• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.1-19
• /
• 1999

It is truism to say that today's customers demand high quality products and services; nevertheless, nowhere is this more prevalent than in the medical industry. Korea's globalization has increased it's citizen's awareness of greater life expectancies and medical improvements in other regions of the globe. Therefore, it is universally essential that in order to be successful in the medical industry, vendors must meet the ever increasing demands of better educated customers. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) The first objective was discover what health care services are in demand and the quality factors related to these services. 2) The second objective was to determine a strategy for improving health care service through quality function deployment(QFD). One hundred and ninety-five respondents were randomly selected and asked to fill out a questionnaire after having undergone treatment at a medical clinic, located in Daejon, South Korea. The questionnaire was designed to obtain information about both he clients' satisfaction with, and their sense of the value of the medical treatment they received. Penalty-reward analysis and QFD were used to interpret the survey results and to deploy the collective voices of the customers. The results of the penalty-reward analysis illustrated that the 'communication' service quality factor was classified into an excitement factor that incurs no penalty if not achieved but adds value if the requirement is exceeded. As a result of the QFD analysis on the 'communication' service quality factor, eleven strategic alternatives were prioritized, and isolated a vital service quality characteristic. This characteristic can be implemented to bring value-added changes for the improvement of health care services.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.963-1001
• /
• 2010

The national accounting matrix including environmental accounts(NAMEA) includes informations on environmental pressures in relation to economic activities as developed in the national accounts. In the NAMEA, conventional national accounts tables have been extended with accounts in physical units. This paper describes the background for work carried out on environmental accounts in Korea and explains how the NAMEA-air is developed. The Korea's NAMEA-air provided here serves several purposes; (1) a consistent and systemic feature of the interrelationship between the economy and the environment; (2) a basis for environmental economic analysis; and (3) the vital information for climate and air policy planning.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.173-178
• /
• 2017

Objectives: Medicinal plants are vital sources of bioactive compounds that are useful for the treatment of patients with snake bites or are indirectly applicable for boosting the effects of conventional serum therapy. These plants are being used traditionally by local healers and tribes for the treatment of patients with snake bites and therefore can be used as an alternative against snake envenomation. Scientifically, using the secondary metabolites of plants to neutralize venom enzymes has an extra benefit of being based on traditional knowledge; also, the use of such metabolites for the treatment of patients with snake bites is cheaper and the treatment can be started sooner. Methods: All the available information on various secondary metabolites exhibiting venom neutralizing ability were collected via electronic search (using Google books, Pubmed, SciFinder, Scirus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science) and articles of peer-reviewed journals. Results:Recent interest in different plant has focused on isolating and identifying of different phytoconstituents that exhibit Phospholipase A2 activity and other venom enzyme neutralizing ability. In this support convincing evidence in experimental animal models are available. Conclusion: Secondary metabolites are naturally present, have no side effect, are stable for a long time, can be easily stored, and can neutralize a wide range of snake enzymes, such as phospholipase A2, hyaluronidase, protease, L-amino acid oxidase, 5'nucleotidase, etc. The current review presents a compilation of important plant secondary metabolites that are effective against snake venom due to enzyme neutralization.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.446-456
• /
• 2007

Increased access to broadband networks has led to a fast-growing demand for voice and video over IP(VVoIP) applications such as Internet telephony(VoIP), videoconferencing, and IP television(IPTV). For pro-active troubleshooting of VVoIP performance bottlenecks that manifest to end-users as performance impairments such as video frame freezing and voice dropouts, network operators cannot rely on actual end-users to report their subjective quality of experience(QoE). Hence, automated and objective techniques that provide real-time or online VVoIP QoE estimates are vital. Objective techniques developed to-date estimate VVoIP QoE by performing frame-to-frame peak-signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR) comparisons of the original video sequence and the reconstructed video sequence obtained from the sender-side and receiver-side, respectively. Since processing such video sequences is time consuming and computationally intensive, existing objective techniques cannot provide online VVoIP QoE. In this paper, we present a novel framework that can provide online estimates of VVoIP QoE on network paths without end-user involvement and without requiring any video sequences. The framework features the "GAP-model", which is an offline model of QoE expressed as a function of measurable network factors such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, and loss. Using the GAP-model, our online framework can produce VVoIP QoE estimates in terms of "Good", "Acceptable", or "Poor"(GAP) grades of perceptual quality solely from the online measured network conditions.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.701-718
• /
• 2015

The joint distribution of wind speed and wind direction at a bridge site is vital to the estimation of the basic wind speed, and hence to the wind-induced vibration analysis of long-span bridges. Instead of the conventional way relying on the weather stations, this study proposed an alternate approach to obtain the original records of wind speed and the corresponding directions based on field measurement supported by the Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS). Specifically, SHMS of Sutong Cable-stayed Bridge (SCB) is utilized to study the basic wind speed with directional information. Four anemometers are installed in the SHMS of SCB: upstream and downstream of the main deck center, top of the north and south tower respectively. Using the recorded wind data from SHMS, the joint distribution of wind speed and direction is investigated based on statistical methods, and then the basic wind speeds in 10-year and 100-year recurrence intervals at these four key positions are calculated. Analytical results verify the reliability of the recorded wind data from SHMS, and indicate that the joint probability model for the extreme wind speed at SCB site fits well with the Weibull model. It is shown that the calculated basic wind speed is reduced by considering the influence of wind direction. Compared to the design basic wind speed in the Specification of China, basic wind speed considering the influence of direction or not is much smaller, indicating a high safety coefficient in the design of SCB. The results obtained in this study can provide not only references for further wind-resistance research of SCB, but also improve the understanding of the safety coefficient for wind-resistance design of other engineering structures in the similar area.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.157-177
• /
• 2011

This paper examines the performance of the coherent Lee-Carter method for the mortality forecasting for the Republic of Korea combined with Japan and the Taiwan Province of China as a group by comparing it with the separately applied Lee-Carter method. It narrowed the gap of life expectancies between three countries from 6.8 years to 3.0 years in 2050, with higher life expectancy forecasts for the Taiwan Province of China and lower ones for Japan than with the separate forecast. This method did not affect the sex-combined life expectancy forecast for the Republic of Korea, but it accelerated the mortality decline for ages 65 and over and decelerated it for the younger age groups, diminishing sex differentials of life expectancy at a slower speed. It suggests that the integration of regional mortality information into mortality forecasting of one country gives several advantages in terms of short run fit within each country as well as long run convergence between countries, a modification of the age pattern of mortality decline, and a consistent application of the forecasting of subgroups within a country.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.34 no.11
• /
• pp.3429-3443
• /
• 2013

Chemokine receptor (CCR2) is a G protein-coupled receptor that contains seven transmembrane helices. Recent pharmaceutical research has focused on the antagonism of CCR2 and candidate drugs are currently undergoing clinical studies for the treatment of diseases like arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and type 2 diabetes. In this study, we analyzed the time dependent behavior of CCR2 docked with a potent 4-azetidinyl-1-aryl-cyclohexane (4AAC) derivative using molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) for 20 nanoseconds (ns). Homology modeling of CCR2 was performed and the 4AAC derivative was docked into this binding site. The docked model of selected conformations was then utilized to study the dynamic behavior of the 4AAC enzyme complexes inside lipid membrane. MDS of CCR2-16b of 4AAC complexes allowed us to refine the system since binding of an inhibitor to a receptor is a dynamic process and identify stable structures and better binding modes. Structure activity relationships (SAR) for 4AAC derivatives were investigated and reasons for the activities were determined. Probable binding pose for some CCR2 antagonists were determined from the perspectives of binding site. Initial modeling showed that Tyr49, Trp98, Ser101, Glu291, and additional residues are crucial for 4AAC binding, but MDS analysis showed that Ser101 may not be vital. 4AAC moved away from Ser101 and the hydrogen bonding between 4AAC and Ser101 vanished. The results of this study provide useful information regarding the structure-based drug design of CCR2 antagonists and additionally suggest key residues for further study by mutagenesis.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.197-208
• /
• 1995

The purpose of this study is to describe specific system manifestations and suggested nursing interventions in patients with lupus. Lupus is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystemic disorder of the immune system. Antibodies are formed which react against the person's own normal tissue. This abnormal response can be very damaging and leads to the many manifestations of the lupus. Lupus can affect any part of the body, and patients experience symptoms in organs involved. So lupus patients have integumentary, blood, central nervous system, eye, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, kidney, heart and lining membranes, reproductive system involvement. The courses are unpredictable and very individualized. Lupus varies greatly in severity from mild cases requiring minimal interventions to those in which significant damage occurs to vital organs such as the lungs, heart, kidney and brain which ultimately can be fatal. In addition to direct physical care, the nursing professional has an excellent position from which to support the lupus patient. Patients need assistance with receiving current, accurate information about the disease process and also to be helped in developing realistic expectations and goals. Nursing interventions for the patient with lupus is challenge drawing on at the resources, knowledge and strengths the nursing teams have to offer. Because of the unpredictable, highly individualized and frequently changing the nature of the disease itself as well as the intricacy of the patient's needs. The nurse has a key role in its management. The patient and nurse, working together, have much to offer each other. These are of inestimable value to the patient. As the nurse listens to the patient and learns what problems the patient perceives, can guide the patient in a self-help program that allows to adapt to living with a chronic illness.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.176-183
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study was to determine whether abdominal pressure belt has an immediate effect on pulmonary function, balance and gait ability for stroke patients. Twenty subjects measured pulmonary function and the COP, BBS, TUG, 10m walk test, and FGA prior to belt wearing. Immediately all subjects were post-tested after wearing abdominal pressure belt of elastic components. Except for forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced experimental volume in the 1 second (FEV1), there were significant differences after belt wearing. This study suggests that the application of abdominal pressure belt enhanced balance and gait ability. However, improving pulmonary function requires several efforts, such as changing the pressure level, posture.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.15 no.12
• /
• pp.111-126
• /
• 2017

Korea came to see its first internet bank as 'K bank' obtained the digital-only banking license in December 2016. This paper suggests ways to foster internet banks of Korea in their early stage by analyzing the successful cases of overseas internet banks. The followings are the key success factors identified from those cases across Europe, Japan, China, and USA: Support from the related government authorities; Stable governance structure; Distinct business capabilities based on information & communications technology(ICT). These points lead to the following implications for Korean internet banks. Regulatory restrictions on owning and running internet banks should be lifted to facilitate innovation. Policies to support internet bank industry should be introduced as it is a vital part of the 4th industrial revolution. Finally, internet banks should strive to differentiate themselves by utilizing their ICT capabilities. Subjects of the further research hereafter should include the following: Analyzing the ongoing performance and developments of digital banks in Korea; Deriving success factors from the analysis; Assessing the influence and effects on financial market and economic environment.