• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-90
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• 1989

This study was attempted to contribute to the development of school health by providing the basic data about the distribution basis and distribution aspect of teachers holding additional school health that are in charge of school health business in parimary schools, middle schools and high schools without any nurse-teacher. This study analyzed literatures about the history, related laws, organization and professional manpower of school health. The emphasis was set on the distribution basis of theachers holding additional school health. The results of this study are as following: 1. The school health of the world dates to the late 18th century in Europe where was free supplying with food for poor children. The school health of Korea orginated from smallpox vaccination which was executed with appearance of modern schools in the late 19th century. 2. The related laws of school health began as a part of Education Law with was constituted in 1949. By the School Health Law constituted in 1967 and the enforcement ordinance of School Health made firm the legal basis of school health. 3. The administrative organs of school health are the Ministry of Education in center and each Board of Education in cities and provinces. For the first time in 1979, the department of school health was established in the organization of the Ministry of Education. And at about the same time of establishment of the department of school health, health section was established in the department of social physical-training in locality. 4. In the manpower of school health which was presented in the related statute of school health, there are the ward chief of education, the superintendent of educational affair, of cities and districts, the mayors, the governors of provinces, the school managers, the principals, the school doctors, the school pharmacists, and the nurse-teachers, including teachers holding additional school health as the practical manpower of school health. 5. In order to get some information on distribution aspect of teachers additional school health, this study made up a questionnaire from August 3 to August 11, 1988. The subjects of this study were 212 leachers who took part in the yearly training for teachers holding additional school health from Kyunggi province, Chungbuk province and Jeonbuk province. The results of the questionnaire are as following: 1. The distribution percentages of teachers holding additional school health according to each Board of Education wich schools are subject to, are as following:70.1% (Kyunggi), 76.5% (Chungbuk), and 81.4% (Jeonbuk). There was a significant difference. The distribution percentages of teachers holding additional school health according to the school levels of 3 provinces are as following: 74.1% (Primary schools), 77.8% (Middle schools), 76.7% (High schools). There were little significant differences. 2. The distribution according to the general characteristics of the subject schools: There were 64.2 percent of primary schools and 35.8 percent of middle schools among 212 schools. 91. 5 percent of schools were located in districts. Public schools formed 55.7% and then national schools were higher in percentage than private schools. 58.5 percent of schools had 1-9 classes, 64.6 percent of schools had 101-500 students, and 90 percents of schools had 1-20 teachers. In considering student sex, the coed school showed the high distribution percentage (Primary schools : 100%, Middle schools: 81.6%). 3. The distribution according to the characteristics of teachers holding additional school health: 93.3 percent of teachers were female, and more than 60 percent of teachers were 20-29 years old. As the age got higher, the percentage became lower. There were little significant differences by marital status. In considering their educational status, 86.8 percent of teachers in primary schools were from teacher's colleges, and 64.5 percent of teachers in middle schools were from education colleges. In considering teaching career, 46.7 percent of teachers had teaching career of less than 2 years. 73.6 percent of teachers had held additional school health for less than one year. More than 80 percent of teachers had participated in the training one time or twice. More than 70 percent of teachers had 1-2 additional jobs except for the school health business. The motivation to hold additional school health is most caused by mandatory order, which accounts for more than 80.0 percent. In considering interesting degree concerning school health, lukewarm answer is the highest of 62.7 percent, followed by affirmative answer of 23.6 percent. In considering their contentment degree respecting additional school health job, "discontent or very discontent"is the highest of 47.6 percent. As a descontent reason of additional school health job, overwork is the highest factor of 37.9 percent. Among addiitional school health job, the most difficult affair is nursing service to be 34.0 percent, followed by health education of 31.6 percent. It testify the need of professional. The source of knowledge about school health has been acquired from masscommunication or private health experience, which account for as much as 56.1 percent. It shows seriousness of lack of professionalism. With regard to neccessity of school health experts, 95.8 percent represents absolute need. With above consideration of study results, I propose as follows : 1. I propose that the authorities concerned unify and improve statute respecting current school health which has not been steadfastly supporting school health business by ambiguity of expression and dualization. 2. I propose that the authorities concerned give the school manager, school staffs and parents of students educational chance with which they can acknowledge the importance of school health and in which they can participate as well as set up alternative policy plan to be albe to vitalize school health committee. 3. I propose that administrative organization practicable to taking totally charge of school health business is established within the Ministry of Education. 4. I propose that the authorities concerned back up and cooperate in an attempt by make school health better and desirable toward development by way of appointing qualitied health teachers on the basis of legally regular teacher staffs.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.27-45
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• 1990

Two opposing views prevail regarding the economic impact of rural out-migration on the rural areas of origin. The optimistic neoclassical view argues that rapid rural out-migration is not detrimental to the income and welfare of the rural areas of origin, whereas Lipton (1980) argues the opposite. We developed our own alternative model for rural to urban migration, appropriate for rapidly developing economies such as Korea's. This model, which adopts international trade theories of nontraded goods and Dutch Disease to rural to urban migration issues, argues that rural to urban migration is caused mainly by two factors: first, the unprofitability of farming, and second, the decrease in demand for rural nontraded goods and the increase in demand for urban nontraded goods. The unprofitability of farming is caused by the increase in rural wages, which is induced by increasing urban wages in booming urban manufacturing sectors, and by the fact that the cost increases in farming cannot be shifted to consumers, because farm prices are fixed worldwide and because the income demand elasticity for farm products is very low. The demand for nontraded goods decreases in rural and increases in urban areas because population density and income in urban areas increase sharply, while those in rural areas decrease sharply, due to rapid rural to urban migration. Given that the market structure for nontraded goods-namely, service sectors including educational and health facilities-is mostly in monopolistically competitive, and that the demand for nontraded goods comes only from local sources, the urban service sector enjoys economies of scale, and can thus offer services at cheaper prices and in greater variety, whereas the rural service sector cannot enjoy the advantages offered by scale economies. Our view concerning the economic impact of rural to urban migration on rural areas of origin agrees with Lipton's pessimistic view that rural out-migration is detrimental to the income and welfare of rural areas. However, our reasons for the reduction of rural income are different from those in Lipton's model. Lipton argued that rural income and welfare deteriorate mainly because of a shortage of human capital, younger workers and talent resulting from selective rural out-migration. Instead, we believe that rural income declines, first, because a rapid rural-urban migration creates a further shortage of farm labor supplies and increases rural wages, and thus reduces further the profitability of farming and, second, because a rapid rural-urban migration causes a further decline of the rural service sectors. Empirical tests of our major hypotheses using Korean census data from 1966, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985 support our own model much more than the neoclassical or Lipton's models. A kun (county) with a large out-migration had a smaller proportion of younger working aged people in the population, and a smaller proportion of highly educated workers. But the productivity of farm workers, measured in terms of fall crops (rice) purchased by the government per farmer or per hectare of irrigated land, did not decline despite the loss of these youths and of human capital. The kun having had a large out-migration had a larger proportion of the population in the farm sector and a smaller proportion in the service sector. The kun having had a large out-migration also had a lower income measured in terms of the proportion of households receiving welfare payments or the amount of provincial taxes paid per household. The lower incomes of these kuns might explain why the kuns that experienced a large out-migration had difficulty in mechanizing farming. Our policy suggestions based on the tests of the currently prevailing hypotheses are as follows: 1) The main cause of farming difficulties is not a lack of human capital, but the in­crease in production costs due to rural wage increases combined with depressed farm output prices. Therefore, a more effective way of helping farm economies is by increasing farm output prices. However, we are not sure whether an increase in farm output prices is desirable in terms of efficiency. 2) It might be worthwhile to attempt to increase the size of farmland holdings per farm household so that the mechanization of farming can be achieved more easily. 3) A kun with large out-migration suffers a deterioration in income and welfare. Therefore, the government should provide a form of subsidization similar to the adjustment assistance provided for international trade. This assistance should not be related to the level of farm output. Otherwise, there is a possibility that we might encourage farm production which would not be profitable in the absence of subsidies. 4) Government intervention in agricultural research and its dissemination, and large-scale social overhead projects in rural areas, carried out by the Korean government, might be desirable from both efficiency and equity points of view. Government interventions in research are justified because of the problems associated with the appropriation of knowledge, and government actions on large-scale projects are justified because they required collective action.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.17-35
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• 2015

Demand forecasting is the activity of estimating the quantity of a product or service that consumers will purchase for a certain period of time. Developing precise forecasting models are considered important since corporates can make strategic decisions on new markets based on future demand estimated by the models. Many studies have developed market growth curve models, such as Bass, Logistic, Gompertz models, which estimate future demand when a market is in its early stage. Among the models, Bass model, which explains the demand from two types of adopters, innovators and imitators, has been widely used in forecasting. Such models require sufficient demand observations to ensure qualified results. In the beginning of a new market, however, observations are not sufficient for the models to precisely estimate the market's future demand. For this reason, as an alternative, demands guessed from those of most adjacent markets are often used as references in such cases. Reference markets can be those whose products are developed with the same categorical technologies. A market's demand may be expected to have the similar pattern with that of a reference market in case the adoption pattern of a product in the market is determined mainly by the technology related to the product. However, such processes may not always ensure pleasing results because the similarity between markets depends on intuition and/or experience. There are two major drawbacks that human experts cannot effectively handle in this approach. One is the abundance of candidate reference markets to consider, and the other is the difficulty in calculating the similarity between markets. First, there can be too many markets to consider in selecting reference markets. Mostly, markets in the same category in an industrial hierarchy can be reference markets because they are usually based on the similar technologies. However, markets can be classified into different categories even if they are based on the same generic technologies. Therefore, markets in other categories also need to be considered as potential candidates. Next, even domain experts cannot consistently calculate the similarity between markets with their own qualitative standards. The inconsistency implies missing adjacent reference markets, which may lead to the imprecise estimation of future demand. Even though there are no missing reference markets, the new market's parameters can be hardly estimated from the reference markets without quantitative standards. For this reason, this study proposes a case-based expert system that helps experts overcome the drawbacks in discovering referential markets. First, this study proposes the use of Euclidean distance measure to calculate the similarity between markets. Based on their similarities, markets are grouped into clusters. Then, missing markets with the characteristics of the cluster are searched for. Potential candidate reference markets are extracted and recommended to users. After the iteration of these steps, definite reference markets are determined according to the user's selection among those candidates. Then, finally, the new market's parameters are estimated from the reference markets. For this procedure, two techniques are used in the model. One is clustering data mining technique, and the other content-based filtering of recommender systems. The proposed system implemented with those techniques can determine the most adjacent markets based on whether a user accepts candidate markets. Experiments were conducted to validate the usefulness of the system with five ICT experts involved. In the experiments, the experts were given the list of 16 ICT markets whose parameters to be estimated. For each of the markets, the experts estimated its parameters of growth curve models with intuition at first, and then with the system. The comparison of the experiments results show that the estimated parameters are closer when they use the system in comparison with the results when they guessed them without the system.

• CELLMED
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.4
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• 2018

Pharmacopuncture, or herbal acupuncture, is a new form of therapy derived from combinations of two traditional therapeutic methods, herbal medicine and acupuncture therapy. To compare the efficacy between loratadine-pharmacopuncture (LP) and loratadine-oral administration (LO), the effect of loratadine was investigated in murine models. Anti-anaphylactic effects of loratadine treatments were investigated in compound 48/80-induced systemic anaphylactic reaction and passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA). LP treatment significantly inhibited the compound 48/80-induced systemic anaphylactic reaction and PCA. The effect between LP and LO were on a similar level. These results indicate that LP can be used as an alternative method for LO in case of emergency.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.14-20
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• 2016

Purpose Tongue cancer is 1.8% of all cancer tumors occur in the tongue, it is known that the high incidence enough to account for 75% of oral cancer conducted a PET / CT examination for early diagnosis, metastasis, staging, etc. and. Tongue when PET / CT scan of a cancer patient and a Torso taken to close mouth lesions if the condition was caused due to the overlapping or corresponding artifacts are not clearly observed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the changes that occur during PET / CT scan with open mouth and its usefulness under. Materials and Methods From June 2015 to March 2016 complained of herein by May 21 had received a diagnosis of tongue cancer underwent PET / CT scan patients were treated with a target (16 males, 5 female). The first was taken to close mouth Torso state, it was taken to add 1 bed open mouth condition. Tumor (T), measuring the Normal Tongue (NT), Lymph Node (LN) standard intake coefficient by setting a region of interest in the (standardized uptake value, SUV) SUVmean, the average value was measured SUVmax, drawn to each region of interest 3 times and Background (Carotid artery) was out of the SUV. In Chapter 3 of the slice to the tumor clearly visible by setting the region of interest to measure the change Tumor size was calculated average value. Gross Image resolution assessment were analyzed statistically through were divided into 1-5 points by the Radiation 7 people in 2, more than five years worked in specialized nuclear medicine compare to proceed with the blind test nonparametric test (wilcoxon signed rank test). (SPSS ver.18) Results $SUV_{mean}$ T's were in close mouth $5.01{\pm}2.70$ with open mouth $5.48{\pm}2.88$ (P<0.05), $SUV_{max}$ were respectively $8.78{\pm}5.55$ and $9.70{\pm}5.99$ (P<0.05). $SUV_{mean}$ in the NT were respectively $0.43{\pm}0.30$ and $0.34{\pm}0.24$ (P=0.20), $SUV_{max}$ was $0.56{\pm}0.34$ and $0.45{\pm}0.25$ (P=0.204). LN $SUV_{mean}$ were respectively $1.62{\pm}1.43$ and $1.69{\pm}1.49$ (P=0.161), $SUV_{mean}$ was $2.09{\pm}1.88$ and $1.99{\pm}1.74$ (P=0.131). Tumor size change is close mouth $4.96{\pm}4.66cm^2$ $5.33{\pm}4.64cm^2$ with 7.45% increase was (P<0.05), gross image resolution evaluation is $2.87{\pm}0.73$, $3.77{\pm}0.68$ with open mouth examinations 30.5% increase was (P<0.05). Conclusion Tumor SUV on the changes that had an increase in open mouth during inspection, the normal tongue and lymph node, but there was no significant difference in the change slightly. It is also one open mouth PET / CT scan will provide improved image to all patients with tongue cancer, but it could be confirmed that similar overall through the blind test, or tumor size changes and showing a high resolution image. It can be the perfect alternative method for problems that occur when the close mouth Open mouth PET / CT scan, but is believed to be through the open mouth to observe the boundary of overlapping or tumor of the oral cavity other structures a little more clearly. Tongue cancer patients how to recommend that the shooting further open mouth PET / CT.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.448-455
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• 1999

Background: Recent developments in techniques of video-assisted thoracic surgery(VATS) and endoscopic equipment has expanded the application of video-assisted surgical procedures in the field of thoracic surgery. Especially, it will probably become the treatment of choice of spontaneous pneumothorax(SP). There is, however, a high recurrence rate, high cost, and paucity of long-term results. We report the results of postoperative follow-up and analyze perioperative parameters affected to recurrence, retrospectively. Material and Method: From march 1992 to march 1997, 276 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax underwent 292 VATS procedures. Conversion to open thoracotomy was necessitated in eight patients, and this patients excluded from the study. Result: The sex distribution was 249 males and 31 females. The mean age was 28.1 12.2 years(range, 15 to 69 years). Primary SP was 237cases(83.5%) and secondary SP was 47cases(16.5%). The major underlying lung diseases associated with secondary SP were tuberculosis 27cases(57.4%) and emphysema 8cases (38.3%). Operative indications included Ipsilateral recurrence 123(43.9%), persistent air-leak 53(18.9%), x-ray visible bleb 40(14.3%), tension 30(10.7%), contralateral recurrence 21(7.5%), uncomplicated first episode 8(2.9%), bilateral 3(1.1%), complicated episode 2(0.7%). Blebs were visualized in 247cases(87%) and 244cases(85.9%) performed stapled blebectomy. Early postoperative complications occurred in 33 cases(11.6%): 16 prolonged air-leak more than 5 days(four of them were required a second operation and found missed blebs); 5 bleeding; 5 empyema; 2 atelectasis; 1 wound infection. No deaths occured. The mean operative time was 52.8 23.1 minutes(range, 20 to 165 minutes). The mean d ration of chest tube drainage was 5.0 4.5 days(range, 2 to 37 days). The mean duration ofhospital stay was 8.2 5.5 days (range, 3 to 43days). At a mean follow-up 22.3 18.4 months(range, 1 to 65 months), 12 patients(4.2%) were lost to follow-up. There were 24 recurrences and seven patients underwent second operation and 6 patients(85.7%) were found the missed blebs. 12 perioperative parameters(age, sex, site, underlying disease, extent of collapse, operative indication, size of bleb, number of bleb, location of bleb, bleb management, pleural procedure, prolonged postoperative air-leak) were analyzed statistically to identify significant predictors of recurrence. The significant predictors of recurrence was the underlying disease[17.0%(8/47): 6.8%(16/237), p=0.038], prolonged postoperative air-leakage[37.5%(6/16): 6.7%(18/268), p=0.001], and pleural procedure [11.4%(19/167): 4.3%(5/117), p=0.034]. Blebectomy has less recurrence rate then non-blebectomy [8.2%(20/244) : 10.0%(4/40), p>0. 5]. However, this difference was not statistically significant(p=0.758). Conclusion: We conclude that it is important that we shoud careful finding of bleb during VATS due to reducing of recurrnece, and cases of no bleb identified and secondary spontaneous pneumothorax were indicated of pleurodectomy. VATS is a valid alternative to open procedure for the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax with less pain, shorter hospital stay, more rapid return to work, high patient acceptance, less scar and exellent cosmetics. But, there is high recurrence rate and high cost, and than it is necessary to evaluate of long-term results for recurrence and to observate carefully during VATS.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.193-216
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• 2020

Due to the recent mid- to long-term slump and falling growth rates in the global economy, interest in organizational structures that create new products or services as a new alternative to survive and develop in an opaque environment both internally and externally, and enhance organizational sustainability through changes in production methods and business innovation is increasing day by day. In this atmosphere, we agree that the growth of small and medium-sized venture companies has a significant impact on the national economy, and various efforts are being made to enhance the technological innovation capabilities of the members so that these small and medium-sized venture companies can enhance and sustain their performance. The purpose of this study is also to investigate how the technological innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized venture companies correlate with the performance of knowledge management and to analyze the role of network capabilities to organize the strategic activities of enterprise to obtain the resources and organizational capabilities to be used for value creation from external networks. In other words, research was conducted on the impact of technological innovation capabilities of small and medium venture companies on knowledge management performance by using network capabilities as parameters. Therefore, in this study, we would like to verify the hypothesis that innovation capabilities will have a positive impact on knowledge management performance by using network capabilities of small and medium venture companies. Economic activities based on technological innovation capabilities should respond quickly to new changes in an environment where uncertainty has increased, and lead to macro-economic growth and development as well as overcoming long-term economic downturns so that they can become the nation's new growth engine as well as sustainable growth and survival of the organization. In addition, this study was conducted by setting the most important knowledge management performance within the organization as a dependent variable. As a result, R&D and learning capabilities among technological innovation capabilities have no impact on financial performance. In contrast, it was shown that corporate innovation activities have a positive impact on both financial and non-financial performance. The fact that non-financial factors such as quality and productivity improvement are identified in the management of small and medium-sized venture companies utilizing their technological innovation capabilities is contrary to a number of studies by those corporate innovation activities affect financial performance during prior research. The reason for this result is that research companies have been out of start-up companies for more than seven years, but sales are less than 10 billion won, and unlike start-up companies, R&D and learning capabilities have more positive effects on intangible non-financial performance than financial performance. Corporate innovation activities have been shown to have a positive (+) impact on both financial and non-financial performance, while R&D and learning capabilities have a positive (+) impact on financial performance by parameters of network capability. Corporate innovation activities have been shown to have no impact on both financial and non-financial performance, and R&D and learning capabilities have no impact on non-financial performance. It could be seen that the parameter effects of network competency are limited to when R&D and learning competencies are derived from quantitative financial performance. It could be seen that the parameter effects of network competency are limited to when R&D and learning competencies are derived from quantitative financial performance.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.86-90
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• 2012

Purpose: We studied the need for distal clavicle resection by comparing rotator cuff tear patients who underwent non-surgical treatment with and without acromioclavicular joint pathology. Materials and Methods: 45 cases that had been under follow up care for at least 9 months after receiving rotator cuff repair in our hospital between Jan. 2005 and Jun. 2011 had been studied. Acromioclavicular joint pathology group and control group were classified by physical examination and MRI findings. The temporal changes in shoulder joint abduction, internal and external rotation strength, ASES and KSS score of the two groups were measured and analyzed. Results: The acromioclavicular joint pathology complicated rotator cuff injury group's strength measurements for abduction, internal rotation, external rotation were each 8.05 (${\pm}4.54$), 11.33 (${\pm}6.05$), 10.24 (${\pm}5.27$) preoperatively and improved to 13.26 (${\pm}5.50$), 17.51 (${\pm}6.80$), 15.60 (${\pm}5.37$) post operatively while the KSS score and ASES score were each 49.07 (${\pm}15.28$) and 48.65 (${\pm}13.27$) preoperatively, improving to 84.48 (${\pm}10.96$) and 84.65. (${\pm}9.86$). The measurements for the group without complicating acromioclavicular pathology are as follows. The strength for abduction, internal rotation, external rotation was each 6.42 (${\pm}3.11$), 7.59 (${\pm}4.81$) and 7.93 (${\pm}4.49$) preoperatively, improving to 15.85 (${\pm}7.35$), 19.18 (${\pm}9.14$), 16.95 (${\pm}5.70$) post operatively, while the KSS score and ASES score each went from 42.12 (${\pm}6.43$) and 41.37 (${\pm}7.42$) to 83.44 (${\pm}6.30$) and 83.17 (${\pm}7.01$) respectively. The measurements for the two groups, however, did not show a statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusion: Analysis of the rotator cuff injury groups with and without AC joint pathology showed that both groups had improved strength, ASES and KSS scores with no statistical difference difference among the groups. As such, it thought that conservative treatment is an acceptable alternative to distal clavicle resection.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.642-652
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• 2008

The aim of our research was to apply experimental design methodology in the optimization condition of Photo-Fenton oxidation of the residual livestock wastewater after the coagulation process. The reactions of Photo-Fenton oxidation were mathematically described as a function of parameters amount of Fe(II)($x_1$), $H_2O_2(x_2)$ and pH($x_3$) being modeled by the use of the Box-Behnken method, which was used for fitting 2nd order response surface models and was alternative to central composite designs. The application of RSM using the Box-Behnken method yielded the following regression equation, which is an empirical relationship between the removal(%) of livestock wastewater and test variables in coded unit: Y = 79.3 + 15.61x$_1$ - 7.31x$_2$ - 4.26x$_3$ - 18x$_1{^2}$ - 10x$_2{^2}$ - 11.9x$_3{^2}$ + 2.49x$_1$x$_2$ - 4.4x$_2$x$_3$ - 1.65x$_1$x$_3$. The model predicted also agreed with the experimentally observed result(R$^2$ = 0.96) The results show that the response of treatment removal(%) in Photo-Fenton oxidation of livestock wastewater were significantly affected by the synergistic effect of linear terms(Fe(II)($x_1$), $H_2O_2(x_2)$, pH(x$_3$)), whereas Fe(II) $\times$ Fe(II)(x$_1{^2}$), $H_2O_2$ $\times$ $H_2O_2$(x$_2{^2}$) and pH $\times$ pH(x$_3{^2}$) on the quadratic terms were significantly affected by the antagonistic effect. $H_2O_2$ $\times$ pH(x$_2$x$_3$) had also a antagonistic effect in the cross-product term. The estimated ridge of the expected maximum response and optimal conditions for Y using canonical analysis were 84 $\pm$ 0.95% and (Fe(II)(X$_1$) = 0.0146 mM, $H_2O_2$(X$_2$) = 0.0867 mM and pH(X$_3$) = 4.704, respectively. The optimal ratio of Fe/H$_2O_2$ was also 0.17 at the pH 4.7.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.29-41
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• 2012

This paper undertakes a conceptual review of transaction cost to broaden the understanding of the transaction cost analysis (TCA) approach. More than 40 years have passed since Coase's fundamental insight that transaction, coordination, and contracting costs must be considered explicitly in explaining the extent of vertical integration. Coase (1937) forced economists to identify previously neglected constraints on the trading process to foster efficient intrafirm, rather than interfirm, transactions. The transaction cost approach to economic organization study regards transactions as the basic units of analysis and holds that understanding transaction cost economy is central to organizational study. The approach applies to determining efficient boundaries, as between firms and markets, and to internal transaction organization, including employment relations design. TCA, developed principally by Oliver Williamson (1975,1979,1981a) blends institutional economics, organizational theory, and contract law. Further progress in transaction costs research awaits the identification of critical dimensions in which transaction costs differ and an examination of the economizing properties of alternative institutional modes for organizing transactions. The crucial investment distinction is: To what degree are transaction-specific (non-marketable) expenses incurred? Unspecialized items pose few hazards, since buyers can turn toalternative sources, and suppliers can sell output intended for one order to other buyers. Non-marketability problems arise when specific parties' identities have important cost-bearing consequences. Transactions of this kind are labeled idiosyncratic. The summarized results of the review are as follows. First, firms' distribution decisions often prompt examination of the make-or-buy question: Should a marketing activity be performed within the organization by company employees or contracted to an external agent? Second, manufacturers introducing an industrial product to a foreign market face a difficult decision. Should the product be marketed primarily by captive agents (the company sales force and distribution division) or independent intermediaries (outside sales agents and distribution)? Third, the authors develop a theoretical extension to the basic transaction cost model by combining insights from various theories with the TCA approach. Fourth, other such extensions are likely required for the general model to be applied to different channel situations. It is naive to assume the basic model appliesacross markedly different channel contexts without modifications and extensions. Although this study contributes to scholastic research, it is limited by several factors. First, the theoretical perspective of TCA has attracted considerable recent interest in the area of marketing channels. The analysis aims to match the properties of efficient governance structures with the attributes of the transaction. Second, empirical evidence about TCA's basic propositions is sketchy. Apart from Anderson's (1985) study of the vertical integration of the selling function and John's (1984) study of opportunism by franchised dealers, virtually no marketing studies involving the constructs implicated in the analysis have been reported. We hope, therefore, that further research will clarify distinctions between the different aspects of specific assets. Another important line of future research is the integration of efficiency-oriented TCA with organizational approaches that emphasize specific assets' conceptual definition and industry structure. Finally, research of transaction costs, uncertainty, opportunism, and switching costs is critical to future study.