• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-37
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• 2000

Since the early 1990s, the Korean courts have tilted in the direction of giving greater freedom to employers by relaxing the restrictions on dismissal for economic reasons. During the Korean economic crisis of 1998, the Korean Labor Standard Act was also revised for the purpose of relieving the limitation of employer's discretion in employment adjustment. From the Coasian perspective, this article analyze how implied contracts for the employee's reliance and employer's compliance might be influenced after the formal law is revised. We demonstrate that, if the legal change results in excessive intervention, it might cause the employers to over-breach, the employees to under-rely, and the accompanying efficiency to decrease. We scrutinize the total population of unjust dismissal cases since 1987 in order to investigate how the legal changes in Korea have affected the implied contracts. Our empirical analysis raises a possibility that Korean legal changes made in 1990s might have increased the employer's opportunism and decreased the employer's reliance effort.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.319-324
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• 2007

Purpose: Necrotizing fasciitis is a rapid progressive, life-threatening disease. Many organisms have been identified for causative pathogens of necrotizing fasciitis. And necrotizing fasciitis caused by Vibrio vulnificus is a matter of grace concern in Southwest seashore of Korea recently. But concrete analysis between these pathogens was not executed yet. Methods: Sixty necrotizing fasciitis patients were included in this study. We divided the patients into 2 groups: Group A was the case which Vibrio vulnificus was cultured for causative pathogen of necrotizing fasciitis, and Group B was the case of other organisms. And we analysed each group for treatment, progression and prognosis. Results: There was no significant difference between two groups in total hospital stay but there was a great difference in ICU stay and progression to septic shock. Also, there was a great difference in mortality within 48 hours but there was no difference in mortality of 48 hours after hospital visit. Conclusion: This indicates that intial management of necrotizing fasciitis cased by Vibrio vulnificus is the key of treatment. So initial medical management with early surgical intervention is necessary for necrotizing fasciitis.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2013

Purpose: Traumatic pancreas injuries are rare conditions that result in high morbidity and mortality. Thus, early diagnosis and intervention are very important to manage pancreatic injuries. The purpose of this study is to review the management and outcomes of the pancreatic injuries in the Korean population. Methods: Original articles published from January 2001 to December 2012 and addressing the Korean population were selected by using indices such as 'pancreas injury', 'traumatic pancreas injury', and 'pancreatic trauma' to search KoreaMed and PubMed. Nine reports were selected to review the management options for surgery or endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography. We assessed the injury mechanisms, injury severities, associated injuries, types of operation, and outcomes. Results: Two hundred fifty of the 332 patients included in the 9 selected reports were men, and the mean age of all patients was 36.4 years. The main injury mechanism was traffic accidents(65.6%). Most patients had grade II or III injuries(68.9%). The most common extra-pancreatic injury site was the liver, followed by the chest and spleen. Operative management, including distal pancreatectomies(129), drainage procedures(64), pancreaticoduodenectomies(23), and others(60), was used for 276 patients. The reported mortality rate was 10.2%, and the morbidity rate ranged from 38% to 76.9%. The average length of hospital stay was 39.5 days. Risk factors for mortality were amount of transfusion, injury severity, base deficit, age, and presence of shock. Conclusion: In this study, we found neither significant data nor a consensus. If national guidelines are to be developed and established, a national data bank or registry, and nationwide data collection are required.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Organic Agriculture Conference
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• 2009.12a
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• pp.284-284
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• 2009

EFA production systems have through necessity resulted in the development of innovative practices for weed, pest and diseases control, for example, using ducks and snails for weed control in paddy fields. These practices began to be introduced in the early 1990's and the techniques have become more popular and have been adapted to suit regional conditions. In this study, the production practices, productivity and economic performances of organic and non-chemical rice farming adopting ducks and snails for weed control were compared. In the production practices, Korean organic and non-chemical farming seem to have several concerns in terms of sustainability. It comprises lack of resistant variety use and rotational cropping system as well as high dependency upon external inputs such as organic fertilizer and farming materials for pest control. The production level of organic farming is approximately similar level but 20% higher income than non-chemical farming, while, when it was compared with conventional farming organic farming showed 20% lower productivity but 20% higher income. Organic farming shows 15% to 18% higher profits than non-chemical farming as the snail-using organic farming tends to have higher income and lower input costs than duck-using organic farming. This may encourage more farmers to convert to organic production using these techniques than simply non-chemical farming in the future. This organic conversion could be more promoted by policy intervention. However, it may result in increased supply and therefore decreased prices for organic rice in the long term unless further market demand occurs. Balanced policy measures considering production as well as marketing and consumption are urgently required for the sustainable development of organic farming.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.27 no.11C
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• pp.1178-1188
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• 2002

Local Loop Unbundling(LLU) has been understood as the way of facilitate the competition on the access and the local telephone service market. There are major benefits of stimulating the competition in the local service, avoiding access network duplication and reducing in environmental disruption. However, LLU has several disadvantages such as removing incentives for building alternative access networks, undermining existing investment in alternative access networks, introducing new substantial costs to the industry and requiring prolonged and detailed regulatory intervention. The economic effects of LLU generally will be different according to the special situation of each countries and the object of LLU. In case of EU, most of countries have already introduced and implemented LLU. But EU can't expect the economic effects on LLU emerged in the early stage of introducing it and faced with dilemma. To be realized the successful implementation of LLU, I think, it is required to be reviewed about the main issues such as the problem of regulation, the reasonable level of LLU pricing and the technical & operational problems.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1404-1415
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• 1992

To understand the factors influencing Atrial fibrillation and embolism in mitral valve surgery and prevent their risk, we have reviewed our 324 patients who underwent mitral valve surgery from Fev. 1982 to May 1992. Age, disease duration, lesion type, left ventricular function and left atrial dimension were chosen as preoperative factors influencing the incidence of atrial fibrillation and embolism and their postoperative course, The number and type of replaced valve, site of atriotmy, LA obliteration, ACT and use of Defibrillator were chaser. as operative factors influencing postoperative rhythm change and postop emb-olization. The results of analyses were as follows 1. The incidence of preoperative atrial fibrillation, systemic embolism and LA throbmus was 63. 6%, 10.56% and 19.8% relatively. 2. The preoperative factors of atrial fibrillation onset was old age, prolonged symptom duration, stenotic lesion, lager LAD and lower ejection fraction. In the preoperative systemic embolism preoperative factors were old age, female, stenotic lesion. The left atrial thrombus found more commonly in patients with atrial fibrillation, old age, prolonged symptom duration, stenotic lesion and low ejection fraction. 3. The preoperative atrial fibriation persisted postoperatively in 165[50.9%] and converted to normal sinus rhythm in 50[15.4%]. The preoperative normal sinus rhythm per-eisted in 100[31%] and atrial fibrillation was occured postoperatively in 9[2.7%]. The prolonged symptom duration was the preoperative factor of persist atrial fibrillation. 4. Among 95 long term follow-up patients, atiral fibrillation was continued in 59[60%]. Conversion to normal sinus rhythm was more common significantly in left atriotomy and bileaflet valve replacement. 5. There were 12 patients who had postoperative embolism. Female, persist atrial fibrillation, no LA olbiteration and tilting disc monocusp valve were considered as possible factors influencing postoperative embolism but was impossible to analyse their statistical significance due to small sample size. So we have concluded that the patients with above risk factors need anticoagulant and early surgical intervention. Left atriotomy with minimal atrial injury, left auricular obliteration and bileaflet valve replacement may be needed to reduce postoperative atrial fibrillation persist and embolism.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.235-246
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• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare and assess the effects of lumbar stabilization exercise on the balance ability of young college studets with low back pain after having performed spinal stabilization exercise by using 3-dimensional air-balance system and gym ball. Methods: The subjects of this study were 34 low back patients in their early twenties. They were divided into two groups: 3-dimensional lumbar stabilization exercise group(N=17) and gym ball lumbar stabilization exercise group(N=17). The period of the intervention was for five weeks. VAS(Visual Analogue Scale) for pain test, ODI(Oswestry Disability Index) for ADL limitation test, Tetrax system for static balance test, and Air-balance system 3D for dynamic balance test were used as evaluation tools for this study. Results: Pain showed significant decrease in both groups after having performed the experiment, but ADL limitation of the groups did not show any remarkable difference between before and after the experiment. Dynamic balance ability in the 8-directional angle comparison test significantly increased in all directions except for the backward, left-backward, and right-backward directions. As for dynamic balance ability in the 8-directional postural test, 3D exercise group showed statistically significant reduction in every direction while gym ball exercise group did not(p<.05). However, when it comes to static balance ability in the weight distribution and stability test, there was not significantly change between pre and post test in both groups. Conclusion: This study shows 3-dimensional lumbar stabilization exercise is more effective in the lumbar stabilization of coordinated movement than gym ball exercise, which may imply that 3D air-balance system can be used for the therapeutic treatment of body imbalance for patients with low back pain.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.529-534
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• 2014

Background In 2012, a new anatomic breast implant of form-stable silicone gel was introduced onto the Korean market. The intended use of this implant is in the area of aesthetic breast surgery, and many reports are promising. Thus far, however, there have been no reports on the use of this implant for breast reconstruction in Korea. We used this breast implant in breast reconstruction surgery and report our early experience. Methods From November 2012 to April 2013, the Natrelle Style 410 form-stable anatomically shaped cohesive silicone gel-filled breast implant was used in 31 breasts of 30 patients for implant breast reconstruction with an acellular dermal matrix. Patients were treated with skin-sparing mastectomies followed by immediate breast reconstruction. Results The mean breast resection volume was 240 mL (range, 83-540 mL). The mean size of the breast implants was 217 mL (range, 125-395 mL). Breast shape outcomes were considered acceptable. Infection and skin thinning occurred in one patient each, and hematoma and seroma did not occur. Three cases of wound dehiscence occurred, one requiring surgical intervention, while the others healed with conservative treatment in one month. Rippling did not occur. So far, complications such as capsular contracture and malrotation of breast implant have not yet arisen. Conclusions By using anatomic breast implants in breast reconstruction, we achieved satisfactory results with aesthetics better than those obtained with round breast implants. Therefore, we concluded that the anatomical implant is suitable for breast reconstruction.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2003

This study was conducted to investigate the subjective degree of fatigue, the degree of fatigue depending on analysis of MMPI and SDNN in middle-aged women. Data were collected from 51 patients, registered at Oriental Medicine Hospital in J-city and K-city respectively. The instrument used in this study were the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue developed by Belza(1995) and revised by Jung & Kim(1999) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI) and Standard Deviation of Normal to Normal(SDNN). The collected data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 9.0 program using frequencies, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test. The degree of fatigue in middle-aged women: the average score 30.61 out of the total score 40. Subdivision of fatigue scores: common fatigue degree 7.71, distress due to fatigue 7.67, degree of daily activity fatigue 7.43, and fatigue frequency in the previous week 7.84. The degree of fatigue according to subjective recognition was shown significant difference(t=6.707, p=.000).: group of recognition (33.58), group of ignorance (23.47). The degree of fatigue according to MMPI was shown significant difference. : In the group of recognition, scales of Hs, D, Hy, Pt were higher. The degree of fatigue according to SDNN was shown significant difference (T=-4.062, P=.000). : group of recognition (33.47ms), group of ignorance (45.70ms). The total fatigue score and scales of Hs, D, Hy in MMPI was correlated positively (r=.576; r=.466; r=.518), and total fatigue score and SDNN was correlated negatively (r=-.576). Conclusively fatigue is one of difficult problems in middle-aged women. Therefore it is necessary to develope some nursing intervention for reducing fatigue in its early stages.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 1980

This study was performed to obtain an accurate methods of diagnosis in early stage of traumatic pericarditis and myocarditis in ruminants. Korean native goats were used as experimental animal and traumatic pericarditis and myocarditis were induced by surgical intervention. The changes in clinical signs, hematological values, blood enzymes and electrocardigrams were observed for 14 days after operation. The results obtained were as follows: 1. Body temperature in experimental group of induced traumatic pericarditis and myocarditis was slightly increased than control group that was rumenotomized. Heart rate was increased in both groups but the increased rate was noticed remarkably in experimental group. There was no change in respiratory rate in experimental and control group. 2. Total leucocytes counts and neutrophil percentage maintained higher level after operation and lymphocytes percentage noticed reversed proportion to neutrophil in both groups. 3. Serum total protein concentration and alkaline phosphatase activities after operation showed a little lower levels than these values prior to operation. Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and lactic dehydrogenase activities in control group showed slight increase through all the experimental period, while in experimental group these activities were markedly elevated and an increase in serum lactic dehydrogenase activities was more remarkable comparing to serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase. 4. Electrocardiograms in control group did not show any abnormalities except for slight increase in heart rate. In experimental group the amplitude of QRS complex was increased in duration of experimental period. The transference from QRS complex to T wave was uncertain and S-T segment moved upward obliquely through electrical zero line.