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Variation of Protein Content and Amino Add Composition of Maize Germplasms (옥수수 종실의 단백질함량 변이와 아미노산 조성)

  • Park, Keun-Yong;Son, Young-Hee;Jeong, Seung-Keun;Choi, Keun-Jin;Park, Seung-Ue;Choe, Bong-Ho
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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    • v.35 no.5
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    • pp.413-423
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    • 1990
  • Corn proteins have been known as nutritionally poor, being deficient in the essential amino acids. lysine and tryptophan. Improving the quality of protein in the corn grain would be a great benefit to the farmer. This study was conducted to evaluate the variation of the protein content and the protein constitution of the maize germplasms in the Crop Experiment Station in 1989. The average protein content of 101 germplasms was 11.5% with range from 8.0% to 17.3%. Elite hybrid field corns and table corns possessed 9.1-13.9% protein for the dried whole kernel. Major amino acids were glutamic acid and leucine. Lysine and methionine were limited. Varietal differences were observed in the amino acid composition. Qpm, a modified opaque-2 mutant had 1.4-1.7 times higher lysine content than Suwon 19, a dent corn and Suwon SS-21, a sweet corn. Suwon SS-21 had high threonine content. Maize seed protein gave three fractions. an alchol-soluble fraction (zein), an alkali-soluble fraction (glutelin), and a salt-soluble fraction (globulin) by the Osborne method. The zein fraction accounted respectively for 50.7% and 41.7% of the total protein is Suwon 19 and Suwon SS-21. The nonzein fractions increased in percentage of total protein in Qpm kernels. The amino acid composition of zein fraction from three types maize endoperms of dent, sweet and opaque-2 was essentially identical. Zein contained the high contents of glutamic acid and leucine but low content of lysine. The glutelin fractions of three types maize endosperms were mainly similar in overall amino acid composition. The lysine content of glutelin was higher than that of zein. The amino acid composition of globulin fraction was some different from those of zein and glutelin In Qpm it had higher levels of histidine and lysine than both of zein and glutelin. The increased lysine content in Qpm was resulted from changing the proportions of proteins which contained different levels of lysine.

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The Trend of Cigarette Design and Tobacco Flavor System Development

  • Wu, Jimmy Z.
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.67-73
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    • 2002
  • In light of addressing consumer health concern, coping with anti-tobacco movement, and promoting new product, tobacco industry is actively pursuing to make a new generation of cigarettes with low tar and nicotine deliveries, and less harmful substances. Low tar and low nicotine cigarettes increases their market shares dramatically world wide, especially in KT&G, multinational tobacco companies, EU countries, even in China regulated by CNTC to set up yearly target to lower tar and nicotine deliveries. On the other hand, to design a new cigarette with reduced harmful substances begins to gain speed. The "modified Hoffmann list" publishes thirty plus substances in tobacco leaf and main smoke stream, which is the prime suspect causing health problems. Various ways and means are developed to reduce such components including new tobacco breeds, new curing method, tobacco leaf treatment before processing, selected filtration system, innovated casing system to reduce free radicals, as well as some non conventional cigarette products. In TSRC held this year, the main topic is related to reduce tobacco specific nitrosamines in tobacco leaf. The new generation of cigarette is in the horizon. It still needs a lot help to produce commercial products with satisfied taste and aroma characters. The flavor industry is not regulated by many governments demanding which ingredients might or might not be for tobacco use. However, most of the cigarette companies self impose a list of ingredients to guide flavor suppliers to design flavors. Unfortunately, the number of ingredients in those lists is getting shorter every year. It is understandable that the health is not the only reason. Some cigarette companies are playing safe to protect the company from potential lawsuit, while others are just copying from their competitors. Moreover, it is obvious that it needs more assistance from casings and flavors to design new generation of cigarettes with missing certain flavor components in tobacco leaf and main smoke stream. These flavor components are either non-existed or at lower level at new form of cured tobacco leaf or filtered in the main smoke stream along with reduced harmful substances. The use of carbon filters and other selected filtration system poses another tough task for flavor system design. Specific flavor components are missing from the smoke analysis data, which brings a notion of "carbon taste" and "dryness" of mouth feel. It is ever more demanded by cigarette industry to flavor suppliers to produce flavors as body enhancer, tobacco notes, salivating agents, harshness reducer, and various of aromatic notes provided they are safe to use. Another trend is that water based flavor or flavor with reduced ethanol as solvent is gaining popularity. It is preferred by some cigarette companies that the flavor is compounded with all natural ingredients or all ingredients should he GMO free. The new generation of cigarettes demands many ways of new thinking process. It is also vital for tobacco industry. It reflects the real needs for the consumers that the cigarette product should be safe to use as well as bearing the taste and aroma characters smokers always enjoyed. An effective tobacco flavor system is definitely a part of the equation. The global trend of tobacco industry is like trends of any other industries lead by consumer needs, benefited with new technology availability, affected by the global economy, and subjected for various rules and regulations. Anti-tobacco organizations and media exceptionally scrutinize cigarette, as a legal commercial product. Cigarette is probably the most studied commercial product for its composition, structure, deliveries, effects, as well as its new developmental trend. Therefore, any new trend of cigarette development would be within these boundaries. This paper is trying to point out what it would be like for tobacco industry in the next few yews and what concerns the tobacco industry. It focuses mostly on the efforts to produce safer cigarettes. It is such a vital task for the tobacco industry and its affiliate industries such as cigarette papers, filters, flavors, and other materials. The facts and knowledge presented in this paper might be well known for the public. Some of the comments and predictions are very much personal opinion for a further discussion.

Assessment of the Contribution of Weather, Vegetation and Land Use Change for Agricultural Reservoir and Stream Watershed using the SLURP model (II) - Calibration, Validation and Application of the Model - (SLURP 모형을 이용한 기후, 식생, 토지이용변화가 농업용 저수지 유역과 하천유역에 미치는 기여도 평가(II) - 모형의 검·보정 및 적용 -)

  • Park, Geun-Ae;Ahn, So-Ra;Park, Min-Ji;Kim, Seong-Joon
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.30 no.2B
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    • pp.121-135
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    • 2010
  • This study is to assess the effect of potential future climate change on the inflow of agricultural reservoir and its impact to downstream streamflow by reservoir operation for paddy irrigation water supply using the SLURP. Before the future analysis, the SLURP model was calibrated using the 6 years daily streamflow records (1998-200398 and validated using 3 years streamflow data (2004-200698 for a 366.5 $km^2$ watershed including two agricultural reservoirs (Geumgwang8 and Gosam98located in Anseongcheon watershed. The calibration and validation results showed that the model was able to simulate the daily streamflow well considering the reservoir operation for paddy irrigation and flood discharge, with a coefficient of determination and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranging from s 7 to s 9 and 0.5 to s 8 respectively. Then, the future potential climate change impact was assessed using the future wthe fu data was downscaled by nge impFactor method throuih bias-correction, the future land uses wtre predicted by modified CA-Markov technique, and the future ve potentiacovfu information was predicted and considered by the linear regression bpowten mecthly NDVI from NOAA AVHRR ima ps and mecthly mean temperature. The future (2020s, 2050s and 2e 0s) reservoir inflow, the temporal changes of reservoir storaimpand its impact to downstream streamflow watershed wtre analyzed for the A2 and B2 climate change scenarios based on a base year (2005). At an annual temporal scale, the reservoir inflow and storaimpchange oue, anagricultural reservoir wtre projected to big decrease innautumnnunder all possiblmpcombinations of conditions. The future streamflow, soossmoosture and grounwater recharge decreased slightly, whtre as the evapotransporation was projected to increase largely for all possiblmpcombinations of the conditions. At last, this study was analysed contribution of weather, vegetation and land use change to assess which factor biggest impact on agricultural reservoir and stream watershed. As a result, weather change biggest impact on agricultural reservoir inflow, storage, streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and groundwater recharge.

Distribution and Frequency of SSR Motifs in the Chrysanthemum SSR-enriched Library through 454 Pyrosequencing Technology (국화 SSR-enriched library에서 SSR 반복염기의 분포 및 빈도)

  • Moe, Kyaw Thu;Ra, Sang-Bog;Lee, Gi-An;Lee, Myung-Chul;Park, Ha-Seung;Kim, Dong-Chan;Lee, Cheol-Hwi;Choi, Hyun-Gu;Jeon, Nak-Beom;Choi, Byung-Jun;Jung, Ji-Youn;Lee, Kyu-Min;Park, Yong-Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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    • v.23 no.5
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    • pp.546-551
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    • 2011
  • Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, belong to the genus Chrysanthemum, which includes about 30 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. We extracted DNA from Dendranthema grandiflorum ('Smileball') to construct a simple sequence repeat (SSR)-enriched library, using a modified biotin-streptavidin capture method. GS FLX (Genome Sequencer FLX System which provides the flexibility to perform the broad range of applications) sequencing (at the 1/8 run specification) resulted in 18.83 mega base pairs (Mbp) with an average read length of 280.06 bp. Sequence analyses of all SSR-containing clones revealed a predominance of di-nucleotide motifs (16,375, 61.5%) followed by tri-nucleotide motifs (6,616, 24.8%), tetra-nucleotide motifs (1,674, 6.3%), penta-nucleotide motifs (1,283, 4.8%), and hexa-nucleotide motifs (693, 2.6%). Among the di-nucleotide motifs, the AC/CA class was the most frequently identified (93.5% of all di-nucleotide types), followed by the GA/AG class (6.1%), the AT/TA class (0.4%), and the CG/GC class (0.03%). When we analyzed the distribution of different repeat motifs and their respective numbers of repeats, regardless of the motif class, of 100 SSR markers, we found a higher number of di-nucleotide motifs with 70 to 80 repeats; we also found two di-nucleotide motifs with 83 and 89 repeats, respectively, but their product lengths were within optimum size (297 and 300 bp). In future work, we will screen for polymorphisms of possible primer pairs. The results will provide a useful tool for assessing molecular diversity and investigating the population structure among and within Chrysanthemum species.

Test of Independence Between Variables to Estimate the Frequency of Damage in Heat Pipe (열수송관 파손빈도 추정을 위한 변수간 독립성 검정)

  • Myeongsik Kong;Jaemo Kang;Sungyeol Lee
    • Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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    • v.24 no.12
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    • pp.61-67
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    • 2023
  • Heat pipes located underground in urban areas and operated under high temperature and pressure conditions can cause large-scale human and economic damage if damaged. In order to predict damage in advance, damage and construction information of heat pipe are analyzed to derive independent variables that have a correlation with frequency of damage, and a simple regression analysis modified model using each variable is applied to the field. However, as the correlation between independent variables applied to the model increases, the independence between variables is harmed and the reliability of the model decreases. In this study, the independence of the pipe diameter, burial depth, insulation level of monitoring system, and disconnection or short circuit of the detection line, which are judged to be interrelated, was tested to derive a method for combining variables and setting categories necessary to apply to the frequency of damage estimation model. For the test of independence, the continuous variables pipe diameter and burial depth were each converted into three categories, insulation level of monitoring system was converted into two categories, and the categorical variable disconnection or short circuit of the detection line status was kept as two categories. As a result of the test of independence, p-value between pipe diameter and burial depth, level of monitoring system and disconnection or short circuit of the detection line was lower than the significance level (α = 0.05), indicating a large correlation between them. Therefore, the pipe diameter and burial depth were combined into one variable, and the categories of the combined variable were set to 9 considering the previously set categories. The insulation level of monitoring system and the disconnection or short circuit of the detection line were also combined into one variable. Since the insulation level is unreliable when the detection line status is disconnection or short circuit, the categories of the combined variable were set to 3.

Retrograde Autologous Priming: Is It Really Effective in Reducing Red Blood Cell Transfusions during Extracorporeal Circulation? (역행성 자가혈액 충전법: 체외순환 중 동종적혈구 수혈량을 줄일 수 있는가?)

  • Lim, Cheong;Son, Kuk-Hui;Park, Kay-Hyun;Jheon, Sang-Hoon;Sung, Sook-Whan
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.473-479
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    • 2009
  • Background: Retrograde autologous priming (RAP) is known to be useful in decreasing the need of transfusions in cardiac surgery because it prevents excessive hemodilution due to the crystalloid priming of cardiopulmonary bypass circuit. However, there are also negative side effects in terms of blood conservation. We analyzed the intraoperative blood-conserving effect of RAP and also investigated the efficacy of autotransfusion and ultrafiltration as a supplemental method for RAP. Material and Method: From January 2005 to December 2007, 117 patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass operations using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were enrolled. Mean age was 63.9$\pm$9.1 years (range 36$\sim$83 years) and 34 patients were female. There were 62 patients in the RAP group and 55 patients in he control group. Intraoperative autotransfusion was performed via the arterial line. RAP was done just before initiating CPB using retrograde drainage of the crystalloid priming solution. Both conventional (CUF) and modified (MUF) ultrafiltrations were done during and after CPB, respectively. The transfusion threshold was less than 20% in hematocrit. Result: Autotransfusions were done in 79 patients (67.5%) and the average amount was 142.5$\pm$65.4 mL (range 30$\sim$320 mL). Homologous red blood cell (RBC) transfusion was done in 47 patients (40.2%) and mean amount of transfused RBC was 404.3$\pm$222.6 mL. Risk factors for transfusions were body surface area (OR 0.01, 95% CI 0.00 $\sim$ 0.63, p=0.030) and cardiopulmonary bypass time (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01 $\sim$ 1.08, p=0.019). RAP was not effective in terms of the rate of transfusion (34.5% vs 45.2%, p=0.24). However, the amount of transfused RBC was significantly decreased (526.3$\pm$242.3ml vs 321.4$\pm$166.3 mL, p=0.001). Autotransfusion and ultrafiltration revealed additive and cumulative effects decreasing transfusion amount (one; 600.0$\pm$231.0 mL, two; 533.3$\pm$264.6 mL, three; 346.7$\pm$176.7 mL, four; 300.0$\pm$146.1 mL, p=0.002). Conclusion: Even though RAP did not appear to be effective in terms of the number of patients receiving intraoperative RBC transfusions, it could conserve blood in terms of the amount transfused and with the additive effects of autotransfusion and ultrafiltration. If we want to maximize the blood conserving effect of RAP, more aggressive control will be necessary - such as high threshold of transfusion trigger or strict regulation of crystalloid infusion, and so forth.

Quantitative Analysis of Carbohydrate, Protein, and Oil Contents of Korean Foods Using Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (근적외 분광분석법을 이용한 국내 유통 식품 함유 탄수화물, 단백질 및 지방의 정량 분석)

  • Song, Lee-Seul;Kim, Young-Hak;Kim, Gi-Ppeum;Ahn, Kyung-Geun;Hwang, Young-Sun;Kang, In-Kyu;Yoon, Sung-Won;Lee, Junsoo;Shin, Ki-Yong;Lee, Woo-Young;Cho, Young Sook;Choung, Myoung-Gun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.43 no.3
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    • pp.425-430
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    • 2014
  • Foods contain various nutrients such as carbohydrates, protein, oil, vitamins, and minerals. Among them, carbohydrates, protein, and oil are the main constituents of foods. Usually, these constituents are analyzed by the Kjeldahl and Soxhlet method and so on. However, these analytical methods are complex, costly, and time-consuming. Thus, this study aimed to rapidly and effectively analyze carbohydrate, protein, and oil contents with near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). A total of 517 food samples were measured within the wavelength range of 400 to 2,500 nm. Exactly 412 food calibration samples and 162 validation samples were used for NIRS equation development and validation, respectively. In the NIRS equation of carbohydrates, the most accurate equation was obtained under 1, 4, 5, 1 (1st derivative, 4 nm gap, 5 points smoothing, and 1 point second smoothing) math treatment conditions using the weighted MSC (multiplicative scatter correction) scatter correction method with MPLS (modified partial least square) regression. In the case of protein and oil, the best equation were obtained under 2, 5, 5, 3 and 1, 1, 1, 1 conditions, respectively, using standard MSC and standard normal variate only scatter correction methods with MPLS regression. Calibrations of these NIRS equations showed a very high coefficient of determination in calibration ($R^2$: carbohydrates, 0.971; protein, 0.974; oil, 0.937) and low standard error of calibration (carbohydrates, 4.066; protein, 1.080; oil, 1.890). Optimal equation conditions were applied to a validation set of 162 samples. Validation results of these NIRS equations showed a very high coefficient of determination in prediction ($r^2$: carbohydrates, 0.987; protein, 0.970; oil, 0.947) and low standard error of prediction (carbohydrates, 2.515; protein, 1.144; oil, 1.370). Therefore, these NIRS equations can be applicable for determination of carbohydrates, proteins, and oil contents in various foods.

Early and Mid-term Results of Operation for Infective Endocarditis on Mitral Valve (감염성 승모판 심내막염의 중단기 수술 성적)

  • Ahn, Byong-Hee;Chun, Joon-Kyung;Yu, Ung;Ryu, Sang-Wan;Choi, Yong-Sun;Kim, Byong-Pyo;Hong, Sung-Bum;Bum, Min-Sun;Na, Kook-Ju;Park, Jong-Chun;Kim, Sang-Hyung
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.37 no.1
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    • pp.27-34
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    • 2004
  • Background: Infective endocarditis shows higher operative morbidity and mortality rates than other cardiac diseases. The vast majority of studies on infective endocarditis have been made on aortic endocarditis, with little attention having been paid to infective endocarditis on the mitral valve. This study attempts to investigate the clinical aspects and operative results of infective endocarditis on the mitral valve. Meterial and Method: The subjects of this study consist of 23 patients who underwent operations for infective endocariditis on the mitral valve from June 1995 to May 2003. Among them, 2 patients suffered from prosthetic valvular endocarditis and the other 21 from native valvular endocarditis. The subjects were evenly distributed age-wise with an average age of 44.8$\pm$15.7 (11∼66) years. Emergency operations were performed on seventeen patients (73.9%) due to large vegetation or instable hemodynamic status. In preoperative examinations, twelve patients exhibited congestive heart failure, four patients renal failure, two patients spleen and renal infarction, and two patients temporary neurological defects, while one patient had a brain abscess. Based on the NYHA functional classification, seven patients were determined to be at Grade II, 9 patients at Grade III, and 6 patients at Grade IV. Vegetations were detected in 20 patients while mitral regurgitation was dominant in 19 patients with 4 patients showing up as mitral stenosis dominant on the preoperative echocardiogram. Blood cultures for causative organisms were performed on all patients, and positive results were obtained from ten patients, with five cases of Streptococcus viridance, two cases of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, and one case each of Corynebacteriurn, Haemophillis, and Gernella. Operations were decided according to the AA/AHA guidelines (1988). The mean follow-up period was 27.6 $\pm$23.3 (1 ∼ 97) months. Result: Mitral valve replacements were performed on 43 patients, with mechanical valves being used on 9 patients and tissue valves on the other 4. Several kinds of mitral valve repair or mitral valvuloplasty were carried out on the remaining 10 patients. Associated procedures included six aortic valve replacements, two tricuspid annuloplasty, one modified Maze operation, and one direct closure of a ventricular septal defect. Postoperative complications included two cases of bleeding and one case each of mediastinitis, low cardiac output syndrome, and pneumonia. There were no cases of early deaths, or death within 30 days following the operation. No patient died in the hospital or experienced valve related complications. One patient, however, underwent mitral valvuloplasty 3 months after the operation. Another patient died from intra-cranial hemorrhage in the 31st month after the operation. Therefore, the valve-related death rate was 4.3%, and the valve-related complication rate 8.6% on mid-term follow-up. 1, 3-, and 5-year valve- related event free rates were 90.8%, 79.5%, and 79.5%, respectively, while 1, follow-up. 1, 3-, and 5-year valve- related event free rates were 90.8%, 79.5%, and 79.5%, respectively, while 1, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 100%, 88.8%, and 88.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a complete removal of infected tissues is essential in the operative treatment of infectious endocarditis of the mitral valve. It is also suggested that when infected tissues are completely removed, neither type of material nor method of operation has a significant effect on the operation result. The postoperative results also suggest the need for a close follow-up observation of the patients suspected of having brain damage, which is caused by preoperative blood contamination or emboli from vegetation, for a possible cerebral vascular injury such as mycotic aneurysm.

A Study on Interactions of Competitive Promotions Between the New and Used Cars (신차와 중고차간 프로모션의 상호작용에 대한 연구)

  • Chang, Kwangpil
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.83-98
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    • 2012
  • In a market where new and used cars are competing with each other, we would run the risk of obtaining biased estimates of cross elasticity between them if we focus on only new cars or on only used cars. Unfortunately, most of previous studies on the automobile industry have focused on only new car models without taking into account the effect of used cars' pricing policy on new cars' market shares and vice versa, resulting in inadequate prediction of reactive pricing in response to competitors' rebate or price discount. However, there are some exceptions. Purohit (1992) and Sullivan (1990) looked into both new and used car markets at the same time to examine the effect of new car model launching on the used car prices. But their studies have some limitations in that they employed the average used car prices reported in NADA Used Car Guide instead of actual transaction prices. Some of the conflicting results may be due to this problem in the data. Park (1998) recognized this problem and used the actual prices in his study. His work is notable in that he investigated the qualitative effect of new car model launching on the pricing policy of the used car in terms of reinforcement of brand equity. The current work also used the actual price like Park (1998) but the quantitative aspect of competitive price promotion between new and used cars of the same model was explored. In this study, I develop a model that assumes that the cross elasticity between new and used cars of the same model is higher than those amongst new cars and used cars of the different model. Specifically, I apply the nested logit model that assumes the car model choice at the first stage and the choice between new and used cars at the second stage. This proposed model is compared to the IIA (Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives) model that assumes that there is no decision hierarchy but that new and used cars of the different model are all substitutable at the first stage. The data for this study are drawn from Power Information Network (PIN), an affiliate of J.D. Power and Associates. PIN collects sales transaction data from a sample of dealerships in the major metropolitan areas in the U.S. These are retail transactions, i.e., sales or leases to final consumers, excluding fleet sales and including both new car and used car sales. Each observation in the PIN database contains the transaction date, the manufacturer, model year, make, model, trim and other car information, the transaction price, consumer rebates, the interest rate, term, amount financed (when the vehicle is financed or leased), etc. I used data for the compact cars sold during the period January 2009- June 2009. The new and used cars of the top nine selling models are included in the study: Mazda 3, Honda Civic, Chevrolet Cobalt, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus, Volkswagen Jetta, Nissan Sentra, and Kia Spectra. These models in the study accounted for 87% of category unit sales. Empirical application of the nested logit model showed that the proposed model outperformed the IIA (Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives) model in both calibration and holdout samples. The other comparison model that assumes choice between new and used cars at the first stage and car model choice at the second stage turned out to be mis-specfied since the dissimilarity parameter (i.e., inclusive or categroy value parameter) was estimated to be greater than 1. Post hoc analysis based on estimated parameters was conducted employing the modified Lanczo's iterative method. This method is intuitively appealing. For example, suppose a new car offers a certain amount of rebate and gains market share at first. In response to this rebate, a used car of the same model keeps decreasing price until it regains the lost market share to maintain the status quo. The new car settle down to a lowered market share due to the used car's reaction. The method enables us to find the amount of price discount to main the status quo and equilibrium market shares of the new and used cars. In the first simulation, I used Jetta as a focal brand to see how its new and used cars set prices, rebates or APR interactively assuming that reactive cars respond to price promotion to maintain the status quo. The simulation results showed that the IIA model underestimates cross elasticities, resulting in suggesting less aggressive used car price discount in response to new cars' rebate than the proposed nested logit model. In the second simulation, I used Elantra to reconfirm the result for Jetta and came to the same conclusion. In the third simulation, I had Corolla offer $1,000 rebate to see what could be the best response for Elantra's new and used cars. Interestingly, Elantra's used car could maintain the status quo by offering lower price discount ($160) than the new car ($205). In the future research, we might want to explore the plausibility of the alternative nested logit model. For example, the NUB model that assumes choice between new and used cars at the first stage and brand choice at the second stage could be a possibility even though it was rejected in the current study because of mis-specification (A dissimilarity parameter turned out to be higher than 1). The NUB model may have been rejected due to true mis-specification or data structure transmitted from a typical car dealership. In a typical car dealership, both new and used cars of the same model are displayed. Because of this fact, the BNU model that assumes brand choice at the first stage and choice between new and used cars at the second stage may have been favored in the current study since customers first choose a dealership (brand) then choose between new and used cars given this market environment. However, suppose there are dealerships that carry both new and used cars of various models, then the NUB model might fit the data as well as the BNU model. Which model is a better description of the data is an empirical question. In addition, it would be interesting to test a probabilistic mixture model of the BNU and NUB on a new data set.

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Development of Porcine Pericardial Heterograft for Clinical Application (Microscopic Analysis of Various Fixation Methods) (돼지의 심낭, 판막을 이용한 이종이식 보철편의 개발(고정 방법에 따른 조직학적 분석))

  • Kim, Kwan-Chang;Choi, Chang-Hyu;Lee, Chang-Ha;Lee, Chul;Oh, Sam-Sae;Park, Seong-Sik;Kim, Woong-Han;Kim, Kyung-Hwan;Kim, Yong-Jiin
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.41 no.3
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    • pp.295-304
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    • 2008
  • Background: Various experimental trials for the development of bioprosthetic devices are actively underway, secondary to the limited supply of autologous and homograft tissue to treat cardiac diseases. In this study, porcine bioprostheses that were treated with glutaraldehyde (GA), ethanol, or sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) were examined with light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy for mechanical and physical imperfections before implantation, Material and Method: 1) Porcine pericardium, aortic valve, and pulmonary valve were examined using light microscopy and JEM-100CX II transmission electron microscopy, then compared with human pericardium and commercially produced heterografts. 2) Sections from six treated groups (GA-Ethanol, Ethanol-GA, SDS only, SDS-GA, Ethanol-SDS-GA and SDS-Ethanol-GA) were observed using the same methods. Result: 1) Porcine pericardium was composed of a serosal layer, fibrosa, and epicardial connective tissue. Treatment with GA, ethanol, or SDS had little influence on the collagen skeleton of porcine pericardium, except in the case of SDS pre-treatment. There was no alteration in the collagen skeleton of the porcine pericardium compared to commercially produced heterografts. 2) Porcine aortic valve was composed of lamina fibrosa, lamina spongiosa, and lamina ventricularis. Treatment with GA, ethanol, or SDS had little influence on these three layers and the collagen skeleton of porcine aortic valve, except in the case of SDS pre-treatment. There were no alterations in the three layers or the collagen. skeleton of porcine aortic valve compared to commercially produced heterografts. Conclusion: There was little physical and mechanical damage incurred in porcine bioprosthesis structures during various glutaraldehyde fixation processes combined with anti-calcification or decellularization treatments. However, SDS treatment preceding GA fixation changed the collagen fibers into a slightly condensed form, which degraded during transmission electron micrograph. The optimal methods and conditions for sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) treatment need to be modified.