use pattern for vertigo patients. We used hierarchical multiple logistic regression analysis to examine odds ratio between chronic vertigo and mental disorder. Results: A total of 46,502 people and 118,504 claims data were identified for vertigo cases. Characteristics of vertigo patients have significant differences on proportion of female patients (68.36%), patients' average age (54.98) and proportion of medical assistance (5.76%) compared with non-vertigo patients. Results revealed that Korean medicine are one of frequent methods among total treatments for vertigo patients. Total days of medical care and total costs are 2.78 days and 111,362 won, respectively, and days for outpatients in Korean medical care (mean: 2.26 days) are more than those (mean: 5.05 days) in Western medical care. There is significant difference relative to sex between acute vertigo and chronic vertigo. The odds ratio between chronic vertigo and mental disorder is estimated as 1.34, that means risk of becoming chronic is 34% higher for vertigo patients with mental disorder. Conclusions: This study assessed socio-demographic characteristics, medical care use and expenses related to vertigo, and estimated associations between chronic vertigo and mental disorder. Findings provide a basis for economic evaluation studies on vertigo patients and development of clinical practice guidelines for vertigo patients with mental disorder.
The purpose of this paper is to measure the change of the production efficiency which may happen when environmental regulation incurs technological constraint in the process of production, and to compute the opportunity cost of pollution reduction with the lost products based on the change of efficiency. The patterns of production technoloy in the paper are divided into the technologies of strong disposability and weak disposabilty to grasp the effect of the technological constraint due to the environmental regulation. The endowment of the technolgical constraints in the process of production is considered to bring the greatest restriction on firm's production. When the environmental efficiencies of Korean regional manufactures were measured with linear programming model, the lost products related with the constraint of production technology that environmental regulation incurred, was average 148.1 billion dollar per year(5.87% of one year overall products) for total manufactures in 1991~1998. The ratio of the lost products for total products was spread from 0.78% to 1l.08%. The average lost products of 15 regions were changed from 4.66% to 18.35% of total products. Generally the environmental efficiency index of regional manufactures being decreased continuously since 1991, it is estimated that the environmental performance of Korean manufactures has been more and more deteriorating.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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v.9
no.2
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pp.109-116
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2014
In this study, the factors affecting the profitability of the oriental medicine hospitals of University to be analyzed. To do this, profitability indicators and current ratio, liquidity, turnover ratio, cost factors analysis and suggested ways to improve management. The results are as follows, the operating margin(1.17%). the return on assets(3.76%), the net profit to gross revenues(2.37%), and the net profit to total assets(-1.89) were lower than the average of the entire oriental medicine hospitals in Korea(respectively 8.9%, 8.7%, 2.6%, 2.5%). Current ratio(256.76%), quick ratio(231.17%), fixed ratio(121.02%), and total assets turnover(135.69%) were similar to the average of all oriental medicine hospitals in Korea. But growth rate of total assets(-2.21%), and growth rate of patient revenue(1.89%) is low. And salaries(53.39%), materials costs(16.62%), administrative expenses(28.58%) were different to the average of all oriental medicine hospitals in Korea(respectively 35.3%, 10.7%, 45.1%). Meanwhile, the cost ratio of the oriental medicine hospitals of University was 98.59%. It was 7.49% higher than the 91.1% of the average of all oriental medicine hospitals in 2011. Correlation analysis, growth rate of patient revenue and operating margin increased at the same time, and net profit to gross revenues and net profit to total assets with a growth rate of total assets increased. And administrative expenses and profitability indicators showed a negative correlation. It means, in order to improve the profitability of the oriental medicine hospitals of University should focus on reducing administrative expenses. Multiple regression analysis, growth rate of total assets, total assets turnover, administrative expenses, and salaries has affected the profitability. Therefore, in order to improve the profitability of the oriental medicine hospitals of University to increase the total capital and the total capital turnover, and to reduce administrative expenses effort.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the foodservice management practices in child-care centers in order to provide basic information for the development of a model of a centralized food service information center. This approach was achieved using a variety of qualitative and quantitative information including general foodservice management practices and plate waste. A self-completed questionnaire survey of 651 child-care centers in Korea was undertaken and detailed information was carefully collected at 6 representative child-care centers. The results of the empirical survey were as follows: 1. Child-care centers categorized by location were in large cities (59.9%), medium cities (27.6%) and in provincial areas (12.5). 2. Private sector of child-care centers was 46.4% of the total followed by National/public (44.2%) and licensed home day-care programs (9.4%). 3. Total average number of children in child-care centers was $63.3{\pm}43.1$ with a very significant difference (p<0.001) in types of child-care centers. 4. The average space of kitchen and dining room was $5.0{\pm}3.8\;and\;10.8{\pm}11.0$ pyung ($1pyung=3.3058\;cm^2$). 5. The average cost of interim snack in morning and afternoon in child-care centers were $345.9{\pm}459.3$ won and $359.3{\pm}226.6$ won respectively. The average cost of lunch was $644.0{\pm}481.1$ won. There was a significant difference (p<0.001) by types of child-care centers with a highest cost of 863.9 won in licensed home day-care programs. 6. Only a limited number of dietitian were employed, therefore most of food service management practice was not conducted by professional personnel. 7. The result of nutritional analysis of the food revealed that the level of energy and nutrients contained in the food was below the recommeded level (RDA/3).
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.