• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.18
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• pp.159-188
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• 2002

International joint ventures are usually formed and managed by domestic companies and foreign investors for the common objectives. They offer an opportunity for each partner to benefit significantly from the comparative advantages of the other. Local partners bring knowledge of the domestic market; familiarity with government bureaucracies and regulations; understanding of local labor markets; and existing manufacturing facilities. Foreign partners can offer advanced process and product technologies, management know-how, and access to export markets. In Korea, joint ventures have been encouraged to usher in foreign investors with foreign currency capital badly needed during the IMF financial crisis. In the meantime, Korean laws and regulations with respect to joint ventures have been largely overhauled to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) both inbound and outbound. They include four types of FDI, i.e., acquisition of foreign stocks, provision of long-term loans, participation in joint operations like resources development, and establishment of foreign offices. From the legal point of view, the formal joint venture agreement must be an offspring of a series of tough negotiations between domestic and foreign partners. They usually stress the long-term relationship with the good will and dedication to each other, and restrict the free transfer of stocks. Both partners are earnestly interested in the ownership and management of the joint venture. So they keep a close eye on the articles of incorporation, changes of business environment, conflict resolution methods, transparency of accounting and other financial matters. When a multinational corporation (MNC) is involved in the joint venture, conflicts over management strategies, marketing and other issues take place more often than not between the MNC and local partners. We have to pay attention to joint ventures, particularly, in China and North Korea. As witnessed in other transition economies, China is eagerly bringing in foreign direct investments for the development of nation's economy. China encourages foreign investors to establish ordinary joint ventures, contractual joint ventures, solely invested foreign capital companies and jointly operated development companies with local partners. In North Korea, however, joint ventures have a different meaning like contractual joint ventures in China, in which North Korean partners have an initiative in the management. Rather, jointly operated companies or simply processing-for-wage companies are recommended in view of the unpredictable legal infrastructure in North Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.370-379
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• 2022

Human pregnancy is a delicate and complex process where multiorgan interactions between two independent systems, the mother, and her fetus, maintain pregnancy. Intercellular interactions that can define homeostasis at the various cellular level between the two systems allow uninterrupted fetal growth and development until delivery. Interactions are needed for tissue remodeling during pregnancy at both fetal and maternal tissue layers. One of the mechanisms that help tissue remodeling is via cellular transitions where epithelial cells undergo a cyclic transition from epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT) and back from mesenchymal to epithelial (MET). Two major pregnancy-associated tissue systems that use EMT, and MET are the fetal membrane (amniochorion) amnion epithelial layer and cervical epithelial cells and will be reviewed here. EMT is often associated with localized inflammation, and it is a well-balanced process to facilitate tissue remodeling. Cyclic transition processes are important because a terminal state or the static state of EMT can cause accumulation of proinflammatory mesenchymal cells in the matrix regions of these tissues and increase localized inflammation that can cause tissue damage. Interactions that determine homeostasis are often controlled by both endocrine and paracrine mediators. Pregnancy maintenance hormone progesterone and its receptors are critical for maintaining the balance between EMT and MET. Increased intrauterine oxidative stress at term can force a static (terminal) EMT and increase inflammation that are physiologic processes that destabilize homeostasis that maintain pregnancy to promote labor and delivery of the fetus. However, conditions that can produce an untimely increase in EMT and inflammation can be pathologic. These tissue damages are often associated with adverse pregnancy complications such as preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (pPROM) and spontaneous preterm birth (PTB). Therefore, an understanding of the biomolecular processes that maintain cyclic EMT-MET is critical to reducing the risk of pPROM and PTB. Extracellular vesicles (exosomes of 40-160 nm) that can carry various cargo are involved in cellular transitions as paracrine mediators. Exosomes can carry a variety of biomolecules as cargo. Studies specifically using exosomes from cells undergone EMT can carry a pro-inflammatory cargo and in a paracrine fashion can modify the neighboring tissue environment to cause enhancement of uterine inflammation.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.139-154
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• 2015

This study examined the causal relationship between work environment and job satisfaction/turnover intention through statistical analyses using the statistics programs SPSS(18.0) and AMOS(18.0) of over 268 business owners operating small sized Chinese restaurants in the Busan and Gyeongnam area. Research results found that among the business owners of small sized Chinese restaurants, 130 were owner/chefs (48.5%), 63 engaged in hall serving (23.5%), and 75 were in delivery (28.0%). It was also found that while the physical environment had a positive effect on work pride and economic satisfaction, sale stress had no effect on work pride and economic satisfaction. In addition, the physical environment and mental labor environment showed a positive effect (+) on turnover intention, although job satisfaction (work pride, economic satisfaction) showed a negative effect (-) on turnover intention. Such result leads to the conclusion that for business owners of small sized Chinese restaurants, sale stress experienced during the course of business serves as a factor weakening job satisfaction while increasing turnover intention to a greater extent of the physical environment (kitchen facilities and hall facilities). Thus, it seems that practical business training, such as service training, is a greater necessity for business owners of small sized Chinese restaurants, as opposed to an improvement of restaurant facilities.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.225-242
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify students' experiences of performance and their satisfaction with clinical nursing practice in Women's health nursing. Methods: Data was collected using questionnaire consisting of 104; 89,; and 82 nursing activities with 12; 10; and 7 domains for delivery floor, obstetric, and gynecologic wards retrospectively. Five hundred ninety nursing students from 10 four year and one three year colleges, were recruited and selected for data collection. Results: Site specific core nursing activities among top 15 items of performed experience were: interpreting fetal monitoring; massage for pain reduction; breathing technique; perineal pad change; non stress test; manual check for uterine contraction; and position change for the delivery floor. Experiences of clinical nursing practice for the obstetric ward and the gynecologic ward were identified and ranked as well. Observation of delivery, measurement & test during labor and observation of anesthesia and operation were the highest ranked activity domains of satisfaction for delivery floor, obstetric and gynecologic wards retrospectively. Conclusion: Discussions are needed to standardize curriculum for clinical practice in women's health nursing initiated at the level of Korean Society of Womens' Health Nursing by reflecting this result. Strategic approaches are emphasized in order to enhance a collaboration between clinical fields and colleges.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.15.2-22
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• 1995

Evaluating stiffness of near-surface materials has been one of the critically important tasks in many civil engineering works. It is the main goal of geotechnical characterization. The so-called deflection-response method evaluates the stiffness by measuring stress-strain behavior of the materials caused by static or dynamic load. This method, however, evaluates the overall stiffness and the stiffness variation with depth cannot be obtained. Furthermore, evaluation of a large-area geotechnical site by this method can be time-consuming, expensive, and damaging to many surface points of the site. Wave-propagation method, on the other hand, measures seismic velocities at different depths and stiffness profile (stiffness change with depth) can be obtained from the measured velocity data. The stiffness profile is often expressed by shear-wave (S-wave) velocity change with depth because S-wave velocity is proportional to the shear modulus. that is a direct indicator of stiffiiess. The crosshole and downhole method measures the seismic velocity by placing sources and receivers (geophones) at different depths in a borehole. Requirement of borehole installation makes this method also time-consuming, expensive, and damaging to the sites. Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Waves (SASW) method places both source and receivers at the surface, and records horizontally-propagating surface waves. Based upon the theory of surfacewave dispersion, the seismic velocities at different depths are calculated by analyzing the recorded surface-wave data. This method can be nondestructive to the sites. However, because only two receivers are used, the method requires multiple measurements with different field setups and, therefore, the method often becomes time-consuming and labor-intensive. Furthermore. the inclusion of noise wavefields cannot be handled properly, and this may cause the results by this method inaccurate. When multi-channel recording method is employed during the measurement of surface-waves, there are several benefits. First, usually single measurement is enough because multiple number (twelve or more) of receivers are used. Second, noise inclusion can be detected by coherency checking on the multi-channel data and handled properly so that it does not decrease the accuracy of the result. Third, various kinds of multi-channel processing techniques can be applied to f1lter unwanted noise wavefields and also to analyze the surface-wavefields more accurately and efficiently. In this way, the accuracy of the result by the method can be significantly improved. Fourth, the entire system of source, receivers, and recording-processing device can be tied into one unit, and the unit can be pulled by a small vehicle, making the survey speed very fast. In all these senses, multi-channel recording of surface waves is best suited for a routine method for geotechnical characterization in most of civil engineering works.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.3-12
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• 1992

Forage grasses and legumes ar$\varepsilon$ the mam component of livestock diets in Canada. There are over 30 million ha of grassland in Canada and there is a large, undeveloped land base in fringe areas suitable for forage production. The short growing s season limits the grassland farming to the southern p parts of Canada. The win!er season is long and in most parts of Canada cold temperatures, fr$\varepsilon$ezmg, and thawing, and diseases exert sever$\varepsilon$ stress on overwintering forage plants. The development of persistent cultivars is essential for sustained production particularly in the fringe areas with short growmg s$\varepsilon$ason. The seasonality of dry matter production is a result of high growth rates in early summ$\varepsilon$r and low dry matter accumulation in late summer and fall. Innovative management practIces a and cultivars with improved regrowth capacity are n necessary to overcome such skewed production pattern and to extend effiectlVe grazmg season l Improved pasture production is an important part of reducing costs in livestock operations and remaining competitive. It is suggested that applying available technology would increase pasture productivity and reduce d$\varepsilon$pendence on stored feeds thus improving profitability of small producers in particeular. Reducing nutrient losses during harv$\varepsilon$stmg, s storage, and feeding is essential for improved production efficiency during confinement. The devclopment of low cost and labor saving methods of ensiling is critical for improved efficiency and profitability of forage based enterprises Livestock industries must respond to consumer preferences for low fat and cholesterol foods. Research and development of entire production systems is emphasized for dev$\varepsilon$loping viabl$\varepsilon$ enterprises. It is increasingly difficult to secure resources for r$\varepsilon$search, education, and extension, and alliane$\varepsilon$s and cooperation must expand among organizations with interests in forage based livestock systems.