• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.9-22
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• 2008

This work has been conducted as a part to set up the regulations and the scientific evaluation systems for the functional dairy products with health claims in Korea. Toward this end, current regulations, requirements, and all kinds of provisions related to the functional dairy products overseas were taken into accounts and feasible recommendations of new initiatives on the current regulations as well. By doing so, not only protecting hopefully the innocent consumers from the false labeling statements and fake advertisements, but also eventually to revitalize the stagnated domestic dairy industries. Currently, functional daily products are simply regarded as "Dietary Supplements" in the United States, and subjected to the regulations under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, established m 1994. Manufacturers and sales distributors should notify their products to the FDA, which is in charge of the dietary supplements on nutrition and labeling, in advance when they start marketing a new dietary ingredient or any foods containing it in the States. For EU countries, there exists keen interests about the functional food products between the member countries of the European Union even though the products are categorized into "Food Supplements" similar to those in the United States. Therefore, they maintain a cautious attitude in applying the health claims to the functional food products. On the other hand, under the Japanese health food system, functional foods are qualified to the functional health foods in terms of legal status as long as any traditional foods can meet the legal standards in its effectiveness, safety as well as quality, along with significant scientific evidences related to the products, thus categorized into "Foods for Specified Health Uses and "Foods with Nutrient Function Claims". Through this study, we may have some expectations and potential utilizations as follows: Legal regulations of dietary supplements especially for the dairy products will be implemented by the outcomes of this research and proposed a tentative amendment of functional ingredients for the sake of consumer protection from the false advertisements and overstatement labeling. Current regulations on the animal foods processing and advertisements will be amended and supplemented in order to revitalize the current downturn dairy sales and to harmonize the international Codex recommendations. The results obtained from this study will make the consumers a wise selection of the dairy products with health claims and be utilized for consumer education and advertisement of the functional products as well.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.74-99
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness and safety of Socheongryong-tang(SCRT) for allergic rhinitis(AR). Methods : We searched randomized controlled trials(RCTs) that used SCRT for AR in 8 databases(PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI, CiNii Articles, OASIS, NDSL, KISS, KMbase) from their inception until August 2019. The primary outcome was effective rate and scores evaluating the improvement of AR symptoms. The secondary outcome was quality of life scale, adverse events, recurrence rate, and laboratory indicators. Two researchers assessed the risk of bias in the included trials through the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool independently. The study synthesized outcomes using RevMan 5.3. Results : Eighteen RCTs involving 1686 participants were included in this review. The risk of bias was unclear for the majority of the included studies. Meta-analysis of 12 RCTs showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the SCRT group and usual care group in the effective rate(RR 1.18, 95% CI(0.98, 1.41), p=0.09, I²=46%). Meta-analysis of 5 RCTs showed that the combination treatment group of SCRT and usual care was significantly higher than the usual care group in the effective rate(RR 1.24, 95% CI(1.12, 1.38), p<0.0001, I²=0%). The SCRT group was more effective in improving nasal symptoms and quality of life than the placebo group according to one RCT. Mild adverse events such as dry mouth were identified in 5 RCTs, but no serious adverse events were reported. Conclusion : This review showed that in terms of the effective rate for AR, there was no statistically significant difference between SCRT and usual care and the combination treatment of SCRT and usual care was more effective than usual care. There were no serious adverse events. However, it is difficult to make a definite conclusion because of few included studies and heterogeneity between studies, and the quality of included studies was mostly insufficient. Further well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2013

Purpose - The environment-friendly agricultural product market in Korea sees continual high growth. Recently, the Korean government has been actively fostering environment-friendly agriculture as an engine of future growth. Korean people have increasingly become more health-conscious and interested in food safety issues. Many distribution and retailing companies have responded with various promotional activities. However, most of these are not strategic and appear to have unsatisfactory outcomes. The main purpose of this paper is to suggest effective marketing strategies for environment-friendly agricultural products. To achieve this aim, the study empirically investigates the effects of consumer characteristics and trust on the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. Research design, data, methodology - Based on the theory of planned behavior, and previous studies related to the purchase intention and consumption of environment-friendly agricultural products, we set up five study hypotheses. These related to the demographic characteristics of consumers, purchase intention, and behavior of the products. We then set up a study model and four study hypotheses relating to health consciousness, environmental consciousness, consumer trust level, purchase intention, and behavior of the products. The data were collected using a questionnaire given to consumers living in Seoul and southern Geonggi Province. The final sample size is 403 and mean age is 44.3. SPSS 15.0 for Windows and Amos 7.0 were used as statistical analysis tools. Meaningful results were derived using frequency analysis, correlation analysis, a t-test, and structural equation modeling. Results - Empirical results of this research are as follows. (1) First, it is shown that consumers consider such attributes as intimacy and health to be important when they buy environment-friendly agricultural products. (2) We also found that consumers recognize the value of environment-friendly agricultural products as high, but their trust level as low. (3) Consumer groups consisting of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age are shown to have a higher intention of buying environment-friendly agricultural products than any other consumer group. (4) It is estimated that the level of consumer trust positively affects the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. The path coefficient (.138) between consumer trust and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = .05 level. (5). It is also estimated that environmental consciousness positively affects purchase intention. The path coefficient (.245) between environmental consciousness and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = 0.05 level. The standardized path coefficients of consumer trust and environmental consciousness with purchase intention are .556 and .288 respectively. Therefore, consumer trust affects purchase intention more than environmental consciousness. (6) Finally, purchase intention is estimated to positively affect purchase behavior. Conclusions - Based upon empirical results, this research suggests that marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should focus more on increasing consumer trust levels, emphasizing the training and education of employees. The government also should pay attention to a standardized certification system for environment-friendly agricultural products. Marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should consider the consumer groups of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age as a major target segment.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.45-68
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• 2020

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of manual and electroacupuncture on glaucoma. Method : We searched 11 electronic databases using index words to identify randomized clinical trials. Meta-analysis of weighted mean difference (WMD) or standardized mean difference (SMD) were used to evaluate the outcomes. Cochrane bias risk assessment tool was used to assess the risk of bias in each clinical study. The collected data was analyzed using RevMan software (ver. 5.3). Results : At the initial stage of data retrieval, 549 papers were searched. After reviewing 37 full texts, a total of 10 RCT studies (426patients, 715 eyes) were selected and 8 RCT studies (357 people, 617 eyes) were involved in meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of 8 RCTs showed that acupuncture alone was more effective in reducing intraocular pressure(IOP) than conventional treatment (WMD = -5.73, 95% CI: [-12.30, 0.83], P = 0.09, I² = 97%) The combination of acupuncture or electroacupuncture with conventional treatment was also effective in lowering IOP (WMD = -1.84, 95% CI: [-2.31, -1.37], P <0.00001, I² = 45%). It was estimated that the combination of acupuncture with conventional treatment was also effective for improving visual field (VF) (WMD = -2.17, 95% CI: [-4.32, -0.02], P = 0.05, I² = 89%) but improvement in visual acuity (VA) was not significant (MD = 0.06, 95% CI: [-0.03, 0.15], P = 0.23, I² = 0%). Subgroup analyzes were performed only for the studies that used open glaucoma as the study's disease and combination of acupuncture or electroacupuncture with conventional therapy would have an effect on lowering intraocular pressure (WMD = -1.68)., 95% CI: [-2.46, -0.90], P <0.0001, I² = 29%). Conclusion : This study suggests that acupuncture treatment for glaucoma may be effective in reducing intraocular pressure and helpful in improving visual field defects. However, due to the small sample size, high risk of bias and high heterogeneity in the methodology, it is expected that further studies will be needed to verify the results. Further studies in large-scale samples based on a minimized biased methodology would be necessary.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.318-329
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• 2016

There has been a growing interest on the effect of volcanic eruption on the aviation safety, air travel and economy especially after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland. Since volcanic eruption is influential on a large geographic region, the effect usually extends to other neighboring countries. Korea also has an active volcano named Mountain Baekdu. Hence, the need to estimate in advance the quantitative impact of the potential eruption of Mt. Baekdu on South Korean air transportation system. However, previous studies with quantitative estimation were confined to the calculation of the direct economic loss from shut down of the airports, grounding of airlines, and trade deficits caused by the eruption. Therefore, this paper introduces a new approach to assess more accurate impact simultaneously considering volcanic ash dispersal and aviation routes. This approach is then applied to a virtual scenario to predict the damage to air traffic. With further development, this method can help estimate the damage in the air transportation industry in more accurate and faster ways. Prediction outcomes can also be utilized in setting up the emergency response plan for the air transportation industry and contribute to the creation of more proactive and predictive measures in the future.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 2005

Backgrounds and Objectives: Squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity(SCOC) in TNM stage I & II have relatively high chance to be cured compared to those in the advanced stage, but sometimes result in the treatment failure with poor prognosis. There have been few reports on the patterns of failure and the clinical courses for SCOC in stage I & II after the failure of initial treatment. This study is directed at identifying the clinical outcomes of stage I & II SCOC and the salvage rate after initial treatment and suggesting an optimal level of treatment by analyzing the patterns of failure. Material and Methods: The medical records of 36 patients with SCOC, initially diagnosed between 1995 and 2001 as TNM stage I & II were reviewed retrospectively. The patterns of failure, salvage treatment, clinical courses, and the survival of these subjects were analyzed. The minimum follow-up period of no-evidence of disease(NED) was 12 months with an average of 32.2 months. Results: Overall rate of the treatment failure in SCOC of stage I & II was 41. 7%(15/36 cases). Most of the treatment failure in the subjects with stage I tumors occurred in regional lymph node. Local failure was the most frequent form of failure in the subjects with stage II tumors after wide excision of primary tumor with elective neck dissection and/or radiation therapy. No significant correlation was noted between the safety margin and the local failure. Elective neck dissections in stage I & II SCOC had a tendency to reduce regional failure (p=0.055). The salvage rates at 24 months were 85.7% in stage I, and 37.5% in stage II. The 3-year survival rate after the failure of initial treatment was 55.0%. Conclusion: SCOC of stage I & II after the failure of initial treatment showed poor prognosis despite of the salvage treatments. This study implies that the elective neck dissections for regional lymph node should be required for SCOC of stage I & II to reduce the treatment failure.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.408-417
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• 2017

This study was conducted to examine the influence of the nurse staffing level on the level of in-hospital death and infection in cancer patients who received surgery. Secondary data were used and the subjects of this study were 24,510 patients who received surgery for six types of cancer with a high postoperative mortality rate in the first half of 2012 at 260 hospitals. Simple logistic and GEE multiple logistic regression analyses were used. After adjusting for the patient and hospital characteristics, a greater likelihood of dying was found in the nurse staffing level 2-3 group (odds ratio [OR], 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-2.11) and in the level 6-7 group (OR, 3.28; 95% CI, 1.87-5.74) compared to the level 0-1 group. The likelihood of in-hospital infection increased with each additional bed per nurse, being 6.63 times higher (95% CI, 3.00-14.62) in the level 2-3 group, 5.79 times higher (95% CI, 1.88-17.78) in the level 4-5 group, and 8.4 times higher (95% CI, 1.82-38.84) in the level 6-7 group, as compared to the level 0-1 group. A lower nurse staffing level was associated with higher in-hospital death and infection levels. This shows that an appropriate nurse staffing level is associated with superior postoperative cancer patient outcomes. Policies for providing adequate nurse staffing should be maintained for the sake of ensuring improved care quality and patient safety.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.111-116
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• 2016

Purpose - A lot of preceeding studies have focused on the pains that might be felt in spending money, that is an important role in getting psychological safety. Money and social resources can be all for consumers, and they are likely to form a substituting relationship with one another. Being motivated by the idea that spending money for others can come with joy if one's objective is accomplished by social support, this paper aimed to explore the mediating role of the perceived money importance and gratitude in the relationship between social support and pleasure in spending for other-gift. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - In this empirical study, the experimental group is expected to receive social support while the control group is composed of those who are usually indulged in reminiscences of their sweethearts. From the college students, 160 experiment participants were selected and 80 participants of them were assigned to control group as well as to experimental group respectively at random. Empirical study for each of the two groups was performed respectively by means of questionnaire survey. Experimental group data and control group data were combined together to be used for testing hypotheses. Linear structural equation model in Amos was used to verify the hypotheses, and Bootstrap was also used to examine whether there were the mediating roles of the perceived money importance and gratitude or not. Results - From the empirical study, following conclusions could be drawn: First, social support of others makes one perceive the importance of money less; Second, social support of others makes one perceive gratitude to others; Third, less perceived importance of money and gratitude to others can make one feel pleasure in spending for other-gift; and Fourth, less perceived importance of money and gratitude to others can partially mediate the effect of social support from others on the pleasure in spending for other-gift. Conclusions - The outcomes of this study might offer theoretic and managerial implications as follow: Even though many hitherto studies have asserted that spending money usually comes with pains, this study discovered that social support might reduce perceived the importance of money but make others feel gratitude and, thus, one would feel joy in spending money to buy gift for others, and made a contribution to the progress of the theory of pleasure in spending for other-gift. This paper also made contributions toward the development of emotion marketing theory by showing that the effect of social support on the pleasure in spending for other-gift could be partially mediated by the perceived the importance of money and gratitude to others. Based on the above conclusions, it may be affirmed that marketers should help consumers perceive the importance of money less, and help feel gratitude to others by pointing up the support of others to consumers in an attempt to accelerate spending for other-gift.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.87-104
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• 2015

Currently the IoT (Internet of Things) environments and related technologies are being developed rapidly through the networks for connecting many intelligent objects. The IoT is providing artificial intelligent services combined with context recognition based knowledge and communication methods between human and objects and objects to objects. With the help of IoT technology, many research works are being developed using the C-ITS (Cooperative Intelligent Transport System) which uses road infrastructure and traveling vehicles as traffic control infrastructures and resources for improving and increasing driver's convenience and safety through two way communication such as bus-only lane and license plate recognition and road accidents, works ahead reports, which are eventually for advancing traffic effectiveness. In this paper, a system for deciding whether the traveling vehicle is possible or not to drive on bus-only lane in highway is researched using the lane and number plate recognition on the road in C-ITS traffic infrastructure environments. The number plates of vehicles on the straight ahead and sides are identified after the location of bus-only lane is discovered through the lane recognition method. Research results and experimental outcomes are presented which are supposed to be used by traffic management infrastructure and controlling system in future.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2015

Purpose: Cultivator accidents are frequent and often lead to abdomino-perineal organ injury and, if severe, to death. This study presents the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and factors associated with mortality in patients who sustained an abdomino-perineal organ injury in cultivator accidents. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 53 patients who visited the emergency department of a tertiary hospital with abdomino-perineal organ injuries caused in cultivator accidents from April 2005 to March 2010. Results: All 53 patients had visited other medical institutions before visiting our hospital. Their mean age was $64.0{\pm}11.1$ (range, 20-80) years and 32 (60.4%) patients were 65 or older. The male-to-female ratio was 46:7. The chief complaint was abdominal pain (38 cases, 71.7%). The 53 patients included 41 cultivator operators (77.4%), 11 passengers (20.8%), and 1 passerby (1.9%). The causes of the injuries included a direct impact of the handlebar in 20 cases (37.7%), a rollover in 21 cases (39.6%), a fall in 10 cases (18.9%), and a wheel in two cases (3.8%). Several of the 53 patients had injuries to multiple abdomino-perineal organs, and the injured organs included the liver (23 cases, 26.4%), spleen (16 cases, 18.4%), pancreas (7 cases, 8.0%), small bowel (7 cases, 8.0%), mesentery (6 cases, 6.9%), adrenal gland (5 cases, 5.8%), and other organs. According to the abbreviated injury scale (AIS) dictionary, a thoracic injury was the most frequent co-injury (33 of 53 cases, 62.3%). Abdomino-perineal surgery was performed in 31 cases (58.8%) and angio-embolization was performed for six liver and two kidney injuries. Thirteen patients died (24.5%); all were males. The Injury Severity Scale (ISS) was lower in the survivors ($17.8{\pm}8.5$ vs. $27.0{\pm}16.0$; p=0.010). Conclusion: With the aging of agricultural workers, safety education programs should be implemented. Furthermore, the patient transfer system in agricultural areas must be improved.