• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2707-2711
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• 2014

Introduction: Smoking prevalence among the medical students is high in China. Therefore, understanding the smoking motivations of medical students is crucial for smoking control, but currently there are no scales questionnaires customized for probing the smoking motivations of medical students. This aim of study was to test and modify a questionnaire for investigating smoking motivations among medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,125 medical students at Xuzhou Medical College in China in 2012.The model fit and validity was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the reliability was tested by single-item reliability, composite reliability, and item-total correlation. Results: The prevalence of smoking was 9.84 % among study population. In the modified scales, the global fit indices identified a CFI value of 0.96, TLI was 0.96, and the RMSEA was 0.063. CFA supported the two dimensional structure of the instrument. The average variance extracted ranged from 0.45 to 0.62. All single-item reliability scores were greater than 0.20, and the composite reliability ranged from 0.74 to 0.91. Conclusion: Modified scales could be the preliminary instrument used in evaluating the smoking motivations of medical students. However, it should be further assessed using other forms and methods of validity and reliability, additional motivations of smoking, and the survey of other medical colleges in China.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.9679-9685
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• 2014

Background: When evaluating health-economics for cervical cancer prevention policies in Japan, it is important to use Japanese value settings. This study aimed to obtain preference-based measures (preference measures) for hypothesized health states among healthy Japanese women, and to examine differences between the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) and standard gamble (SG) instruments. Materials and Methods: The investigation was performed among female students at a nursing university. We used written hypothetical scenarios describing three grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and eight stages of cervical cancer, both at diagnosis and after medical intervention. Preference measures were evaluated using both EQ-5D and SG. Results: We received responses from 136 women. The mean number of respondents per stage was 24.6 (SD: 2.7). At diagnosis, average EQ-5D scores for CIN1, CIN2, CIN3, IA1, IA2, IB1, IB2, IIA, IIB, III, and IV stages were 0.84 (0.14), 0.78 (0.12), 0.73 (0.10), 0.78 (0.12), 0.72 (0.12), 0.63 (0.13), 0.64 (0.12), 0.68 (0.08), 0.62 (0.13), 0.55 (0.21), and 0.18 (0.24), respectively. Using one-way analysis of variance with the Tukey-Kramer method for multiple comparisons (each stage vs. CIN1), we found significant differences for IB1 and more advanced stages (p<0.05). After medical intervention, corresponding EQ-5D scores were 0.84 (0.12), 0.81 (0.12), 0.84 (0.12), 0.80 (0.15), 0.78 (0.11), 0.64 (0.15), 0.63 (0.15), 0.71 (0.15), 0.50 (0.17), 0.52 (0.17), 0.21 (0.28). The multiple comparisons identified significant differences for IB1 and more advanced stages, excepting IIA (p<0.05). SG evaluations were more variable and relatively higher than EQ-5D evaluations. Conclusions: We obtained preference measures for three grades of CIN1-3 and eight stages of cervical cancer. In combination with appropriate sensitivity analyses, these preference measures will provide a basis for an economic evaluation of cervical cancer prevention in Japan. We suggest that EQ-5D is appropriate for cost-utility analysis of this topic.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2014

A study on combustion characteristic and evaluation of cost benefit were carried out using dried sewage sludge to evaluate co-combustion with coal in a coal-fired power plant. In the result of proximate analysis, sewage sludge has 78.09%, 79.65% of moisture content in A STP(Sewage Treatment Plant) and B STP, respectively. The dried sewage sludges show 0.12, 0.14 of fuel ratio value, respectively and over 30,000kcal/kg of combustible index. It means that the dried sewage sludges needs to reform from the results of fuel ratio and combustible index. As a results of the economical benefit evaluation of dried sewage sludge, about 73.4 million won through using the dried sewage sludges instead of coal and 56.4 million won through REC(Renewable Energy Certificate) cost were saved, respectively. On the other hand, it occurs 4.2 million won of additional cost related to ash disposal and 2.6 million won of investment/operation cost for co-combustion facility. In conclusion, co-combustion of dried sewage sludges with coal in a coal-fired power plant saves about 123 million won. However, it needs to consider for power supply to produce dried sewage sludges and opportunity cost for environmental pollution and so on to evaluate more reasonable benefit of co-combustion.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.21-55
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• 2014

The rates of technological innovation and environmental change as well as market competition have recently accelerated, which makes it difficult for firms to satisfy the needs of their customers through existing product innovation or limited services. Some firms have attempted to find the solutions to this problem by conducting business model (BM) innovation. This study reviews the theoretical discussion to BM innovation and suggests propositions concerning the necessity of BM innovation and conditions of successful BM innovation. Furthermore, the study examines the applicability of the propositions and draws strategic implications by analysing the cases of two world-wide leading firms, AVL and ETAS, in the automobile R&D service sector. In particular, the study investigates how the firms with technological competence in the R&D service sector obtain market performance through BM innovation. Results of this study show that the case firms recognize the necessity of BM innovation based on product (or technology)-service fusion to effectively propose customer value and create corporate profit. Also, the firms exploit firm-specific complementary assets for successful BM innovation. This paper contributes to the literature of innovation management by promoting academic discussion concerning BM innovation in Korea and suggesting strategic implications for further development of R&D service sector and related firms in Korea.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.123-138
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• 2018

In this paper, we use panel dataset from Korean linked worker-firm to analyse the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity or labor costs. We measure 'labor productivity' as added value per capita, 'cost of labor' as labor cost per capita and estimate a dynamic panel model to study the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity or labor costs. Empirical analysis results show that the workforce age structure is positively related to productivity and labor costs, but only up to the aged of 35-39. That is, we find that an increase in the proportion of younger workers or elder workers rather than the aged 35-39 has a negative effect on productivity and labor cost. In particular, the difference between the estimation coefficient of productivity and labor cost when the share of workers aged 50 or older is increased instead of the aged 35-39 is higher than the difference between the estimation coefficient of productivity and labor cost when the share of workers aged 30 or younger is increased instead of the aged 35-39. Our results exhibit that it is reasonable for firms to worry about declining productivity of elderly workers, whereas firms already used older workers efficiently, such as by adjusting their labor costs.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2011

The Construction New Excellent Technology was introduced to promote the development of domestic construction technology and enhance national competitiveness, by inspiring the development desire of technology developers in 1989. Domestic Construction New Excellent Technology is first introduced in 1989, the total 596 cases were assigned to the new technology and it was used the construction site. Also, it was achieved the quantitative performance of thirty-hundred applications and was effected to the domestic construction industry. However, the systematic analysis about the introduction effects of Construction New Excellent Technology are none. Therefore, the quantitative analysis of economic effects in construction industry have to a justification in according to operation of Construction New Excellent Technology system and verification of superiority. And then, the Construction New Excellent Technology system needs a developing base in the future. In this study, The Economic Impacts of Construction New Excellent Technology were analyzed in quantitatively such as a cost savings effects, the employment effects, the effects on Value-added, the import substitution effects due to use of Construction New Excellent Technology. This study will be used promotion of economics and superiority in the Construction New Excellent Technology.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.137-150
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• 2011

$CO_{2}$ mineral carbonation technology, fixation technology of $CO_{2}$ as carbonates, is considered to be an alternative to the $CO_{2}$ geological storage technology, which can perform small- or medium-scale $CO_{2}$ storage. We provide the current R&D status of the mineral carbonation with special emphasis on the technical and economical feasibility of $CO_{2}$ mineral carbonation taken into consideration of the domestic geological and industrial environment. Given that the domestic industry produces relatively large amount of the industrial by-products, it is expected that the technology play a pivotal role on the $CO_{2}$ reduction countermeasure, reaching the potential storage capacity to 12Mt-$CO_{2}$/yr. The economics of the overall process should be improved via the development of advanced technologies on the pretreatment of raw materials, method/solvents for metal extraction, enhanced kinetics of carbonation reactions, heat integration, and the production of highly value-added carbonates.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the role of capitalized intangibles such as patents, copy rights and R&D and non-capitalized intangibles such as advertising expenses and labor-related expenses, which are considered to be important to generating future excess profits, on the valuation of IPO shares. This study examines 125 firms which went public during 1992 - 1998. The result suggests that advertising expenses do not have significant influence on the offer price and the market price of IPO shares. On the other hand, R&D and labor-related expenses play important role in determining the offer price and the market price of IPO shares. In case of capitalized intangible assets, they we important factors in determining the market price but not the of for price. This study suspects that the Securities and Exchange Law of the Korean Securities Exchange Commission potentially contribute to the result of no effect of capitalized intangibles (except R&D) on the offer price by underwriters. According to the Law, any intangible assets which are considered to be irrelevant to the valuation of IPO shares must be exclued. This is very ambiguous and potentially cause underwriters to exclude any intangibles difficult to measure their value. However the market considers capitalized intangibles to be important, as suggested by the result of this study. To reduce this valuation asymmetry, it is important to reveal detailed information regarding the valuation of assets, in particular, intangible assets to the public.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.3-27
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• 2010

In this paper, we have analyzed the cost structure of the Korean manufacturing industry in relation to the central government's environmental investment(CGEI below) by applying translog variable cost function. Important findings are as follows. First, sufficiency degree of CGEI of 0.7230, less than optimal level of 1, causes production inefficiency. Therefore, central government should forward a strategy to raise CGEI to meet appropriate standards. In addition, inspite of the deficiency of CGEI, shadow priceis lower than market price due to q-value of 0.9572, yielding unfavorable conditions for CGEI. However, CGEI brings about increase in output, variable cost saving, and economies of scale of firms. Second, by comparing this study with an existing study(2010), we have discovered the following facts. In both studies, we find that there are deficiency of investment, unfavorable conditions in investment, economies of scale, and output increase due to investment. However, the current study has found that, CGEI, which shows efficiency by positive(+) shadow price, saves variable cost. Therefore, firms suffer from production inefficiency due to variable cost caused by a shortage of efficient CGEI. Moreover, the previous study conducted in 2010 found that investment in prevention of environmental pollution(IPEP below), which indicates inefficiency by negative(-) shadow price, cannot reduce variable cost. In such circumstances, firms yield abnormal production efficiency based on variable cost savings caused by inefficient IPEP. For this reason, firms should raise IPEP to optimal level to reduce IPEP inefficiency to achieve production efficiency by reducing variable cost.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.95-110
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• 2001

The purpose of this research is to analyze how appropriately the sizing of domestically produced children's wear compares to children's sizes; it is based on an anthropometric survey conducted in 1998. By discovering and understanding discrepancies between the sizing system of children s wear and the real size of children, this study aims to suggest solutions that will lead to increased comfort and more suitable fitting in children's clothes. This research analyzes and compares 'the extent of growth between age groups' with 'the difference in sizing system in use by manufacturers'. The study focused on aged 4 to 12 children, who are usually divided in two groups; primary students and toddlers. In total, seven sizes were selected: bust, waist, and hip (which are girth sizes), and height, back neck to waist (top length), sleeve length, and waist to ankle (slacks length) as representing length. The results of this research are analyzed by basing on the actual increments between the sizes of children's wear in certain basic items rather than sizes themselves because each size quite differed according to companies, items and designs. Significantly, the increase in the sizing was not as great as the average biennial growth rate of children. The consequences are poorer fit and unsuitable representative value for each age group because the actual sizes of children increasingly differ from the sample size. Observing the increments in several sizes, we found that 81.8% of the companies used the certain and equal increases for grading sizes in sleeve length, waist, and bust. In addition, 72.7% of the companies adopted the same increments between sizes in height and hip girth, and 63.6% also chose equal increments in T-shirt length for making smaller or bigger sizes from the sample size. However, sleeve length and pant length were the components that displayed the most varied sizing. Interestingly, the few companies that used different increments between size groups, adopted the change only between one or two size groups, instead of all sizes. In conclusion, this research reveals the unsuitability of the current sizing system and the necessity to increase consumer confidence in the size tags on children's wear by modifying the system to reflect the actual growth of children. The results can also contribute to future study on the development of a new and more accurate sizing system for children's wear.