• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2006

Purpose : The incidence of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is twice as high in East Asians as in Caucasians. However, its metabolic basis has not been clearly explained. The UDP-glucuronosyltransferase gene(UGT1A1) mutation was found to be a risk factor of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. We studied whether neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is associated with the 1828G>A(rs 10929303) polymorphism of the UGT1A1 gene, which encodes for a key enzyme of bilirubin metabolism. Methods : The genomic DNA was isolated from 80 Korean full term neonates who had greater than a 12 mg/dL level of serum bilirubin with no obvious cause, and the genomic DNA was also isolated from 164 Korean neonates of the control population. We studied a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of 1828G>A in the untranslated region of the UGT1A1 gene by direct sequencing. Results : Three of the 80 neonates with a serum bilirubin level above 12 mg/dL had homozygous mutations and 10 of the 80 neonates with a serum bilirubin level above 12 mg/dL had heterozygous mutations. Thirteen of the 164 neonates of the control group had homozygous mutations and 16 neonates of the control group had heterozygous mutations. The allele frequency of 1828G>A polymorphism of UGT1A1 in the hyperbilirubinemia group was 10.0 percent, which was not significantly different from the allele frequency of 12.8 percent in the control group. Conclusion : In this study, the 1828G>A polymorphism of the UGT1A1 gene was detected in the Korean neonates with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Our results indicated that this SNP is not associated with the prevalence of hyperbilirubinemia in Koreans.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.12
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• pp.1224-1229
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• 2003

Purpose : Bacterial meningitis is a serious disease, especially in the neonatal period, and it carries a significant degree of mortality and morbidity. Group B streptococcus(GBS) is a common cause of neonatal bacterial meningitis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical manifestations, treatment results and complications of GBS meningitis. Methods : We analyzed 29 cases retrospectively who had been admitted to the pediatric ward or NICU in Asan Medical Center from May 1990 to January 2002. They had proven GBS in culture or latex agglutination test in CSF. Results : The male to female ratio was 1 : 1.9. There were two cases of early onset type and 27 cases of late onset type. All cases had normal birth weight with full term at delivery. The perinatal predisposing factors were premature rupture of membrane(two cases), and maternal colonization(two cases). The most common presenting symptoms were fever and irritability. Associated diseases were GBS sepsis(21 cases). There was relatively high sensitivity to penicillin derivatives. There were abnormal brain CT or MRI findings in 16 cases(64%), such as infarction, encephalomalatic change, effusion, hydrocephalus, hemorrhage and abscess. The intensive care unit admission rate and the incidence of DIC were higher in the group with complications. Two cases were discharged against advice. Conclusion : We recommend early detection and active treatment in Group B streptococcal meningitis to improve the prognosis.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Modern enterprises should concentrate their efforts on continuous improvements in focusing their development in the core areas of business and to reduce their expenses and to enhance the quality of service for customers. The enterprises should focus on their core business while outsourcing the non-core areas of business to external specialists for the purpose of reducing cost. In South Korea, the enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in outsourcing their logistics function, especially in using IT technologies to the 3PL. The underlying reason for this trend is because the logistics costs of Korean businesses are much higher than that of other advanced countries. This higher logistic costs weakens the price competitiveness of Korean companies in the overseas export markets and even dampening the balance of international trade. Domestically, the higher logistics costs have the effect of raising prices in the local markets and thus affecting the local economy. Therefore a solution is urgently needed to save the logistics costs for the Korean companies in the interest of increasing national competitiveness. Outsourcing to the 3PL is becoming an attraction solution to this problem. Thanks to the increasing supply of professional logistics companies, many of the enterprises are switching to the Third Party Logistics. Nevertheless the enterprises do not yet utilize the integrated third-party logistics services on a full scale. This study analyzes present conditions and problems of the domestic third-party logistics market and suggests directions for future development. To solve the problems in the domestic third-party logistics market, four actions are recommended. First there should be new supporting policies in the laws and regulations and a system for small and medium sized companies to grow. Solutions to structural problems such as abnormal multilevel merchandising, illegal operation of private cars, and freight dumping should be implemented concurrently. Furthermore, standards for new companies entry into the market should be enhanced to allow only the competitive distribution companies to enter the market. Second, development of variety of educational programs is needed through establishing human-resource development system and specialized formal educational institution focused on this market. Third, the third party distribution companies, which seek long-term relationships with the owners of goods, should endeavor to strengthen their communications capability. Fourth, adoption of high-tech distribution system and the advent of U-Logistics, making use of RFID is urgent. This study has the limitation of objectivity because it does not include various comparative case studies about companies relating to the Third Party Logistics and domestic franchise companies. However, this study is significant to the extent that it analyzes the general present conditions and the problems of domestic Third Party Logistics and suggests recommendations for revitalization of Third Party Logistics. For future studies, analyzing the successful cases of international third party logistics companies' empirical data and studying the application into domestic franchise companies would improve the objectivity of the results. This would assist the domestic third party logistics companies not only to perform excellent domestic logistics function but also to enter into the global market for international logistics.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2010

There has been some research conducted that addressed immoral consumer behaviors in Korea; however, most of this research focused on purchasing counterfeits or shoplifting. High return rates of apparel and used apparel returns have been acknowledged as problem areas within the fashion industry. However, very few researchers have addressed this issue. Therefore, the goal of this research was to explore consumer's retail borrowing experience using a mixed methods approach. In study 1 Korean consumer's retail borrowing experiences was explored through focus group interviews. Findings informed study 2 an examination of apparel consumers' attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior via an online survey. Findings assist both researchers' and practitioners' understanding of retail borrowing behaviors and provide insight into retail borrowing issues in the apparel retail industry. For study 1, five focus-group interviews were conducted with seven panels of individuals that had retail borrowing experience within the past year. Thirty-five Korean consumers who lived in a metropolitan area participated in the focus group interviews. Most of consumers were in their 20's (n=21) and were women (n=24). Most participants purchased apparel items from a retail store and returned the worn items for either a full refund or exchanged the worn item for another item. Motives underlying retail borrowing behavior included social needs, job-related needs, fashion needs, and "smart shopping." Similar to existing research findings from other countries, social needs were the most frequently mentioned cause of retail borrowing in fashion stores. Consumers' moral values, attitude toward large corporations, and prior retail borrowing experience were mentioned as possible factors affecting consumers' retail borrowing behavior. For study 2, the questionnaire used to gather the data was developed based on the findings of part I and existing research. Questions concerning consumers' moral beliefs, sensation seeking tendencies, self-worth, past retail job experience, retail borrowing experience, and some demographic characteristics were included in the questionnaire. The data were collected via an online survey using an online panel provided by a commercial online research company located in Seoul, Korea. In order to obtain various consumers, a quota sample was (male: female=1:1, 20's:30's:40's=1:1:1, retail experience: no retail experience=1:3) obtained from the company. A total of 401 consumers who had shopped for apparel items during the prior 6 months participated in the online survey. The results indicated that 19.7% of the respondents reported they had experience borrowing fashion merchandise. Among these individuals, male borrowers (57%) outnumbered female borrowers. In terms of age distribution, x2 revealed that there was a statistical difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experiences: 41.8% of the respondents with retail borrowing experience were in their 40's, while respondents without retail borrowing experience were evenly distributed between their 20's to 40's. There was also a significant difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experience in terms of income: respondents with retail borrowing experience tended to have higher incomes than those without retail borrowing experience. T-tests were performed to compare respondents' fashion shopping behavior, moral beliefs, sensation-seeking tendencies, and attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior between participants with and without retail borrowing experience. As compared to those with no borrowing experience, respondents with experience tended to shop for fashion items more frequently and spent more on shopping for fashion items. Consumers with experience borrowing tended to have higher sensation-seeking tendencies than consumers without retail borrowing experience. A regression analysis revealed that attitudes toward fashion retail borrowing were negatively related to consumers' moral beliefs, but positively related to monthly fashion shopping frequency, sensation-seeking tendencies, and past fashion retail borrowing experience. Among these variables, past retail borrowing experience was the most significant predictor, followed by moral beliefs. This research serves as an initial attempt to address the motives that underlie retail borrowing behaviors and the factors affecting those behaviors. The findings of this study may facilitate an understanding of the consumer's retail borrowing, which will provide a basis for approaches that may help decrease retail borrowing and inappropriate returns at fashion retail stores. The findings may also provide materials for consumer education over the long term. In order to better understand fashion retail borrowing behavior, more research is needed in the future.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to elucidate the growth pattern of dark-banded rockfish, Sebastes inermis Cuvier, produced by aquaculture in Korea. Larvae from 250 maternal full-sibs were reared until 1,350 days after parturition. During the rearing period, growth equations on days after parturition (X) to the total length (TL) and body weight (BW) were estimated as TL=0.0217X $(r^2=0.8867)$ and $BW=0.0001X^2+0.0713X\;(r^2=0.9858)$, respectively. The relationship between BW and TL was $BW=0.0072TL^{3.4373}\;(r^2=0.9945)$. An increases in the eye diameter (ED) of dark-banded rockfish larvae on days after parturition (X) could be expressed as $ED=-2E-5X^2+0.0326X\;(r^2=0.9886)$. Relative growth equations on TL to head length (HL), snout length (SL), ED and postorbital head length (PHL) were calculated as $HL=0.2652TL\;(r^2=0.9758),\;SL=0.0613TL\;(r^2=0.9602),\;ED=0.0752TL\;(r^2=0.9715)$ and $PHL=0.2652TL\;(r^2=0.9501)$, respectively. Since there were few reports on the long-term growth experiment of this species due to difficulties in rearing techniques, results of this study would give a useful information to the biology and commercial culture techniques of dark-banded rockfish.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2009

Objective: To investigate the prevalence, the distribution of deciduosis, and the relationship with endometriosis in fertile women during Cesarean delivery. Methods: In this study, pelvic tissues suspicious for ectopic deciduas were taken for biopsy during Cesarean section from 154 parturients of full term pregnancy from January 1990 to December 2003. And then those patients were followed up till April 2008. Results: Tissues from 94 parturients (94/154, 61%) were evaluated histopathologically, and ectopic decidua was observed in 70.2% (66/94). Ectopic sites were ovaries only (65/94, 69.1%), ovaries and uterine serosa (12/94, 12.8%), uterine serosa only (9/94, 9.6%), and pelvic serosa. Twenty seven (27/66, 40.9%) parturients had past history of diagnosis and treatments for endometriosis. We have tried to connect 39 (39/66, 59.1%) patients who had never been diagnosed for endometriosis but pathologically confirmed for deciduosis, and 18 patients were able to contact by phone. Twelve patients (12/18, 66.6%) showed no symptoms of endometriosis and had not received any treatments for endometriosis. Conclusion: We can conclude that most of incidental cases confirmed pathologically for deciduosis during pregnancy do not symptomatically progress.

• Journal of the Korean Arthroscopy Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 2011

Purpose: Microfracture has been used as a first-line treatment to repair articular cartilage defects. In this study, a new technique using an extracelluar matrix biomembrane to cover the cartilage lesions after microfracture was evaluated in terms of cartilage repairability and clinical outcome compared with conventional microfracture technique in a prospective randomized trial. Materials and Methods: A total of 53 patients (59 cases) without osteoarthritis who had focal full thickness articular cartilage lesions were randomly assigned in two group. Seventeen patients (17 cases) underwent conventional microfracture procedure (control group) and thirty-six patients (42 cases) received microfracture and placing biomembrane cover (ArtiFilm$^{TM}$) concomitantly (experimental group). Clinical assessment was done through 6 months postoperatively using the subjective International Knee Documentation Committee IKDC questionnaire, and visual analog scale (VAS) for pain and satisfaction. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at 6 months after the operation in all patients. Results: In clinical outcomes, the significant difference was observed between both groups in IKDC, but not in VAS for pain and for satisfaction (final outcomes of IKDC, p=0.001; VAS for pain, p=0.074; VAS for satisfaction, p=0.194). The MRI showed good to complete defect fill (67 to 100%) in 33 patients (78.6%) of experimental group and 4 patients (23.5%) of control group, respectively. In control group, 9 of 17 patients (52.9%) showed poor defect fill (less than 33%), whereas 5 (11.9%) in experimental group (p=0.001). Assessment of peripheral integration revealed no gap formation in 35 patients (83.3%) in experimental group and 6 patients (35.3%) in control group (p=0.001). No serious complications or adverse effects related to the biomembrane were found. Conclusion: Good short-term follow-up clinical results were obtained in the group whose cartilage defects in the knee joint were covered with biomembrane after the microfracture, with the MRI findings confirming the excellent regeneration of the defective cartilage area. This suggests that the surgery to cover the defective area with biomembrane (ArtiFilm$^{TM}$) after the microfracture procedure is a safe, more effective treatment to induce cartilage regeneration.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.31
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• pp.27-56
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• 2006

Today's financial institutions usually take environmental issues seriously into consideration as they could not evade lender liability in an increasing number of cases. On the international scene, a brand-new concept of the "Equator Principles" in the New Millenium has driven more and more international banks to adopt these Principles in project financing. Sustainable development has been a key word in understanding new trends of the governments, financial institutions, corporations and civic groups in the 21st century. The Equator Principles are a set of voluntary environmental and social guidelines for sustainable finance. These Principles commit bank officers to avoid financial support to projects that fail to meet these guidelines. The Principles were conceived in 2002 on an initiative of the International Finance Corporation(IFC), and launched in June 2003. Since then, dozens of major banks, accounting for up to 80 percent of project loan market, have adopted the Principles. Accordingly, the Principles have become the de facto standard for all banks and investors on how to deal with potential social and environmental issues of projects to be financed. Compliance with the Equator Principles facilitates for endorsing banks to participate in the syndicated loan and help them to manage the risks associated with large-scale projects. The Equator Principles call for financial institutions to provide loans to projects under the following circumstances: - The risk of the project is categorized in accordance with internal guidelines based upon the environmental and social screening criteria of the IFC. - For Category A and B projects, borrowers or sponsors are required to conduct a Social and Environmental Assessment, the preparation of which must meet certain requirements and satisfactorily address key social and environmental issues. - The Social and Environmental Assessment report should address baseline social and environmental conditions, requirements under host country laws and regulations, sustainable development, and, as appropriate, IFC's Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines, etc. - Based on the Social and Environmental Assessment, Equator banks then make agreements with borrowers on how they mitigate, monitor and manage the risks through a Social and Environmental Management System. Compliance with the plan is included in the covenant clause of loan agreements. If the borrower doesn't comply with the agreed terms, the bank will take corrective actions. The Equator Principles are not a mere declaration of cautious banks but a full commitment of lenders. A violation of the Principles in the process of project financing, which led to an unexpected damage to the affected community, would not give rise to any specific legal remedies other than ordinary lawsuits. So it is more effective for banks to ensure consistent implementation of the Principles and to have them take responsible measures to solve social and environmental issues. Public interests have recently mounted up with respect to environmental issues on the occasion of the Supreme Court's decision (2006Du330) on the fiercely debated reclamation project at Saemangeum. The majority Justices said that the expected environmental damages like probable pollution of water and soil were not believed so serious and that the Administration should continue to implement the project seeking ways to make it more environment friendly. In this case, though the Category A Saemangeum Project was carried out by a government agency, the Supreme Court behaved itself as a signal giver to approve or stop the environment-related project like an Equator bank in project financing. At present, there is no Equator bank in Korea in contrast to three big banks in Japan. Also Korean contractors, which are aggressively bidding for Category A-type projects in South East Asia and Mideast, might find themselves in a disadvantageous position because they are generally ignorant of the environmental assessment associated with project financing. In this regard, Korean banks and overseas project contractors should care for the revised Equator Principles and the latest developments in project financing more seriously. It's because its scope has expanded to the capital cost of US$10 million or more across all industry sectors regardless of developing countries or not. It should be noted that, for a Korean bank, being an Equator bank is more or less burdensome in a short-term period, but it must be conducive to minimizing risks and building up good reputation in the long run.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.148-153
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• 2005

Purpose : The aim of this study was to determine the reference ranges of serum albumin levels depending on the gestational ages of preterm infants. We also intended to compare the mean serum albumin levels between groups of preterm infants that did not develop clinical disorders later, and groups that did develop clinical disorders such as respiratory distress syndrome, intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity, apnea and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. We also examined the significance of serum albumin as a predictor for the development of clinical disorders. Methods : The records of 208 neonates with gestational ages from 23 weeks to 41 weeks were reviewed retrospectively. The mean albumin concentrations with reference ranges by gestational ages were determined. Statistics for each two of group were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to model odd ratio, and 95 percent confidence interval as a mean of the association between predictors and outcome. Results : Serum albumin levels were at 23-24 weeks gestation was 2.36 g/dL, rising to 3.43 g/dL in full term babies. There were significant mean differences between the clinical groups and control groups for each clinical disorder such as respiratory distress syndrome, intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity and apnea in premature babies of 30-36 weeks of gestation. Low serum albumin appeared to be associated with increased risks of clinical disorders. Conclusion : The normal serum albumin levels in preterm infants should be defined according to the gestational ages. Lower albumin levels increase the risks of the later development of clinical disorders, which are common in premature infants.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.488-494
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• 2010

Purpose : A human milk bank collects, processes, eliminates, and stores breast milk from donors and provides breast milk to those in need. The authors hereby present the experiences and the objective lessons obtained through operating a nationwide human milk bank over a period of 2 years. Methods : The characteristics of the donors and the recipients and the amounts of breast milk donated, processed, and received at the East-West Neo Medical Center Human Milk Bank were investigated from August 2007 to August 2009. Results : The donor pool consisted of 131 first-time donors and 39 repeat donors who made 341 and 127 donations, respectively. Seventy-nine percent of the donors resided in the Seoul-Kyunggi area, and 60% of the donors were in their 30s. Most information and motivation came from the Internet (66%) or television (14%). A total of 2,736 L of breast milk was collected, and 1,979 L were processed. The cumulative number of recipients was 160 preterm or full-term infants and 21 adults, each group receiving the breast milk 337 and 41 times, respectively. In total, infants received 1,663 L and adults received 179 L. Conclusion : Through the present study, the role and importance of a human milk bank in collecting, pasteurizing, and storing surplus breast milk in through sanitary, medically proven methods and providing this breast milk to recipients could be appreciated and reevaluated. The authors believe that a national support system is necessary to expand this practice to a nationwide scale.