• Title/Summary/Keyword: latent period

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A Study on Clinical Manifestations of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Tuberculosis Contact Investigation in School-Age Children and Adolescents at Two Centers (두 개 대학병원에서 진단된 학동기 소아 및 청소년 폐결핵의 임상 양상과 접촉자 검진의 실태)

  • Bae, Mi-Hye;Song, Bo Kyung;Kim, Kyung-Min;Son, Seung Kook;Park, Su Eun
    • Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.191-198
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    • 2014
  • Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical manifestations, contact history, and status of tuberculosis contact investigations in school-age children and adolescents with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) at two centers. Methods: This study was conducted with 54 patients in the age ranging from 10 to 18 years, who were diagnosed with pulmonary TB at the Pusan National University Hospital and Pusan National University Children's Hospital, January 2008 to December 2012. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the patients. Results: The median age of the patients was 16 years old; 11 patients were aged 10 to 14 and 43 patients were aged 15 to 18. Among 54 patients, 19 had history of contact with pulmonary TB, 10 had contact with house members (household), and remaining 9 had contact with classmates (non-household). One out of 10 patients who had household contacts and 6 out of 9 patients who had non-household contacts were evaluated with contact investigation after the exposure to pulmonary TB. Among 7 patients who were evaluated with contact investigation, 3 were diagnosed with active pulmonary TB, 1 had latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), and 3 had no evidence of TB or LTBI. The median period of diagnosis after the exposure to active pulmonary TB was 2 years in patients with household contacts and 0.23 years in patients with non-household contacts. Conclusion: This study suggested that if the contact investigation conducted properly, it would be helpful for early diagnosis and prevention of pulmonary TB.

Studies on the Bacteriophages of Brevibacterium lactofermentum (L-글루타민산 생산균 Brevibacterium lactofermentum의 Bacteriophag에 관한 연구)

  • 이태우
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.97-130
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    • 1979
  • Many industrial processes those employ bacteria are subjected to phage infestations. In L-glutamic acid fermentions using acetic acid, the phage infestations of the organisms have been recently recognized. In efforts to elucidate the sources of phage contamination involved in the abnormal fermentation, a series of study was conducted to isolate the phages both from the contents of abnormally fermented tanks and the soil or sewage samples from the surroundings of a fermentation factory, to define major charateristics of the phage isolates, and finally to determine the correlation between the phage isolates and temperate phages originating from the miscellaneous bacterial species isolated from the soil or sewage samples. The results are summarized as follows; 1) All phages were isolated from the irregular fermentation tanks and soil or sewage samples, and they were designated as phage PR-1, PR-2, PR-3, PR-4, PR-5, PR-6, and PR-7, in the order of isolation. These PR-series phages were proved to be highly specific for the variant strains of Br. lactofermentum only, namely, phage PR-1 and PR-2 for Br. lactofermentum No. 468-5 and phage PR-3~PR-7 for Br. lactofemrentum No. 2256. By cross-neutralization test, the 7 phagescould be subdivided into 3 groups, i. e., phage PR-I and PR-2 the first, phage PR-3, PR-4, PR-5, PR-6 the second, and the phage PR-7 the third. 2) The 7 phages were virulent under the experimental conditions. They produced plaques with clear and relatively sharp margins without distinct halo. The mean sizes of plaques were 1.5mm in diameter for phage PR-1 and PR-2, and 1. Omm for phages PR-3~PR-7. Double layer technique modified by Hongo and described by Adams, was applied to assay of the PR-series phages. The factors influencing the plaques were as follows;young age cells of host bacteria cultured for 3-6 hours represented the largest number and size, optimum was pH 7.0, incubation temperature was $30^{\circ}C$, and agar concentration and amount of overlayer medium were 0.6% and 0.2ml, respectively. 3) PR-series phages were stable in 0.05M tris buffer and 0.1M ammonium acetate buffer solution. The addition of $5{\times}10^{-3}M$ magnesium ion effectively increased the stability. Thermostability experiments indicated that PR-series phages were stable at the teinperture between $50^{\circ}{\sim}55^{\circ}C$ in nutrient medium, $45^{\circ}{\sim}50^{\circ}C$ in buffer solution. However, the phages mere completely inactivated at 603C and 65$^{\circ}$C within 10 minutes. The phages were stable at the range of pH6~9 in nutrient medium and of pH 8-9 in buffer solution, respectively. Exposure of the phages to UV for 25, 60 and 100 seconds resulted in the complete loss of infectivily, respectively. 4) Electron microscopy showed that PR-series phage particles exhibited rather similar morphology, differing in the size All of PR-series phages had a multilateral head and had a simple long tiil about three to five times long as compared with head. By the size, phage PR-1 and PR-2, PR-3, PR-4, PR-5, and PR-6 and PR-7 were classified into same groups, respectively. The head and tail size of phage PR-1, PR-5, PR-5(T) and PR-7 were 85nm, 74nm and 235nm and 350mm, and 72nm and 210nm, respectively. 5) Nucleic acids of PR-series phages were double stranded DNA. The G+C contents of phage PR-1, PR-5 and PR-7 were 56.1, 52.9 and 53.7, respectively. The values of G+C contents derived from the $T_m$ were in agreement with the chemically determined values. 6) PR-series phages effectively adsorbed on their host bacteria at the rate of more than 90% during 5 min. K value for phage PR-1, PR-5 and PR-7 were calculated to be $6{\times}10^9 ml$ per minute, respectiveky. The pH of the medium did effect adsorption rate, but both temperature and age of host cells did not. Generally, optimum adsorption condition of phages seemed to be almost same as optimum growth conditions of host bacteria. 7) In one-step growth experiments, the latent periods at $30^{\circ}C$ for PR-1, and PR-7 were about 70, 50 and 55 min, respectively. The corresponding average burst size was 200, 70 and 90, respectively. Lpsis period according to the multiplicity of infection and a phage series. In case of m. o. i. 100, strain No. 2256 (PR-5) and No. 468-5(PR-1) failed to grow and turbidity decreased after 50 and 70min, respectively. 8) In the lysate of a plaque purified phage PR-5 infected bacteria, there observed 2 types ofphage particles, i. e., phage PR-5 and PR-5 (T) of similar morphology but differing at the length of phage tail, and phage tail like particles. The phage taillike particles could be divided into 4 types by the length. Induction experiments of Br. lactofermentum with UV irradiation, mitomycin C or bacitracin treatment produced neither phage PR-5 (T) or phage tail-like particles. 9) No lysis occured when the growth of 7 strains of miscellaneous bacteria, isolated from soil and sewage samples, were inoculated with either phage PR-5 (T) or phage tail-like particles the inoculation of phage PR-5 pellet resulted in the growth inhibition of the orgainsms in the spot test. The lysates obtained from 3 miscellaneous soil derived bacteria following mitomycin C treatment the growth of Br. lactofermentum, but did not lyze the bacterium.

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Calculation of Surface Heat Flux in the Southeastern Yellow Sea Using Ocean Buoy Data (해양부이 자료를 이용한 황해 남동부 해역 표층 열속 산출)

  • Kim, Sun-Bok;Chang, Kyung-Il
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.169-179
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    • 2014
  • Monthly mean surface heat fluxes in the southeastern Yellow Sea are calculated using directly observed airsea variables from an ocean buoy station including short- and longwave radiations, and COARE 3.0 bulk flux algorithm. The calculated monthly mean heat fluxes are then compared with previous estimates of climatological monthly mean surface heat fluxes near the buoy location. Sea surface receives heat through net shortwave radiation ($Q_i$) and loses heat as net longwave radiation ($Q_b$), sensible heat flux ($Q_h$), and latent heat flux ($Q_e$). $Q_e$ is the largest contribution to the total heat loss of about 51 %, and $Q_b$ and $Q_h$ account for 34% and 15% of the total heat loss, respectively. Net heat flux ($Q_n$) shows maximum in May ($191.4W/m^2$) when $Q_i$ shows its annual maximum, and minimum in December ($-264.9W/m^2$) when the heat loss terms show their annual minimum values. Annual mean $Q_n$ is estimated to be $1.9W/m^2$, which is negligibly small considering instrument errors (maximum of ${\pm}19.7W/m^2$). In the previous estimates, summertime incoming radiations ($Q_i$) are underestimated by about $10{\sim}40W/m^2$, and wintertime heat losses due to $Q_e$ and $Q_h$ are overestimated by about $50W/m^2$ and $30{\sim}70W/m^2$, respectively. Consequently, as compared to $Q_n$ from the present study, the amount of net heat gain during the period of net oceanic heat gain between April and August is underestimated, while the ocean's net heat loss in winter is overestimated in other studies. The difference in $Q_n$ is as large as $70{\sim}130W/m^2$ in December and January. Analysis of long-term reanalysis product (MERRA) indicates that the difference in the monthly mean heat fluxes between the present and previous studies is not due to the temporal variability of fluxes but due to inaccurate data used for the calculation of the heat fluxes. This study suggests that caution should be exercised in using the climatological monthly mean surface heat fluxes documented previously for various research and numerical modeling purposes.

Analysis of Atmosphere-Ocean Interactions over South China Sea and its Relationship with Northeast Asian Precipitation Variability during Summer (남중국해의 여름철 대기-해양 상호작용과 동아시아 강수량의 상관성 분석)

  • Jang, Hye-Yeong;Yeh, Sang-Wook
    • Atmosphere
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.283-291
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    • 2013
  • This study investigates the changes in the atmosphere-ocean interactions over the South China Sea (SCS) by analyzing their variables in the period of 1979~2011 during the boreal summer (June-July-August). It is found that a simultaneous correlation coefficient between sea surface temperature (SST) and precipitation over SCS during summer is significantly changed before and after the late-1990s. That is, the variation of precipitation over SCS is negatively (positively) correlated with the SST variations before (after) the late-1990s. Our further correlation analysis indicates that the atmospheric forcing of the SST is dominant before the late-1990s accompanying with wind-evaporation feedback and cloud-radiation feedback. After the late-1990s, in contrast, the SST forcing of the atmosphere through the latent heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere is dominant. It is found that the change in the relationship of atmosphere-ocean interactions over SCS are associated with the changes in the relationship with Northeast Asian summer precipitation. In particular, a simultaneous correlation coefficient between the precipitation over SCS and Northeast Asia becomes stronger during after the late-1990s than before the late-1990s. We argue that the increase of the SST forcing of the atmosphere over SCS may lead a direct relationship of precipitation variations between SCS and Northeast Asia after the late-1990s.

Hepatotoxicity of Rifampicin and Pyrazinamide Treatment Excluding Isoniazid (Isoniazid를 제외한 Rifampicin과 Pyrazinamide 병합치료의 간독성 빈도)

  • Choi, Ik Su;Park, I-Nae;Hong, Sang-Bum;Oh, Yeon-Mok;Lim, Chae-Man;Lee, Sang Do;Koh, Younsuck;Kim, Woo Sung;Kim, Dong Soon;Kim, Won Dong;Shim, Tae Sun
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.60 no.1
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    • pp.38-43
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    • 2006
  • Background : Even though two-month rifampicin (RMP, R) and pyrazinamide (PZA, P) treatment has some advantages over isoniazid (INH, H) treatment for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), it was withdrawn from the list of treatment regimens for LTBI because of reported cases of severe hepatotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to estimate the frequency of hepatotoxicity of RMP and PZA treatment excluding INH in a Korean population. Method : TIn order to recruit patients who were prescribed RMP and PZA excluding INH, 256 INH-resistant tuberculosis patients were investigated through retrospective medical record analysis. A standard four-drug regimen was changed to a RMP/PZA-containing regimen excluding INH in 64 patients (RZ+ group). In the same study period, 146 patients who were prescribed an INH/RMP/PZA-containing standard regimen were randomly selected as a control (HRZ+ group). Clinical characteristics including liver diseases and the frequency of drug-induced hepatitis were compared between the RZ+ and HRZ+ groups. Result : The mean age of patients in the RZ+ group was 50.2 (${\pm}16.2$) and the male-to-female ratio was 36:28. The frequency of underlying liver diseases was 10.9% (7/64), which was not significantly different from that of the HRZ+ group (4.1%, 6/146). Even though the treatment duration of RZ+ ($5.5{\pm}4.8months$) was longer that than that of HRZ+ ($2.7{\pm}2.3months$), the frequency of toxic hepatitis was not significantly different between RZ+ and HRZ+ groups, 3.5% (2/57) and 7.1% (10/140), respectively. Conclusion : Hepatotoxicity was mild and occurred in a minor proportion of patients in a Korean population prescribed an RMP/PZA-containing regimen. A future prospective study including more patients is needed.

EFFECT OF RED GINSENG ON NATURAL KILLER CELL ACTIVITY IN MICE WITH LUNG ADENOMA INDUCED BY URETHAN AND BENZO(A)PYRENE (홍삼이 Urethan 및 Benzo(a)pyrene에 의하여 폐선종이 유발된 마우스에서 Natural Killer 세포활성도에 미치는 영향)

  • Yun Yeon-Sook;Jo Sung-Kee;Moon Hae-Sun;Kim Young-Ju;Oh Yeong-Ran;Yun Taik-Koo
    • Proceedings of the Ginseng society Conference
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    • 1984.09a
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    • pp.27-36
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    • 1984
  • It was previously reported that red ginseng extract inhibited carcinogenesis by urethan, DMBA and aflatoxin $B_1E (Cancer Detection and Prevention, 6: 515-525, 1983). In an attempt to investigate the mechanism of the anticarcinogenic effect of ginseng, we assayed natural killer (N.K) activity in mice treated with urethan and benzo(a)pyrene. In our experiment newly born Swiss Webster mice, less than 24 hrs. old, were given a single subcutaneous injection of lmg of ure-than and 40ug of benzo(a)pyrene. The mice had been administered with ginseng since weaning, and sacrificed at various intervals. Major organs were examined both, with the naked eye and microscopically. N.K. activity of spleen cells was analyzed in a 12-hour $^{51}Cr^-release$ assay against YAC-1 cells. Administration of ginseng resulted in an increase of N.K. activity by $18\%$ at 4 weeks, $20\%$ (P < 0.05) at 6, $29\%$ (P < 0.05) at 12, and $13\%$ at 24 following a single injection of urethan. At the same time, significantly lower incidences of lung adenoma were noted at 6 weeks $(50\%)$ and 12 weeks $(27\%)$ following the administration of ginseng to urethan-injected mice. This result indicates that the enhancement of N.K. activity by ginseng makes a contribution to its anticarcinogenic effect. On the hand, N.K. activity was suppressed by benzo(a)pyrene during the time span of this experiment and it almost returned to the level of controls following the adminsitration of ginseng. However, the lung adenoma induced by benzo(a)pyrene began to occur at 48 weeks in which N.K. activity had naturally declined to a very low level in all experimental mice, and administration of ginseng did not decrease the incidence. In explanation of this result, we might propose that the recovery of the N.K. activity by ginseng had little effect on the incidence of lung adenoma because of the long latent period of carcinogenesis by benzo(a)pyrene. In conclusion, these results suggest that the anticarcinogenic effect of ginseng in urethan-treated mice may be related to the augmentation of N.K. activity.

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THE CHANGE OF THE INITIAL DYNAMIC VISCO-ELASTIC MODULUS OF COMPOSITE RESINS DURING LIGHT POLYMERIZATION (광중합 복합레진의 중합초기 동적 점탄성의 변화)

  • Kim, Min-Ho;Lee, In-Bog
    • Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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    • v.34 no.5
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    • pp.450-459
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    • 2009
  • The aim of this study was to measure the initial dynamic modulus changes of light cured composites using a custom made rheometer. The custom made rheometer consisted of 3 parts: (1) a measurement unit of parallel plates made of glass rods, (2) an oscillating shear strain generator with a DC motor and a crank mechanism, (3) a stress measurement device using an electromagnetic torque sensor. This instrument could measure a maximum torque of 2Ncm, and the switch of the light-curing unit was synchronized with the rheometer. Six commercial composite resins [Z-100 (Z1), Z-250 (Z2), Z-350 (Z3), DenFil (DF), Tetric Ceram (TC), and Clearfil AP-X (CF)] were investigated. A dynamic oscillating shear test was undertaken with the rheometer. A certain volume ($14.2\;mm^3$) of composite was loaded between the parallel plates, which were made of glass rods (3 mm in diameter). An oscillating shear strain with a frequency of 6 Hz and amplitude of 0.00579 rad was applied to the specimen and the resultant stress was measured. Data acquisition started simultaneously with light curing, and the changes in visco-elasticity of composites were recorded for 10 seconds. The measurements were repeated 5 times for each composite at $25{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$. Complex shear modulus G*, storage shear modulus G', loss shear modulus G" were calculated from the measured strain-stress curves. Time to reach the complex modulus G* of 10 MPa was determined. The G* and time to reach the G* of 10 MPa of composites were analyzed with One-way ANOVA and Tukey's test ($\alpha$ = 0.05). The results were as follows. 1. The custom made rheometer in this study reliably measured the initial visco-elastic modulus changes of composites during 10 seconds of light curing. 2. In all composites, the development of complex shear modulus G* had a latent period for $1{\sim}2$ seconds immediately after the start of light curing, and then increased rapidly during 10 seconds. 3. In all composites, the storage shear modulus G" increased steeper than the loss shear modulus G" during 10 seconds of light curing. 4. The complex shear modulus of Z1 was the highest, followed by CF, Z2, Z3, TC and DF the lowest. 5. Z1 was the fastest and DF was the slowest in the time to reach the complex shear modulus of 10 MPa.

A Comparison between the Reference Evapotranspiration Products for Croplands in Korea: Case Study of 2016-2019 (우리나라 농지의 기준증발산 격자자료 비교평가: 2016-2019년의 사례연구)

  • Kim, Seoyeon;Jeong, Yemin;Cho, Subin;Youn, Youjeong;Kim, Nari;Lee, Yangwon
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.36 no.6_1
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    • pp.1465-1483
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    • 2020
  • Evapotranspiration is a concept that includes the evaporation from soil and the transpiration from the plant leaf. It is an essential factor for monitoring water balance, drought, crop growth, and climate change. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) corresponds to the consumption of water from the land surface and the necessary amount of water for the land surface. Because the AET is derived from multiplying the crop coefficient by the reference evapotranspiration (ET0), an accurate calculation of the ET0 is required for the AET. To date, many efforts have been made for gridded ET0 to provide multiple products now. This study presents a comparison between the ET0 products such as FAO56-PM, LDAPS, PKNU-NMSC, and MODIS to find out which one is more suitable for the local-scale hydrological and agricultural applications in Korea, where the heterogeneity of the land surface is critical. In the experiment for the period between 2016 and 2019, the daily and 8-day products were compared with the in-situ observations by KMA. The analyses according to the station, year, month, and time-series showed that the PKNU-NMSC product with a successful optimization for Korea was superior to the others, yielding stable accuracy irrespective of space and time. Also, this paper showed the intrinsic characteristics of the FAO56-PM, LDAPS, and MODIS ET0 products that could be informative for other researchers.

The Determination of Trust in Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships in China (중국 프랜차이즈 시스템에서의 본부와 가맹점간 신뢰의 영향요인)

  • Shin, Geon-Cheol;Ma, Yaokun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.65-88
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    • 2008
  • Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

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