• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.23-49
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• 2007

Salespeople act at the point of MOT with customers and deliver the enterprise's message to the customers. They build up relationships with customers as well as deliver the customer's message to the enterprise. The salespeople's activity at the point of MOT with the customers and the degree of satisfaction of the customers' needs will affect the customers' attitude toward the enterprise, brand loyalty, and retention intention. Ultimately, it will influence the enterprise's financial performance. The control of salespe1ople is one of the most interesting topics of marketing. This research investigates the relationships of the control types over salespeople(positive/negative outcome control, positive/negative behavior control) and job satisfaction and their mediating variables. The mediating variables in the relationships have been identified as outcome/behavior-related role clarity and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is more specifically as follows: First, it investigate how the perception of salespeople control types affect role-clarity. Second, it examines how the perception of salespeople control types influence self-efficacy. Third, it investigate the mediating role of role-clarity between the perception of salespeople control types and self-efficacy. Fourth, it investigates how role-clarity affect self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Finally, it will investigates how self-efficacy influences job satisfaction. Data were collected from the pharmaceutical industry salespeople and analyzed by SPSS 12.0 and AMOS　6.0. The data were collected by 400 respondents and 377 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The results are summarized as follows: First, positive/negative outcome controls had a positive relationship with outcome-related role clarity. Also positive behavior control had a positive effect on behavior-related role clarity, but negative behavior control didn't influence behavior-related role clarity. Second, positive outcome control influenced self-efficacy positively, but positive behavior control didn't have a positive effect on self-efficacy. In addition negative outcome control and negative behavior control had a positive effect on self-efficacy due to the mediating role of outcome-related and behavior-related role clarity. Third, outcome-related role clarity and behavior-related role clarity influenced self-efficacy positively. Behavior-related role clarity had a positive effect on job satisfaction, but outcome-related role clarity didn't influence job satisfaction. Finally, self-efficacy didn't have any effect on job satisfaction. The contributions of this study are as follows: First, existing studies have investigated the direct causal relationship between salespeoples' control type and performance, but this study investigates the structural causality between salespeoples' control types, responses, and performances. Second, this study found the mediating role of outcome-related/behavior-related role-clarity between outcome/behavior control and self-efficacy. Finally, the findings of this study further insight to existing studies on the relationship between job satisfaction and self-efficacy. The confidence of salespeoples' task influenced job satisfaction positively in existing articles,field studies, but the relationship between these two variables was not significant in this study. This means that there can be a different relationship between confidence and job satisfaction according to salespeoples' business. That is, the business environment may not be satisfying, even if the salespeople say that they have ability and confidence about their business. This means that able salespeople who have ability and confidence about their business are not satisfied with their job advancement in the company. Therefore, enterprise need to provide training that can establish a business environment that can satisfy the salespeole's expectation level which will secure good salespeople. This study may have limitation when applied to future studies. First,in this study as with existing studies it investigates the control level that salespeople feel is being measured. Actuality, the control level that a manager enforces and the control level that salespeople perceive when one is late can be different. There is need to measure lateness from both the perspective of the manager and salespeople should be done to supplement this study in the future Second, this study used variables that were connected with action result but salespeople's job satisfaction is due to the result of control. But, focusing on result of control can provide a more important financial result than sales performance. This study is also limited in that it did not consider financial result by result of control. Further studies on this will need to be done in the future. Third, this study may have a further limitation,because the investigation was restricted to pharmaceutical salespeople selling to hospitals. It is necessary to execute investigations in various industries to increase the generalization of the study findings Fourth, in this study, role clarity and self-efficacy by response variable for control and considered job satisfaction by outcome variable of control was considered. But, can other variables be considered beside response variable and result variable for control? For example, can financial affairs and change of post by outcome variable along with business stress by response variable for control be considered? Therefore, future studies need to consider various control variables. Finally, there is limited supporting research in the field of marketing which restricts the generalization of the study finding along with collecting material through random sampling of a limited size. This research summarizes the research in this area, the difference from the previous research, and provides a discussion of its limitations and the need and direction for further future research.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.75-87
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• 1996

Background: Lung cancer is the second most frequent malignancy in man in Korea. Surgery is the best treatment modality for non-small cell lung cancer, but most patients were presented in far advanced stage. So radiation therapy(RT) with or without chemotherapy is the next choice and radiation-induced pneumonitis and pulmonary fibrosis is the major limiting factor for the curative RT. Radiation pneumonitis is manifested with fever, cough and dyspnea, 2~3 months after the termination of radiotherpy. Chest X ray shows infiltration, typically limited to the radiation field, but occasionally bilateral infiltration was reported. Also Gibson et al reported that BAL lymphocytosis was found in both lungs, even though the radiation was confined to one lung. The aim of this study is to investigate the change of adhesion molecules expression on BAL cells and serum soluble ICAM-1(sICAM-1) level after the RT and its relationship to the development of radiation pneumonitis. The second aim is to confirm the bilaterality of change of BAL cell pattern and adhesion molecule expression. Subjects: BAL and the measurement of sICAM level in serum and BALF were done on 29 patients with lung cancer who received RT with curative intention. The BAL was done before the RT in 16 patients and 1~2 month after RT in 18 patients. 5 patients performed BAL before and after RT. Result: Clinically significant radiation pneumonitis developed in 7 patients. After RT, total cell count in BAL was significantly increased from $(20.2{\pm}10.2){\times}10^6\;cells/ml$ to $(35.3{\pm}21.6){\times}10^6\;cells/ml$ (p=0.0344) and %lymphocyte was also increased from $5.3{\pm}4.2%$ to $39.6{\pm}23.4%$ (p=0.0001) in all patient group. There was no difference between ipsilateral and contraleteral side to RT, and between the patients with and without radiation-pneumonitis. In whole patient group, the level of sICAM-1 showed no significant change after RT(in serum: $378{\pm}148$, $411{\pm}150\;ng/ml$, BALF: $20.2{\pm}12.2$, $45.1{\pm}34.8\;ng/ml$, respectively), but there was a significant difference between the patients with pneumonitis and without pneumonitis (serum: $505{\pm}164$ vs $345{\pm}102\;ng/ml$, p=0.0253, BALF: $67.9{\pm}36.3$ vs $25.2{\pm}17.9\;ng/ml$, p=0.0112). The expression of ICAM-1 on alveolar macrophages (AM) tends to increase after RT (RMFI: from $1.28{\pm}0.479$ to $1.63{\pm}0.539$, p=0.0605), but it was significantly high in patients with pneumonitis ($2.10{\pm}0.390$) compared to the patients without pneumonitis ($1.28{\pm}0.31$, p=0.0002). ICAM-1 expression on lymphocytes and CD 18 (${\beta}2$-integrin) expression tended to be high in the patients with pneumonitis but the difference was statiastically not significant. Conclusion: Subclinical alveolitis on the basis of BAL finding developed bilaterally in all patients after RT. But clinically significant pneumonitis occurred in much smaller fraction and the ICAM-1 expression on AM and the sICAM-1 level in serum were good indicator of it.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.363-372
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• 1991

We used the health screening data of some rural and urban residents to examine the cross-sectional association between leukocyte count and hypertension. The 206 male and 203 female rural residents were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method in Kyungsan-Kun area of Kyungbuk province in 1985 and 600 urban residents were selected by the same sampling method as the rural residents in Daegu city of the same province in 1986 compatible with age-sex distribution of Daegu city of 1985 census, but of whom 384 actually responded. The rest of 600 were replaced by age and sex with those who were members of the medical insurance plan visiting the health management department of the university hospital to get the biannual preventive medical checkups. Excluded in the analysis were those having hypertensive history, diseases and extreme outlying values of the screening tests, leaving 373 rural and 571 urban residents. Leukocyte count was measured with ELT-8 Laser shadow method and the unit $cells/mm^3$, Blood pressures were determined with an aneroid sphygmomanometer with pre-standardized method and hypertensives were defined as those showing systolic blood pressure more than 140mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure more than 90mmHg. Total residents pooled (N=944) showed a significant difference between hypertensives and normotensives ($6965.93{\pm}1997.01\;vs\;6490.61{\pm}1941.32,\;P=0.00$) and in rural residents was noted the similar significant difference (P=0.03). None of significant differences were noted in any stratum stratified by residency and sex. Compared to the lowest quintile of WBC, 2/5 quintile showed odds ratio 0.99 (95% Confidence interval, Ci 0.62-1.59), 3/5 quintile 1.41 (95% CI 0.90-2.21), 4/5 quintile 1.76 (95% CI. 1.14-2.72), and highest quintile 1.80 (1.15-2.82) in the total residents. Likelihood ratio test for linear trend for it indicated a significant trend ($X^2_{trend}=5.53,\;df=1,\;P<0.05$). There were no other significant odds ratios compared to the lowest quintile of WBC in strata stratified by residency and sex. The odds ratios in total residents which had showed significant odds ratios became nonsignificant and of reduced magnitude after controlling age, frequency of smoking and drinking with multiple logistic. regression. In each stratum, it changed magnitudes of odds ratios slightly and unstably. None of the trend tests showed any significant trend. These results suggest that the Friedman et al's finding of association between leukocyte count and hypertension may be due to an statistical type I error resulting from the data dredging in an exploratory study, in which more than 800 variables were screened as possible predictors of hypertension.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.283-295
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• 1999

Background: Patients with acute non-traumatic chest pain are among the most challenging patients for care by emergency physicians, so the correct diagnosis and triage of patients with chest pain in the emergency department(ED) becomes important. To avoid discharging patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI) without medical care, most emergency physicians attempt to admit almost all patients with acute chest pain and order many laboratory tests for the patients. But in practice, many patients with non-cardiac pain can be discharged with simple tests and treatment. These patients occupy expensive intensive care beds, substantially increasing financial cost and time of stay at ED for the diagnosis and treatment of myocardial ischemia and AMI. Despite vigorous efforts to identify patients with ischemic heart disease, approximately 2% to 5% of patients presented to the ED with AMI and chest pain are inadvertently discharged. If the cause for the chest pain is known, rapid and accurate diagnosis can be implemented, preventing wastes in time and money and inadvertent discharge. Methods and Results: The medical records of 488 patients from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1997 were reviewed. There were 320(angina pectoris 140, AMI 128) cases of cardiac diseases, and 168(atypical chest pain 56, pneumothorax 47) cases of non-cardiac diseases. The number of associated symptoms were $1.1{\pm}0.9$ in non-cardiac diseases, $1.4{\pm}1.1$ in cardiac diseases and $1.7{\pm}1.1$ in AMI(p<0.05). In laboratory finding the sensitivity of electrocardiography(EKG) was 96.1%, while the sensitivity of myoglobin test ranked 45.1%. Admission rate was 71.6% in for cardiac diseases and 50.6% for non-cardiac diseases(p<0.01). Mortality rate was 8.8% in all cases, 13.8% in cardiac diseases, 0.6% in non-cardiac diseases, and 28.1% especially in AMI. Conclusion: In conclusion, all emergency physicians should have thorough knowledge of the clinical characteristics of the diseases which cause non-traumatic chest pain, because a patient with any of these life-threatening diseases would require immediate treatment. Detailed history on the patient should be taken and physical examination performed. Then, the most simple diagnostic approach should be used to make an early diagnosis and to provide treatment.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.99-116
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• 2016

We herein performed animal safety assessment in accordance with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations with the aim of developing sialic acid from glycomacropeptide (hereafter referred to as "GMP") as an index ingredient and functional component in functional foods. GMP is a type of whey protein derived from milk and a safe food, with multiple functions, such as antiviral activity. A test substance was produced containing 7% (w/w) sialic acid and mostly-hydrolyzed whey protein (hereafter referred to as "7%-GNANA") by enzymatic treatment of substrate GMP. The maximum intake test dose level was selected based on 5,000 mg/kg/day dose set for male NOEL (no-observed-effect-level) and female NOAEL (no-observed-adverse-effect-level) determined by a dose-range finding (DRF) test (GLP Center of Catholic University of Daegu, Report No. 15-NREO-001) that was previously conducted with the same test substance. To evaluate the toxicity of a repeated oral dose of the test substance in connection with the previous DRF study, 1,250, 2,500, and 5,000 mg/kg of the substance were administered by a probe into the stomachs of 6-week-old SPF Sprague-Dawley male and female rats for 90 d. Each test group consisted of 10 male and 10 female rats. To determine the toxicity index, all parameters, such as observation of common signs; measurements of body weight and food consumption; ophthalmic examination; urinalysis, electrolyte, hematological, and serum biochemical examination; measurement of organ weights during autopsy; and visual and histopathological examinations were conducted according to GLP standards. After evaluating the results based on the test toxicity assessment criteria, it was determined that NOAEL of the test substance, 7%-GNANA, was 5,000 mg/kg/day, for both male and female rats. No animal death was noted in any of the test groups, including the control group, during the study period, and there was no significant difference associated with test substance, as compared with the control group, with respect to general symptoms, body weight changes, food consumption, ophthalmic examination, urinalysis, hematological and serum biochemical examination, and electrolyte and blood coagulation tests during the administration period (P<0.05). As assessed by the effects of the test substance on organ weights, food consumption, autopsy, and histopathological safety, change in kidney weight as an indicator of male NOAEL revealed up to 20% kidney weight increase in the high-dose group (5,000 mg/kg/day) compared with the change in the control group. However, it was concluded that this effect of the test substance was minor. In the case of female rats, reduction of food consumption, increase of kidney weight, and decrease of thymus weight were observed in the high-dose group. The kidney weight increased by 10.2% (left) and 8.9% (right) in the high-dose group, with a slight dose-dependency compared with that of the control group. It was observed that the thymus weight decreased by 25.3% in the high-dose group, but it was a minor test substance-associated effect. During the autopsy, botryoid tumor was detected on the ribs of one subject in the high-dose group, but we concluded that the tumor has been caused by a naturally occurring (non-test) substance. Histopathological examination revealed lesions on the kidney, liver, spleen, and other organs in the low-dose test group. Since these lesions were considered a separate phenomenon, or naturally occurring and associated with aging, it was checked whether any target organ showed clear symptoms caused by the test substance. In conclusion, different concentrations of the test substance were fed to rats and, consequently, it was verified that only a minor effect was associated with the test substance in the high-dose (5,000 mg/kg/day) group of both male and female rats, without any other significant effects associated with the test substance. Therefore, it was concluded that NOAEL of 7%-GNANA (product name: Helicobactrol) with male and female rats as test animals was 5,000 mg/kg/day, and it thus was determined that the substance is safe for the ultimate use as an ingredient of health functional foods.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.78-85
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• 1999

Purpose : Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia has been to be developed frequently in school age children and adolescence and hard to see under 3 year-old children. But it seems to be increased in number of patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia under 3-year old in clinical practice in these days. We have aimed to examine the characteristics of clinical findings of Mycoplasma pneumonia under 3 year-old children. Methods : We had performed retrospective review of medical records of 30 patients with Mycoplasmal pneumonia under 3-year old children who admitted to Department of Pediatrics, Kyunghee University Hospital from Jan. 1994 to Dec. 1997. The diagnostic criteriae was Cold agglutinin titer>1:64 or Mycoplasma antibody titer>1:80. Results : Mycoplasmal pneumonia was 30 out of 235 cases(12.7%) of total pneumonia under 3 year old children. Male female ratio was 1.3 : 1 and age distributions were 0~1y : 0, 1~2y : 8, 2~3y : 22 cases. Clinical symptoms and signs were cough(100.0%), sputum(83.3%), fever(80.0%) rhinorrhea(33.3%), vomiting(33.3%), moist rale(86.7%), decreased breathing sound(26.7%), wheezing(20.0%), and pharyngeal injection(30.0%). Thirteen out of 30 cases(43.3%) had unilateral infiltration, 10 cases(33.4%) had bilateral infiltration, 1 case(3.3%) had pleural effusion, and 6 cases(20.0%) had negative findings on chest radiography and there was no cases of atelectasis. On laboratory findings, 6 out of 30 cases(20.0%) had leukocytosis, 1 case(3.3%) had neutrophilia, 10 cases(30.0%) had eosinophilia, 17 cases(56.7%) had increased ESR, and 18 cases(60.6%) had positive CRP. Positive cold agglutinin titers(>1 : 64) were 19 cases(63.3%), and positive mycoplasma antibody(M-ab) titers(>1 : 80) were 27 cases(93.3%). Mycoplasma antibody test was more valuable than cold agglutinin test for the diagnosis of Mycoplasmal pneumonia and there was no correlation between cold agglutinin titer and mycoplasma antibody titer. Mycoplasma-polymerase chain reaction(M-PCR) was done with 13 cases, 12 out of 13 cases(92.3%) were positive. M-PCR test was valuable to the diagnosis of Mycoplasmal pneumonia but it will be needed to further study for their clinical application. Among 30 cases, 5 cases(16.7%) had complications, 3 cases(10.0%) had skin rash, 1 case(3.3%) had pleural effusion, 1 case(3.3%) had arthralgia, but all complications were mild and recovered without residual sequelae. Conclusion : The occurrence of Mycoplasmal pneumonia under 3 year-old children was not rare from this study. Clinical characteristics of Mycoplasmal pneumonia under 3-year old were normal radiologic findings in many cases, low complication rate, mild clinical course, and tend to rapid recovery compared with general manifestations of Mycoplasmal infectionsin children and adolescence. There were likely to be missed patients with Mycoplasmal pneumonia which did not diagnose by conventional serologic tests that had low sensitivity and specificity. We have to pay attention to the Mycoplasmal infection of the young children with pneumonia during epidemic periods of Mycoplasmal infection.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.141-177
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• 2011

I. Research Objectives: Most of the previous studies on diffusion have concentrated on efficacy of WOM communication with the use of variables at individual level (Iacobucci 1996; Midgley et al. 1992). However, there is a paucity of studies which investigated network's structural properties as antecedents of WOM from the perspective of consumers' sociocultural propensities. Against this research backbone, this study attempted to link the network's structural properties and consumer' WOM behavior on cross-national basis. The major research objective of this study was to examine the relationship between network properties and WOM by comparing Korean and Chinese consumers. Specific objectives of this research are threefold; firstly, it sought to examine whether network properties (i.e., tie strength, centrality, range) affect WOM (WOM intention and quality of WOM). Secondly, it aimed to explore the moderating effects of cutural orientation (uncertainty avoidance and individuality) on the relationship between network properties and WOM. Thirdly, it substantiates the role of innovativeness as antecedents to both network properties and WOM. II. Research Hypotheses: Based on the above research objectives, the study put forth the following research hypotheses to validate. ${\cdot}$ H 1-1 : The Strength of tie between two counterparts within network will positively influence WOM effectivenes ${\cdot}$ H 1-2 : The network centrality will positively influence the WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 1-3 : The network range will positively influence the WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 2-1 : The consumer's uncertainty avoidance tendency will moderate the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 2-2 : The consumer's individualism tendency will moderate the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 3-1 : The consumer's innovativeness will positively influence the social network properties ${\cdot}$ H 3-2 : The consumer's innovativeness will positively influence WOM effectiveness III. Methodology: Through a pilot study and back-translation, two versions of questionnaire were prepared, one in Korean and the other in Chinese. The chinese data were collected from the chinese students enrolled in language schools in Suwon city in Korea, while Korean data were collected from students taking classes in a major university in Seoul. A total of 277 questionnaire were used for analysis of Korean data and 212 for Chinese data. The reason why Chinese students living in Korea rather than in China were selected was based on two factors: one was to neutralize the differences (ie, retail channel availability) that may arise from living in separate countries and the second was to minimize the difference in communication venues such as internet accessibility and cell phone usability. SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used for analysis. IV. Results: Prior to hypothesis verification, mean differences between the two countries in terms of major constructs were performed with the following result; As for network properties (tie strength, centrality and range), Koreans showed higher scores in all three constructs. For cultural orientation traits, Koreans scored higher only on uncertainty avoidance trait than Chinese. As a result of verifying the first research objective, confirming the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness, on Korean side, tie strength(Beta=.116; t=1.785) and centrality (Beta=.499; t=6.776) significantly influenced on WOM intention, and similar finding was obtained for Chinese side, with tie strength (Beta=.246; t=3.544) and centrality (Beta=.247; t=3.538) being significant. However, with regard to WOM argument quality, Korean data yielded only centrality (Beta=.82; t=7.600) having a significant impact on WOM, whereas China showed both tie strength(Beat=.142; t=2.052) and centrality(Beta=.348; t=5.031) being influential. To answer for the second research objective addressing the moderating role of cultural orientation, moderated regression anaylsis was performed and the result showed that uncertainty avoidance moderated between network range and WOM intention for both Korea and China, But for Korea, the uncertainty avoidance moderated between tie strength and WOM quality, while for China it moderated between network range and WOM intention. And innovativeness moderated between tie strength and WOM intention for Korea but it moderated between network range and WOM intention for China. As a result of analysing for third research objective, we found that for Korea, innovativeness positively influenced centrality only (Beta=.546; t=10.808), while for China it influenced both tie strength (Beta=.203; t=2.998) and centrality(Beta=.518; t=8.782). But for both countries alike, the innovativeness influenced positively on WOM (WOM intention and WOM quality). V. Implications: The study yields the two practical implications. Firstly, the result suggests that companies targeting multinational customers need to identify segments which are susceptible to the positive WOM and WOM information based on individual traits such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism and based on that, develop marketing communication strategy. Secondly, the companies need to divide the market on Roger's five innovation stages and based on this information, enforce marketing strategy which utilizes social networking tools such as public media and WOM. For instance, innovator and early adopters, if provided with new product information, will be able to capitalize upon the network advantages and thus add informational value to network operations using SNS or corporate blog.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 1999

Propose : This study was performed to find out the prognostic factors affecting local control, survival and disease free survival rate in nasopharyngeal carcinomas treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Materials and Methods : We analysed 47 patients of nasopharyngeal carcinomas, histologically confirmed and treated at Chonnam University Hospital between July 1986 and June 1996, retrospectively. Range of patients' age were from 16 to 80 years (median; 52 years). Thirty three (70$\%$) patients was male. Histological types were composed of 3 (6$\%$) keratinizing, 30 (64$\%$) nonkeratinizing squamous cell carcinoma and 13 (28$\%$) undifferentiated carcinoma. Histoiogicai type was not known in 1 patient (2$\%$). We restaged according to the staging system of 1997 American Joint Committee on Cancer Forty seven patients were recorded as follows: 71: 11 (23$\%$), T2a; 6 (13$\%$), T2b; 9 (19$\%$), 73; 7 (15$\%$), 74: 14 (30$\%$), and NO; 7 (15$\%$), Nl: 14 (30$\%$), N2; 21 (45%), N3: 5 (10%). Clinical staging was grouped as follows: Stage 1; 2 (4$\%$), IIA: 2 (4$\%$), IIB; 10 (21$\%$), III; 14 (30$\%$), IVA; 14 (30$\%$) and IVB; 5 (11$\%$). Radiation therapy was done using 6 MV and 10 MV X- ray of linear accelerator. Electron beam was used for the Iymph nodes of posterior neck after 4500 cGy. The range of total radiation dose delivered to the primary tumor was from 6120 to 7920 cGy (median; 7020 cGy). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was performed with cisplatin +5-fluorouracil (25 patients) or cisplatin+pepleomycin (17 patients) with one to three cycles. Five patients did not received chemotherapy. Local control rate, survival and disease free suwival rate were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Generalized Wilcoxon test was used to evaluate the difference of survival rates between groups. multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard model was done for finding prognostic factors. Results: Local control rate was 81$\%$ in 5 year. Five year survival rate was 60$\%$ (median survival; 100 months). We included age, sex, cranial nerve deflicit, histologic type, stage group, chemotherapy, elapsed days between chemotherapy and radiotherapy, total radiation dose, period of radiotherapy as potential prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. As a result, cranial none deficit (P=0.004) had statistical significance in local control rate. Stage group and total radiation dose were significant prognostic factors in survival (P=0.000, P=0.012), and in disease free survival rates (P=0.003, P=0.008), respectively. Common complications were xerostomia, tooth and ear problems. Hypothyroidism was developed in 2 patients. Conclusion : In our study, cranial none deficit was a significant prognostic factor in local control rate, and stage group and total radiation dose were significant factors in both survival and disease free survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We have concluded that chemotherapy and radiotherapy used in our patients were effective without any serious complication.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2000

Purpose : This retrospective study has been undertaken to find out the clinical outcome of children with HS nephntis and its relationship with initial clinical presentation and/or renal pathologic finding. Patients and methods : Study population consisted of 59 children with HS nephritis who have been admitted to the Pediatric department of Kyungpook University Hospital from 1987 to 1999, and biopsy was done with indications of heavy proteinuria (> 1 g/m2/day) lasting over 1 month, nephrotic syndrome, and persistent hematuria and/or proteinuria over 1 year. Patients were divided clinically into 3 groups ; isolated hematuria, hematuria with proteinuria and heavy proteinuria (including nephrotic syndrome). Biopsy findings ore graded from I-V according to International Study of Kidney Disease in Children (ISKDC). Results : Mean age of presentation was $8.1{\pm}3.0$ years and slight male preponderance m noted (33 boys md 26 girls). Histopathologic grading showed Grade I ; 2, Grade II ; 44, and Grade III ; 13 cases. Clinical outcome at the follow-up period of 1-2 year (49 cases) and 3-4 years (30 cases) shooed normal urinalysis in 75 (30.6$\%$) and 18 cases (60.0$\%$), persistent isolated hematuria in 20 (40.8$\%$) and 2 cases (6.7$\%$), hematuria with proteinuria in 11 (22.5$\%$) and 8 cases (26.6$\%$), and persistent heavy proteinuria in 3 (6.1$\%$) and 2 cases (6.7$\%$) respectively. Clinical outcome according to histopathologic grading showed the frequency of normalization of urinalysis being lower in Grade III compared to grade I or II. Clinical outcome according to initial clinical presentation showed no relationship to the normalization or urinalysis at follow-up periods. However, 15-20$\%$ of children with initial heavy proteinuria showed persistent heavy proteinuria (3 out of 20 cases at 1-2 years, and 2 out of 10 case at 3-4 years of follow-up periods). Conclusion : The majority of children with HS nephritis (histopathologic grade I, II, III) improved within 3-4 years and persistent heavy proteinuria was seen only in a kw of children with initial clinical presentation of heavy proteinuria.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.27-55
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• 2008

Due to the increasing and intensifying competition in the Internet shopping market, it has been recognized as very important to develop an effective policy and strategy for acquiring loyal customers. For this reason, web site designers need to know if a new Internet shopping mall(ISM) will be accepted. Researchers have been working on identifying factors for explaining and predicting user acceptance of an ISM. Some studies, however, revealed inconsistent findings on the antecedents of user acceptance of a website. Lack of consideration for individual differences in user ability is believed to be one of the key reasons for the mixed findings. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and several studies have suggested that individual differences in ability plays an moderating role on the relationship between the antecedents and user acceptance. Despite the critical role of user ability, little research has examined the role of user ability in the Internet shopping mall context. The purpose of this study is to develop a user acceptance model that consider the moderating role of user ability in the context of Internet shopping. This study was initiated to see the ability of the technology acceptance model(TAM) to explain the acceptance of a specific ISM. According to TAM. which is one of the most influential models for explaining user acceptance of IT, an intention to use IT is determined by usefulness and ease of use. Given that interaction between user and website takes place through web interface, the decisions to accept and continue using an ISM depend on these beliefs. However, TAM neglects to consider the fact that many users would not stick to an ISM until they trust it although they may think it useful and easy to use. The importance of trust for user acceptance of ISM has been raised by the relational views. The relational view emphasizes the trust-building process between the user and ISM, and user's trust on the website is a major determinant of user acceptance. The proposed model extends and integrates the TAM and relational views on user acceptance of ISM by incorporating usefulness, ease of use, and trust. User acceptance is defined as a user's intention to reuse a specific ISM. And user ability is introduced into the model as moderating variable. Here, the user ability is defined as a degree of experiences, knowledge and skills regarding Internet shopping sites. The research model proposes that the ease of use, usefulness and trust of ISM are key determinants of user acceptance. In addition, this paper hypothesizes that the effects of the antecedents(i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and trust) on user acceptance may differ among users. In particular, this paper proposes a moderating effect of a user's ability on the relationship between antecedents with user's intention to reuse. The research model with eleven hypotheses was derived and tested through a survey that involved 470 university students. For each research variable, this paper used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context. The reliability and validity of the research variables were tested using the Crobnach's alpha and internal consistency reliability (ICR) values, standard factor loadings of the confirmative factor analysis, and average variance extracted (AVE) values. A LISREL method was used to test the suitability of the research model and its relating six hypotheses. Key findings of the results are summarized in the following. First, TAM's two constructs, ease of use and usefulness directly affect user acceptance. In addition, ease of use indirectly influences user acceptance by affecting trust. This implies that users tend to trust a shopping site and visit repeatedly when they perceive a specific ISM easy to use. Accordingly, designing a shopping site that allows users to navigate with heuristic and minimal clicks for finding information and products within the site is important for improving the site's trust and acceptance. Usefulness, however, was not found to influence trust. Second, among the three belief constructs(ease of use, usefulness, and trust), trust was empirically supported as the most important determinants of user acceptance. This implies that users require trustworthiness from an Internet shopping site to be repeat visitors of an ISM. Providing a sense of safety and eliminating the anxiety of online shoppers in relation to privacy, security, delivery, and product returns are critically important conditions for acquiring repeat visitors. Hence, in addition to usefulness and ease of use as in TAM, trust should be a fundamental determinants of user acceptance in the context of internet shopping. Third, the user's ability on using an Internet shopping site played a moderating role. For users with low ability, ease of use was found to be a more important factors in deciding to reuse the shopping mall, whereas usefulness and trust had more effects on users with high ability. Applying the EML theory to these findings, we can suggest that experienced and knowledgeable ISM users tend to elaborate on such usefulness aspects as efficient and effective shopping performance and trust factors as ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability of a shopping site before they become repeat visitors of the site. In contrast, novice users tend to rely on the low elaborating features, such as the perceived ease of use. The existence of moderating effects suggests the fact that different individuals evaluate an ISM from different perspectives. The expert users are more interested in the outcome of the visit(usefulness) and trustworthiness(trust) than those novice visitors. The latter evaluate the ISM in a more superficial manner focusing on the novelty of the site and on other instrumental beliefs(ease of use). This is consistent with the insights proposed by the Heuristic-Systematic model. According to the Heuristic-Systematic model. a users act on the principle of minimum effort. Thus, the user considers an ISM heuristically, focusing on those aspects that are easy to process and evaluate(ease of use). When the user has sufficient experience and skills, the user will change to systematic processing, where they will evaluate more complex aspects of the site(its usefulness and trustworthiness). This implies that an ISM has to provide a minimum level of ease of use to make it possible for a user to evaluate its usefulness and trustworthiness. Ease of use is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the acceptance and use of an ISM. Overall, the empirical results generally support the proposed model and identify the moderating effect of the effects of user ability. More detailed interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed. The limitations of this study are also discussed to provide directions for future research.