• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.89-114
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• 2008

Most of the extant studies on communication effects have been devoted to the typical issue, "what types of communication activities are more effective for brand awareness or brand attitudes?" However, little research has addressed another question on communication decisions, "what makes communication activities less effective?" Our study focuses on factors negatively influenced on the efficiency of communication activities, especially of Advertising. Some studies have introduced concepts closely related to our topic such as consumer confusion, brand confusion, or belief confusion. Studies on product belief confusion have found some factors misleading consumers to misunderstand the physical features of products. Studies on brand confusion have uncovered factors making consumers confused on brand names. Studies on advertising confusion have tested the effects of ad models' employed by many other firms for different products on communication efficiency. We address a new concept, Ad noises, which are any factors interfering with consumers exposed to a particular advertisement in understanding messages provided by advertisements. The objective of this study is to understand the effects of ad noises caused by ad models on brand awareness and brand attitude. There are many different types of AD noises. Particularly, we study the effects of AD noises generated from ad model selection decision. Many companies want to employ celebrities as AD models while the number of celebrities who command a high degree of public and media attention are limited. Inevitably, several firms have been adopting the same celebrities as their AD models for different products. If the same AD model is adopted for TV commercials for different products, consumers exposed to those TV commercials are likely to fail to be aware of the target brand due to interference of TV commercials, for other products, employing the same AD model. This is an ad noise caused by employing ad models who have been exposed to consumers in other advertisements, which is the first type of ad noises studied in this research. Another type of AD noises is related to the decision of AD model replacement for the same product advertising. Firms sometimes launch another TV commercial for the same products. Some firms employ the same AD model for the new TV commercial for the same product and other firms employ new AD models for the new TV commercials for the same product. The typical problem with the replacement of AD models is the possibility of interfering with consumers in understanding messages of the TV commercial due to the dissimilarity of the old and new AD models. We studied the effects of these two types of ad noises, which are the typical factors influencing on the effect of communication: (1) ad noises caused by employing ad models who have been exposed to consumers in other advertisements and (2) ad noises caused by changing ad models with different images for same products. First, we measure the negative influence of AD noises on brand awareness and attitudes, in order to provide the importance of studying AD noises. Furthermore, our study unveiled the mediating conditions(variables) which can increase or decrease the effects of ad noises on brand awareness and attitudes. We study the effects of three mediating variables for ad noises caused by employing ad models who have been exposed to consumers in other advertisements: (1) the fit between product image and AD model image, (2) similarity between AD model images in multiple TV commercials employing the same AD model, and (3) similarity between products of which TV commercial employed the same AD model. We analyze the effects of another three mediating variables for ad noises caused by changing ad models with different images for same products: (1) the fit of old and new AD models for the same product, (2) similarity between AD model images in old and new TV commercials for the same product, and (3) concept similarity between old and new TV commercials for the same product. We summarized the empirical results from a field survey as follows. The employment of ad models who have been used in advertisements for other products has negative effects on both brand awareness and attitudes. our empirical study shows that it is possible to reduce the negative effects of ad models used for other products by choosing ad models whose images are relevant to the images of target products for the advertisement, by requiring ad models of images which are different from those of ad models in other advertisements, or by choosing ad models who have been shown in advertisements for other products which are not similar to the target product. The change of ad models for the same product advertisement can positively influence on brand awareness but positively on brand attitudes. Furthermore, the effects of ad model change can be weakened or strengthened depending on the relevancy of new ad models, the similarity of previous and current ad models, and the consistency of the previous and current ad messages.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.72-92
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• 2000

This research has conducted studies on an Oriental medicine-based method of diagnosing of occupational musculoskeletal system diseases. This researcher has searched through existing relevant medical literature. Also, this researcher has worked on a moire topography using moire topography. In this course, this researcher has reached the following conclusion in relation to the possibility of using a moire topography as a diagnosing device of musculoskeletal system diseases under Oriental medicine . 1 The Western medicine outlines its criteria of screening occupational musculoskeletal system diseases as follows A. The occupational musculoskeletal diseases must clearly include one or more of the subjective symptoms characterized by pain, hypoesthesia dysaesthesia, anaesthesia. etc . B, There should be clinically admitted objective observations and diagnosis outlining that the disease concerned shows symptoms such as tenderness, induration. and edema that can appear with occupational musculoskeletal system diseases. dyscinesia should be admitted with the disease concerned, or there should be observations and diagnosis outlining that abnormality exists in electric muscular or nervous diagnosis and examination . C. It should be admitted that prior to the occurrence of symptoms or observations and diagnosis on musculoskeletal system-related diseases, a patient has been engaged in works with conditions requiring improper work posture or work movement. That is, this is an approach whereby they see abnormality in the musculoskeletal system come from material and structural defect, and adjust and control abnormality in the musculoskeletal system and secreta . 2. The Oriental medicines sees that a patient develops the pain of occupational musculoskeletal diseases as he cannot properly activate the flow of his life force and blood thus not only causing formation of lumps in the body and blocking the flow of life force and blood in some parts of the body. Hence, The Oriental medicine focuses on resolving the cause of weakening the flow of life force and blood, instead of taking material approach of correcting structural abnormality Furthermore , Oriental medicine sees that when muscle tension builds up, this presses blood vessels and nerves passing by, triggering circulation dyscrasia and neurological reaction and thus leading to lesion. Thus, instead of taking skeletal or neurophysiological approach. it seeks to fundamentally resolve the cause of the flow of the life force and blood in muscles not being activated. As a result Oriental medicine attributes the main cause of musculoskeletal system diseases to muscle tension and its build-up that stem from an individual's long formed chronicle habit and work environment. This approach considers not only the social structure aspect including companies owners and work environment that the existing methods have looked at, but also individual workers' responsibility and their environmental factors. Hence, this is a step forward method. 3 The diagnosis of musculoskeletal diseases under Oriental medicine is characterized by the fact that an Oriental medicine doctor uses not only photos taken by himself, but also various detection devices to gather information and pass comprehensive judgment on it. Thus, it is the core of diagnosis under Oriental medicine to develop diagnosing devices matching the characteristics of information to be induced and to interpret information so induced from the views of Oriental medicine. Diagnosis using diagnosing devices values the whole state of a patient and formal abnormality alike, and the whole balance and muscular state of a patient serves as the basis of diagnosis. Hence, this method, instead of depending on the information gathered from devices under Western medicine, requires devices that provide information on the whole state of a patient in addition to the local abnormality information that X-ray. CT, etc., can offer. This method sees muscle as the central part of the abnormality in the musculoskeletal system and thus requires diagnosing devices enabling the muscular state. 4. The diagnosing device using moire topography under Oriental medicine has advantages below and can be used for diagnosing musculoskeletal system diseases with industrial workers . First, the device can Provide information on the body in an unbalanced state. and thus identify the imbalance and difference of height in the left and right stature that a patient can not notice at normal times. Second, the device shows the twisting of muscles or induration regions in a contour map. This is not possible with existing shooting machines such as X-ray, CT, etc., thus differentiating itself from existing machines. Third, this device makes it possible for Oriental medicine to take its unique approach to the abnormality in the musculoskeletal system. Oriental medicine sees the state and imbalance state in muscles as major factors in determining the lesion of musculoskeletal system, and the device makes it possible to shoot the state of muscles in detail. In this respect, the device is significant. Fourth, the device has an advantage as non-aggression diagnosing device.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.13
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• pp.869-895
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• 2000

The US supports the Information and Communication (IC) industry as a strategic one to wield a complete power over the World Market. However, several other countries are also eager to have the support for the IC industry because the industry produces a high added value and has a significant effect on other industries. Korea is not an exception. Korea recently succeeded in the commercialization of CDMA for the first time in the world, after the successful development of TDX. Hence, it is highly likely to get tracked by the US. Although the IC industry is a specific sector of IT, there is a concern that there might be a trade friction between the US and Korea due to a possible competition. It will be very important to prepare a solution in advance so that Korea could prevent the friction and at the same time increase its share domestically and globally. It will be our important task to solve the problem with the minimum cost if the conflict arises unfortunately in the IT area. The parties that have a strong influence on the US trade policy are the think tank group and the IT-related interest group. Therefore, it would be important to have a close relationship with them. We found some implications by analyzing the case of Japan, which has experienced trade frictions with the US over the long period of time in the high tech industry. In order to get rid of those conflicts with the US, the Japanese did the following things : (1) The Japanese government developed supporting theories and also resorted to international support so that the world could support the Japanese theories. (2) Through continual dialogue with the US business people, the Japanese business people sought after solutions to share profits among the Japanese and the US both in the domestic and in the worldwide markets. They focused on lobbying activities to influence the US public opinion to support the Japanese. The specific implementation plan was first to open culture lobby toward opinion leaders who were leaders about the US opinion. The institution, Japan Society, were formed to deliver a high quality lobbying activities. The second plan is economic lobby. They have established Japanese Economic Institute at Washington. They provide information about Japan regularly or irregularly to the US government, research institution, universities, etc., that are interested in Japan. The main objective behind these activities though is to advertise the validity of Japanese policy. Japanese top executives, practical interest groups on international trade, are trying to justify their position by direct contact with the US policy makers. The third one is political lobby. Japan is very careful about this political lobby. It is doing its best not to give impression that Japan is trying to shape the US policy making. It is collecting a vast amount of information to make a correct judgment on situation. It is not tilted toward one political party or the other, and is rather developing a long-term network of people who understand and support the Japanese policy. The following implications were drawn from the experience of Japan. First, the Korean government should develop a long-term plan and execute it to improve the Korean image perceived by American people. Second, the Korean government should begin public relation activities toward the US elite group. It is inevitable to make an effort to advertise Korea to this elite group because this group leads public opinion in the USA. Third, the Korean government needs the development of a relevant policy to elevate the positive atmosphere for advertising toward the US. For example, we need information about to whom and how to about lobbying activities, personnel network who immediately respond to wrong articles about Korea in the US press, and lastly the most recent data bank of Korean support group inside the USA. Fourth, the Korean government should create an atmosphere to facilitate the advertising toward the US. Examples include provision of incentives in tax on the expenses for the advertising toward the US and provision of rewards to those who significantly contribute to the advertising activities. Fifth, the Korean government should perform the role of a bridge between Korean and the US business people. Sixth, the government should promptly analyze the policy of IT industry, a strategic area, and timely distribute information to industries in Korea. Since the Korean government is the only institution that has formal contact with the US government, it is highly likely to provide information of a high quality. The followings are some implications for business institutions. First, Korean business organization should carefully analyze and observe the business policy and managerial conditions of US companies. It is very important to do so because all the trade frictions arise at the business level. Second, it is also very important that the top management of Korean firms contact the opinion leaders of the US. Third, it is critically needed that Korean business people sent to the USA do their part for PR activities. Fourth, it is very important to advertise to American employees in Korean companies. If we cannot convince our American employees, it would be a lot harder to convince regular American. Therefore, it is very important to make the American employees the support group for Korean ways. Fifth, it should try to get much information as early as possible about the US firms policy in the IT area. It should give an enormous effort on early collection of information because by doing so it has more time to respond. Sixth, it should research on the PR cases of foreign enterprise or non-American companies inside the USA. The research needs to identify the success factors and the failure factors. Finally, the business firm will get more valuable information if it analyzes and responds to, according to each medium.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-116
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• 2011

In collaborative tagging systems such as Delicious.com and Flickr.com, users assign keywords or tags to their uploaded resources, such as bookmarks and pictures, for their future use or sharing purposes. The collection of resources and tags generated by a user is called a personomy, and the collection of all personomies constitutes the folksonomy. The most significant need of the folksonomy users Is to efficiently find useful resources or experts on specific topics. An excellent ranking algorithm would assign higher ranking to more useful resources or experts. What resources are considered useful In a folksonomic system? Does a standard superior to frequency or freshness exist? The resource recommended by more users with mere expertise should be worthy of attention. This ranking paradigm can be implemented through a graph-based ranking algorithm. Two well-known representatives of such a paradigm are Page Rank by Google and HITS(Hypertext Induced Topic Selection) by Kleinberg. Both Page Rank and HITS assign a higher evaluation score to pages linked to more higher-scored pages. HITS differs from PageRank in that it utilizes two kinds of scores: authority and hub scores. The ranking objects of these pages are limited to Web pages, whereas the ranking objects of a folksonomic system are somewhat heterogeneous(i.e., users, resources, and tags). Therefore, uniform application of the voting notion of PageRank and HITS based on the links to a folksonomy would be unreasonable, In a folksonomic system, each link corresponding to a property can have an opposite direction, depending on whether the property is an active or a passive voice. The current research stems from the Idea that a graph-based ranking algorithm could be applied to the folksonomic system using the concept of mutual Interactions between entitles, rather than the voting notion of PageRank or HITS. The concept of mutual interactions, proposed for ranking the Semantic Web resources, enables the calculation of importance scores of various resources unaffected by link directions. The weights of a property representing the mutual interaction between classes are assigned depending on the relative significance of the property to the resource importance of each class. This class-oriented approach is based on the fact that, in the Semantic Web, there are many heterogeneous classes; thus, applying a different appraisal standard for each class is more reasonable. This is similar to the evaluation method of humans, where different items are assigned specific weights, which are then summed up to determine the weighted average. We can check for missing properties more easily with this approach than with other predicate-oriented approaches. A user of a tagging system usually assigns more than one tags to the same resource, and there can be more than one tags with the same subjectivity and objectivity. In the case that many users assign similar tags to the same resource, grading the users differently depending on the assignment order becomes necessary. This idea comes from the studies in psychology wherein expertise involves the ability to select the most relevant information for achieving a goal. An expert should be someone who not only has a large collection of documents annotated with a particular tag, but also tends to add documents of high quality to his/her collections. Such documents are identified by the number, as well as the expertise, of users who have the same documents in their collections. In other words, there is a relationship of mutual reinforcement between the expertise of a user and the quality of a document. In addition, there is a need to rank entities related more closely to a certain entity. Considering the property of social media that ensures the popularity of a topic is temporary, recent data should have more weight than old data. We propose a comprehensive folksonomy ranking framework in which all these considerations are dealt with and that can be easily customized to each folksonomy site for ranking purposes. To examine the validity of our ranking algorithm and show the mechanism of adjusting property, time, and expertise weights, we first use a dataset designed for analyzing the effect of each ranking factor independently. We then show the ranking results of a real folksonomy site, with the ranking factors combined. Because the ground truth of a given dataset is not known when it comes to ranking, we inject simulated data whose ranking results can be predicted into the real dataset and compare the ranking results of our algorithm with that of a previous HITS-based algorithm. Our semantic ranking algorithm based on the concept of mutual interaction seems to be preferable to the HITS-based algorithm as a flexible folksonomy ranking framework. Some concrete points of difference are as follows. First, with the time concept applied to the property weights, our algorithm shows superior performance in lowering the scores of older data and raising the scores of newer data. Second, applying the time concept to the expertise weights, as well as to the property weights, our algorithm controls the conflicting influence of expertise weights and enhances overall consistency of time-valued ranking. The expertise weights of the previous study can act as an obstacle to the time-valued ranking because the number of followers increases as time goes on. Third, many new properties and classes can be included in our framework. The previous HITS-based algorithm, based on the voting notion, loses ground in the situation where the domain consists of more than two classes, or where other important properties, such as "sent through twitter" or "registered as a friend," are added to the domain. Forth, there is a big difference in the calculation time and memory use between the two kinds of algorithms. While the matrix multiplication of two matrices, has to be executed twice for the previous HITS-based algorithm, this is unnecessary with our algorithm. In our ranking framework, various folksonomy ranking policies can be expressed with the ranking factors combined and our approach can work, even if the folksonomy site is not implemented with Semantic Web languages. Above all, the time weight proposed in this paper will be applicable to various domains, including social media, where time value is considered important.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.143-167
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• 2010

Diverse research topics relating to Social Network Services (SNS) such as, social affective factors in relationships among internet users, social capital value of SNS, comparing attributes why users are intending to participate in SNS, user's lifestyle and their preferences, and the exploratory seeking potential of SNS as a social capital need to be focused on. However, these researches that have been undertaken only consider facts at a particular period of the changing computing environment. In accordance with this indispensability, the integrated view on what technical, social and business characteristics and attributes need to be acknowledged. The purpose of this study is to analyze the evolving attributes and characteristics of SNS from Web 1.0 to Mobile web 2.0 through the Web 2.0 and Mobile 1.0 period. Based on the relevant literature, the attributes that drive the changing technological, social and business aspects of SNS have been developed and analyzed. This exploratory study analyzed major attributes and relationships between SNS and users by changing the paradigms which represented each period. It classified and chronicled each period by representing paradigms and deducted the attributes by considering three aspects such as technological, social and business administration. The major findings of this study are, firstly, the web based computing environment has been changed into the platform attribute for users in the aspect of technology. Users can only read, listen and view information through the web site in the early stages, but now it is possible that users can create, modify and distribute all kinds of information. Secondly, the few knowledge producers of web services have been changed into a collective intelligence by groups of people in the aspect of society. Information authority has been distributed and there is no limit to its spread. Many businesses recognized the potential of the SNS and they are considering how to utilize these advantages toward channel of promotion and marketing. Thirdly, the conventional marketing channel has been changed into oral transmission by using SNS. The market of innovative mobile technology such as smart phones, which provide convenience and access-ability toward customers, has been enlarged. New opportunities to build friendly relationship between business and customers as a new marketing chance have been created. Finally, the role of the consumer has been changed into the leading role of a prosumer. Users can create, modify and distribute information, and are performing the dual role of customer and producer.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.464-471
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to provide information on the labeling of nutritional components on beverages to aid in nutrition education and oral health promotion. The study was conducted to evaluate nutritional effects and risk factors associated with the consumption of different beverages with respect to oral health. A total of 52 products from seven different types of beverages were analyzed for their nutrient content, sugar content, and pH. The sugar content per serving size, based on the nutrition labeling of beverages, was highest for the milk beverages, at 26.6 g, and lowest for the teas, at 13.0 g. According to the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), beverages should contain less than 10% (50 g) total sugars. Our assessment revealed that total sugars in and carbonated beverages were 53.2% and 50.0% of daily value, respectively. Therefore, the milk and carbonated beverages contained more than 50% sugars per serving size, exceeding the recommendation of WHO. The pH of the beverages, from the most acidic to the least acidic were: carbonated beverages, pH 3.0; fruit and vegetable beverages, pH 3.1; mixed beverages, pH 3.6; fruit and vegetable juices, pH 3.7; teas, pH 4.7; coffees, pH 6.6; and milk beverages, pH 6.8. The intake of acidic and sweetened beverages could potentially cause dental caries and erosion. Therefore, the results of this study could be used by oral health care professionals to counsel their patients by providing relevant information on the possibility of oral disease caused by consumption of commercial beverages.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.5-21
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• 2004

The study aims to propose plans to give credit approval to those who obtain authorized civil qualifications, in accordance with the enforcement regulations under the Clause 7, Article 4 of $\ulcorner$the law on credit approval and others$\lrcorner$. Preceding studies on the grounds and principles of credit approval, analyses on the related references and materials, and surveys asking the managers of authorized civil qualifications their opinion over giving credit approval to authorized civil qualifications were conducted as the methodology of this study. Besides, a conference inviting experts from the relevant fields was held to specifically overview the contents and levels to be examined by qualification items, to conduct a face-to-face survey on directions to take in the credit approval of authorized civil qualifications, and to analyze the level and the degree of the difficulty of questions in the examinations of authorized civil qualifications. The contents and the level of credit approval in this study are as follows. For the authorized civil qualification items unable to formulate criteria in accordance with the principles of credit approval taken in the national technique qualification and other national qualifications, two factors were put under consideration for setting the level of the credit approval. First, the level and scope of work were investigated. Second, the content of qualification was compared with the course work of college. The degree of difficulty in the scope and performance of work was reviewed by specialized qualification and general qualification, respectively. Specialized qualification indicates whether or not the required knowledge and technique are acquired for performing duty in specific work fields. It falls into service fields and qualification items except qualification items on general clerical work of the national technique qualification and other national qualifications. To the contrary, general qualification is to prove the degree of acquisition of knowledge and technique for improving the basic competencies throughout diverse types of occupations. It includes competencies to verify language proficiency, mathematical and statistical capacity, problem settlement, negotiation and communication skills. When the authorized civil qualification came under the specialized qualification, the level of qualification was determined in comparison with the level of work of national qualifications. In the case of the general qualification, the credit to be approved was settled by conducting a comparative analysis on the course work of college.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.295-303
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• 2007

A preliminary diet experiment utilizing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf powder, nettle powder and eucalyptus powder extract indicated that combining all four elements gave the most effective result. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of combined diet for weight loss. In this study, Sprague-Dawley, male white rats about 200 g in weight was fed with high fat diet for 8 weeks in order to induce obesity followed by 4 week administration of combined diet to look into the effect of the diet. After a total of 12 weeks of feeding, factors relevant to weight, blood, and lipid metabolism by liver in the body were researched and histologic change was examined with optical microscope. In terms of weight change, both high fat diet group and regular diet group gained weight from high fat diet for 8 weeks compared to normal group. Then, for another 4 weeks, while normal group and high fat diet group kept gaining weight, combined diet group which was provided with high fat diet for 8 weeks, lost weight to the normal group level after 3 week administration of diet. However, after the 4th week of administration, the group weighted significantly less than the normal group and the efficiency of diet also significantly dropped. In the biochemical analysis of blood, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, GOT, GPT, ${\gamma}-GTP$ and creatine showed significant increase in high fat diet group and there was no significant difference between diet group and normal group except for GPT, ${\gamma}-GTP$ and creatine. In the biochemical analysis of liver, there was significant increase in LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride of high fat diet group compared to normal group, while there was no significant difference in term of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. Compared to normal group, diet group had higher HDL-cholesterol, while total cholesterol dropped significantly. There was no significant difference in terms of LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride. Besides, in high fat diet group, observation of histologic change in liver and change in ultrastructure showed volume increase of hepatic cell and severe fatty degeneration in hepatic cell around hepatic vein. However in diet group, like normal group, no pathological change was observed in terms of cytoplasm, nucleus and capillary in hepatocyte and the alignment of hepatocyte had regularity thanks to the administration of combined diet. Therefore, combined diet utilizing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf powder, nettle powder and eucalyptus powder was proven to be an effective measure to prevent and improve obesity as a result of abnormal adipose deposition.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.33-54
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• 1981

The purposes of this study were to determine the relevant nursing needs of patients following discharge; to identify the degree of their nursing needs; to identify types and status of discharge order and information given to patients; and to determine their specific nursing needs according to their diagnosis. In addition, opinions toward home care services provided by hospitals or by public health nurses and appointment plans with their physicians were also asked in order to determine the necessity of follow-up care for the patient after discharge. Nine hundred and eighty eight subjects were collected among patients being discharged from one national university hospital and four city hospitals. Data were collected from June,1979 to December,1979 using questionnaires and interviews. On the bases of these data the following findings were observed; 1) Almost 40 percents of total subjects discharged from the hospital with some or great degree of nursing needs in general. The most problematic nursing needs were needs for comfort which include needs for releaving pain, for sound sleep and rest, because these needs can only be met by professional help. More than 50% of total subjects have this problem. 2) Needs for mental health, general metabolism, general hygiene and activities and safety were observed in more than 20 percent of subjects. 3) Discharge orders on diet and oral medication were recorded in patients' charts in 70% of all cases. However, more than fifty percents of patients have not been told these information from doctors or nurses. Even though some of them might have had appointment plans with their physicians, they would not keep the appointments unless they completely understood the necessity of the follow-up care. If they have not had any appointment or would not visit the out-patient clinic, there is no method of caring them and prerenting funther discomfort or complications. Even in injection, ski care, dressing and bath, only one thirds of the subjects having recorded discharge orders understood what they need after discharge. The rest of cases have not known what to do for their further care. 4) More than 80 percents and 70 percents of total subjects agreed to a system of home care services provided by hospitals or public health nurses respectively. That is, regardless of sources of medical expenses, most of patients wanted to be taken care of at home following discharge. 5) While more than half of the patients having benefit of medical insurance or paying fully by themselves had appointment plans with their physicians, only one thirds of the patients fully or partially paid by government had appointment plans with their physicians. These results ex-plain that the appointment plan is directly associated with their economic power. This indicates that the home care services are more needed to the people with lower economical status. 6) Those who have been in the hospital more than 24 days wanted !o have home care services more than those who had less hospital days. They also had more appointment plans than other groups. 7) More than 70 percents of the subjects who had been in a university hospital and approximately 30 percents of the subjects in the city hospitals had appointment plans with their physicians. 8) Those who had the cerebrovascular disease, cancer or hypertension demanded more nursing needs such as needs for comfort, for general metabolism and for mental health. 9) Factors which were associated with the degree of patients' nursing needs were age, duration of hospitalization, opinion toward home care services given by public health nurses, hospital appointments and types of hospital. That is, the older they were and the longer the periods of hospitalization were, the higher were their nursing needs. The more they had nursing needs, the more they wanted to have nursing services and had appointment plans. It can be concluded that there is a great demand for a positive and systematic home care services to the people who have been discharged from hospitals following critical care. This program is definitely demanded for the low income groups of people with less education with the financial assistance of the government or other funding agencies.