• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.253-257
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• 2005

In our previous study, Soamsan, a traditional Oriental medicine, was shown to enhance the induction of antigen-specific immune responses, and it was speculated that the enhancing activity might be closely associated with glycoproteins contained within the medicine. To elucidate this speculation, protein samples from each component, used in the preparation of Soamsan, were obtained and their immune stimulating activities were tested with mouse splenocytes. All the samples markedly enhanced the lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine secretion by the mouse splenocytes. In particular, the enhancement was significantly higher with the protein sample treatments than with those of the original crude sample. Furthermore, the pronase E- and $NaIO_4$-mediated inhibition of splenocyte-stimulation activity of the protein samples clearly supported that glycoproteins are the main class of active ingredients responsible for the lymphocyte stimulating activity of the samples. Consequently, our findings suggest that glycoproteins might have a pivotal role in Soamsan-mediated immune modulation, although the in vivo effect of the glycoproteins should be further elucidated.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

Purpose - This study examines the relationship between organizational justice and employee job satisfaction and the extent of its moderation by perceived alternative job opportunities. Research design, data, and methodology - This is a cross-sectional study utilizing survey questionnaire data from 220 bank employees, which included scales measuring organizational justice, job satisfaction, and perceived alternative job opportunities. Results - The data is analyzed using correlation and hierarchical regression. Results demonstrated that organizational justice has a direct positive impact on employee job satisfaction further, distributive justice explains more variance in job satisfaction, followed by procedural justice and interactive justice. Perceived alternative job opportunities moderate the relationship between organizational justice and job satisfaction. Conclusions - Generally, organizational justice increases bank employees' job satisfaction; however, when they perceived more job opportunities, their job dissatisfaction increased notwithstanding fairness. Therefore, perceived job opportunities moderate the relationship between organizational justice and job satisfaction. Retaining skilled employees has become difficult, especially when there is market demand for skilled workers. Human resource (HR) managers should consider market situations before formulating policies; otherwise, they may lose the competitive advantage of skilled employees and workers.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.69-90
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• 2012

This paper explores the effect of the countercyclical capital buffer using a DSGE (Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium) model with a banking sector. The main results are following. First, if the CAR (capital asset ratio) rises by 1%p as the countercyclical capital buffer, output and credit would increase less than otherwise by 0.8%p and 1.2%p, respectively. Second, the countercyclical capital buffer would decrease both credit and debt of banks, or deposit, and, as a result, boost the CAR. However, if we are going to use monetary policy to control credit expansion by allowing the interest rate to respond to credit, bank capital would also diminish, which would cause the CAR to be lower.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2000

A two-dimensional numerical model was applied to investigate the sediment transport and sand bank formation in a macrotidal sea, the Kyunggi and Asan Bays. The tidal residual currents show quite complex pattern including counter-rotating eddies off the northwestern corner of the Dugjeok Island that reflect the promontory effect. Complex residual eddies are also present off the coast of the Taeanbando and in the Asan Bay. Net sediment transport pattern shows that sandy sediments in the Kyunggi and Asan Bays are generally transported landward from the outer sea suggesting sediment trapping inside the bays. This phenomenon may be related to the formation and maintenance of numerous sand banks in this macrotidal sea. Alternate occurrences of deposition and erosion predicted from the numerical model along the coast of the Taeanbando with strong deposition on the southwestern part of the 'Jangansatoe'(JSB), a large sand ridge off the coast of the Taeanbando appear to reflect the loose connection of JSB, The 'Joongangcheontoe', a central sand bank (CSB) with the main axis in the NW-SE direction in the Asan Bay may undergo a modification with strong deposition along the northeastern flank. These results indicate that the sand banks are actively modified and maintained by the strong tidal currents in this shallow macrotidal sea.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.133-143
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• 2020

The paper investigates the factors affecting the profitability of commercial banks in Asian developing countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. We use panel data of four entities; ten banks in Vietnam, eight banks in Malaysia, nine banks in Thailand and all 27 commercial banks from the period 2012 to 2016. Particularly, Return on Asset, Return on Equity and TOBINQ are defined as profitability indicators, which are impacted by three main types of independent variables, namely bank-specifics, which include CAR, NPL, Cost to income, Liquidity ratio and Bank size, industry-specific variable-concentration HHI and macroeconomic-specific variables, which consist of GDP growth and Inflation. Using panel data regressions, the paper identifies several similarities and differences among empirical results on the models of four entities, each of three countries and the overall sample. The most outstanding similarity is that all entities record the significantly negative relationship between operational risk and banking profitability. Likewise, the significantly negative influence of bank size to profitability is found on models of Vietnam and Thailand and no significant effect on the model of Malaysia. Meanwhile, the most controversial result comes up with the negative relationship between CAR and profitability indicators as well as the positive association between credit risk and banking profitability.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.7
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• pp.59-72
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• 2020

This paper examines whether lending structure can lower credit risk by employing econometric techniques of panel data for the Vietnamese banking system at the bank level used by economic sectors from 2011 to 2016. New light is being shed on assessing the impact of each industry's debt outstanding on credit risk. Adopting findings from previous studies, we assess credit risk from two different sources, including loan loss provision and non-performing loan. Moreover, we also focus on observing lending structure in many different aspects, from concentrative levels to the short-term and long-term stability levels of lending structure. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator was applied to analyze the relationship between concentration and banking risks. In general, the results show that lending concentration may decrease credit risk. It is interesting to observe that the Vietnamese commercial bank lending portfolios have, on average, higher levels of diversity across different sectors. In particular, the increase in hotel and restaurant lending contributes to decrease credit risk while the lending portfolios of banks in agriculture, electricity, gas and water increase credit risk. This study suggests the need for further analysis and research about portfolio risks in lending activities for maintaining efficiency and stability in the commercial banking system.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.327-339
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• 2021

This study examines the impact of bank restructuring on the financial performance of commercial banks in Vietnam. The data for this study was obtained from the audited financial statements of 30 Vietnamese commercial banks from 2007 to 2019. Multiple regression analysis was used for investigation. Financial performance, as evaluated by ROAA, ROEA, and NIM, is the dependent variable. Financial restructuring, ownership restructuring, and operational restructuring are the independent variables. Pooled least squares (Pooled OLS), fixed effects model (FEM), random effects model (REM), and system generalized moment regression model (System GMM) are the estimate methods used to increase the accuracy of the regression coefficient. The research results show that the variables of financial restructuring activities such as government intervention and the ratio of equity to total assets; variables of ownership restructuring such as capital adequacy ratio, privatization of state-owned commercial banks, mergers, and acquisitions; variables of operational restructuring such as employees, branches, the cost to total assets; GDP variables and the second restructuring period have a positive impact on financial performance. Variables such as debt-to-capital ratio, bad debt ratio, state ownership ratio, expense-income ratio, and inflation have a negative effect on financial performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.249-261
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• 2021

To tranquilize the devastating impact of unnecessary risk-taking behavior of banks towards the economy for maximizing their profits that usually arises due to widely known 'moral-hazard' problem originating from market competition and intensified by bank's limited liability, the banking system is strongly monitored across all countries of the world. The goal of controlling would become more feasible if there exist some self-discipline and motivations which could safeguard the banks' charter value through the mechanism of market discipline. Therefore, our study is aimed to scrutinize the relation between market discipline and charter value of local commercial banks that are registered on the Pakistan Stock Exchange by analyzing a balanced panel data from the year 2007 to 2019. Deposit growth, interbank deposits, and subordinate debt are taken as proxies to measure market discipline whereas Tobin's Q theory is applied for calculating the charter value. Generalized Least Square Regression with Fixed Effect Model is used for evaluation. The outcomes reveal that in the existence of control variables, all proxies of market discipline have a significant positive impact on bank charter value. Our research has important policy implications for monitoring and supervising financial intermediaries for their stability and soundness by offsetting the complications of moral-hazard in the financial systems.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.421-431
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• 2021

This study investigates the empirical linkages between ASEAN countries' institutional quality and financial inclusion using country data from 2008-2019. In this paper, six governance indicators from the World Governance index are used to measure the impact of institutions on financial inclusion. The PCA method's financial inclusion index is constructed from 3 indicators: penetration, access, and usage: penetration, access, and usage with six indices respectively as the number of ATMs per 1000 km², the number of bank branches per 1000 km², the number of ATMs per 100,000 people and the number of bank branches for 100,000 adults, the ratio of credit to private to GDP, and the ratio of deposit to private to GDP. Regression analysis with the Generalized Moments method shows the positive impact of institutions and other control variables like GDP per capita, inflation, bank concentration, and human development index on financial inclusion. Therefore, this study recommends that the government and policymakers in countries pursue the financial inclusion agenda to pay attention to the financial and economic indicators and institutional factors. This is because many savers, borrowers, and investors may not be protected when financial contracts are enforced or breaches occur in an environment where economic, legal, judicial, and political institutions are weak, such as in ASEAN countries.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1081-1092
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• 2021

In this study, the effect on the stability of Aerobic Granular Sludge (AGS) caused by an AGS separator was investigated. The AGS separator was a hydrocyclone. The main factors of the AGS separator were filter pore size (0.125~0.600 mm), conical-to-cylindrical ratio (1.5~3.0), and operating time (1~20 min). The AGS/mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) ratio gradually increased to 0.500 mm (AGS/MLSS: 84.3±3.0%). AGS was best separated at the conical-to-cylindrical ratio of 2.5 (AGS/MLSS: 84.7±3.3%). As the operating time increased, the AGS separation performance also tended to increase. The shortest AGS separator run time, but the highest AGS separation performance was 10 min (87.0±2.5%). AGS stability was evaluated by operating the selected AGS separator and sequencing batch reactor. The average removal efficiencies of TOC, TCOD_Cr, SS, TN, and TP were 95.7%, 96.9%, 93.0%, 89.0%, and 96.2%, respectively, which met the effluent standards in Korea. In addition, the AGS/MLSS ratio tended to remain constant, and the sludge volume index demonstrated a tendency to decrease from 140 mL/g to 70 mL/g. During the operation, the particles of AGS in optical microscope observations gradually increased.