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The Latest Progress on the Development of Technologies for $CO_2$ Storage in Marine Geological Structure and its Application in Republic of Korea (해저 지질구조내 $CO_2$ 저장기술의 연구개발 동향 및 향후 국내 실용화 방안)

  • Kang, Seong-Gil;Huh, Cheol
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.24-34
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    • 2008
  • To mitigate the climate change and global warming, various technologies have been internationally proposed for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Especially, in recent, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is regarded as one of the most promising emission reduction options that $CO_2$ be captured from major point sources (eg., power plant) and transported for storage into the marine geological structure such as deep sea saline aquifer. The purpose of this paper is to review the latest progress on the development of technologies for $CO_2$ storage in marine geological structure and its perspective in republic of Korea. To develop the technologies for $CO_2$ storage in marine geological structure, we carried out relevant R&D project, which cover the initial survey of potentially suitable marine geological structure fur $CO_2$ storage site and monitoring of the stored $CO_2$ behavior, basic design for $CO_2$ transport and storage process including onshore/offshore plant and assessment of potential environmental risk related to $CO_2$ storage in geological structure in republic of Korea. By using the results of the present researches, we can contribute to understanding not only how commercial scale (about 1 $MtCO_2$) deployment of $CO_2$ storage in the marine geological structure of East Sea, Korea, is realized but also how more reliable and safe CCS is achieved. The present study also suggests that it is possible to reduce environmental cost (about 2 trillion Won per year) with developed technology for $CO_2$ storage in marine geological structure until 2050.

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Beak Trimming Methods - Review -

  • Glatz, P.C.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.13 no.11
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    • pp.1619-1637
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    • 2000
  • A review was undertaken to obtain information on the range of beak-trimming methods available or under development. Beak-trimming of commercial layer replacement pullets is a common yet critical management tool that can affect the performance for the life of the flock. The most obvious advantage of beak-trimming is a reduction in cannibalism although the extent of the reduction in cannibalism depends on the strain, season, and type of housing, flock health and other factors. Beak-trimming also improves feed conversion by reducing food wastage. A further advantage of beak-trimming is a reduction in the chronic stress associated with dominance interactions in the flock. Beak-trimming of birds at 7-10 days is favoured by Industry but research over last 10 years has shown that beak-trimming at day-old causes the least stress on birds and efforts are needed to encourage Industry to adopt the practice of beak-trimming birds at day-old. Proper beak-trimming can result in greatly improved layer performance but improper beak-trimming can ruin an other wise good flock of hens. Re-trimming is practiced in most flocks, although there are some flocks that only need one trimming. Given the continuing welfare scrutiny of using a hot blade to cut the beak, attempts have been made to develop more welfare friendly methods of beak-trimming. Despite the developments in design of hot blade beak-trimmers the process has remained largely unchanged. That is, a red-hot blade cuts and cauterises the beak. The variables in the process are blade temperature, cauterisation time, operator ability, severity of trimming, age of trimming, strain of bird and beak length. This method of beak-trimming is still overwhelmingly favoured in Industry and there appears to be no other alternative procedures that are more effective. Sharp secateurs have been used trim the upper beak of both layers and turkeys. Bleeding from the upper mandible ceases shortly after the operation, and despite the regrowth of the beak a reduction of cannibalism has been reported. Very few differences have been noted between behaviour and production of the hot blade and cold blade cut chickens. This method has not been used on a large scale in Industry. There are anecdotal reports of cannibalism outbreaks in birds with regrown beaks. A robotic beak-trimming machine was developed in France, which permitted simultaneous, automated beak-trimming and vaccination of day-old chicks of up to 4,500 chickens per hour. Use of the machine was not successful because if the chicks were not loaded correctly they could drop off the line, receive excessive beak-trimming or very light trimming. Robotic beak-trimming was not effective if there was a variation in the weight or size of chickens. Capsaicin can cause degeneration of sensory nerves in mammals and decreases the rate of beak regrowth by its action on the sensory nerves. Capsaicin is a cheap, non-toxic substance that can be readily applied at the time of less severe beak-trimming. It suffers the disadvantage of causing an extreme burning sensation in operators who come in contact with the substance during its application to the bird. Methods of applying the substance to minimise the risk to operators of coming in contact with capsaicin need to be explored. A method was reported which cuts the beaks with a laser beam in day-old chickens. No details were provided on the type of laser used, or the severity of beak-trimming, but by 16 weeks the beaks of laser trimmed birds resembled the untrimmed beaks, but without the bill tip. Feather pecking and cannibalism during the laying period were highest among the laser trimmed hens. Currently laser machines are available that are transportable and research to investigate the effectiveness of beak-trimming using ablasive and coagulative lasers used in human medicine should be explored. Liquid nitrogen was used to declaw emu toes but was not effective. There was regrowth of the claws and the time and cost involved in the procedure limit the potential of using this process to beak-trim birds.

Relationship between Body Fat Distribution and Metabolic Risk Factors in Adolescents (청소년에서의 체지방 분포와 대사위험 인자들의 연관성)

  • Kim, Dal Hyun;Seong, Tae Jung;Hong, Young Jin;Son, Byong Kwan;Kim, Soon Ki
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.326-334
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    • 2003
  • Purpose : The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of obesity in adolescents; to study the association between obesity, blood pressure, and dyslipidemia; and to evaluate the superiority of waist circumference to waist/hip ratio(WHR) in central obesity. Methods : We selected 1382 adolescents(M : F=690 : 692) aged from 11 to 18 years(mean age; boys 15.0, girls 15.4) in Incheon. We measured weight, height, waist, waist/hip ratio, and blood pressure, with blood sampling to evaluate the dyslipidemia. Results : The prevalence of obesity was 6.7% in boys and 6.9% in girls by body mass index(BMI). The prevalence of systolic hypertension was 15.7% in normal group, 32.4% in the overweight group, and 35.4% in the obese group by BMI. The prevalence of diastolic hypertension was 4.9% in the normal group, 6.9% in the overweight group, and 14.6% the in obese group. In boys and girls, BMI, waist circumference, and WHR were positively correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure. respectively. In boys, triglyceride was positively correlated with waist circumference(r=0.34, P<0.05). In boys and girls, BMI was highly correlated with obesity index(r=0.98, each), with waist circumference(r=0.89, r=0.82, respectively), and with body fat(r=0.85, r=0.89) respectively. Conclusion : These data suggest the importance of the screening of blood pressure in obese adolescents, with prevention and intervention of obesity since it may be the most cost-effective way of reducing the complications related with obesity.

A Study on the Effects of Meterological Factors on the Distribution of Agricultural Products: Focused on the Distribution of Chinese Cabbages (기상요인이 농산물 유통에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 배추 유통 사례를 중심으로)

  • Lee, Hyunjoung;Hong, Jinhwan
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.17 no.5
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    • pp.59-83
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    • 2012
  • Agriculture is a primary industry that influenced by the weather or meterological factors more than other industry. Global warming and worldwide climate changes, and unusual weather phenomena are fatal in agricultural industry and human life. Therefore, many previous studies have been made to find the relationship between weather and the productivity of agriculture. Meterological factors also influence on the distribution of agricultural product. For example, price of agricultural product is determined in the market, and also influenced by the weather of the market. However, there is only a few study was made to find this link. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of meterological factors on the distribution of agricultural products, focusing on the distribution of chinese cabbages. Chinese cabbage is a main ingredient of Kimchi, and basic essential vegetable in Korean dinner table. However, the production of chinese cabbages is influenced by weather and very fluctuating so that the variation of its price is so unstable. Therefore, both consumers and farmers do not feel comfortable at the unstable price of chinese cabbages. In this study, we analyze the real transaction data of chinese cabbage in wholesale markets and meterological factors depending on the variety and geography. We collect and analyze data of meterological factors such as temperatures, humidity, cloudiness, rainfall, snowfall, wind speed, insolation, sunshine duration in producing and consuming region of chinese cabbages. The result of this study shows that the meterological factors such as temperature and humidity significantly influence on the volume and price of chinese cabbage transaction in wholesale market. Especially, the weather of consuming region has greater correlation effects on transaction than that of producing region in all types of chinese cabbages. Among the whole agricultural lifecycle of chinese cabbages, 'seeding - harvest - shipment - wholesale', meterological factors such as temperature and rainfall in shipment and wholesale period are significantly correlated with transaction volume and price of crops. Based on the result of correlation analysis, we make a regression analysis to verify the meterological factors' effects on the volume and price of chines cabbage transaction in wholesale market. The results of stepwise regression analysis are shown in

    and
    . The type of chinese cabbages are categorized by 5 types, i.e. alpine, gimjang for winter, spring, summer, and winter crop, and all of the regression models are shown significant relationship. In addition, meterological factors in shipment and wholesale period are entered more in regression model than those in seeding and harvest period. This result implies that weather in consuming region is also important in the distribution of chinese cabbages. Based on the result of this study, we find several implications and recommendations for policy makers of agricultural product distribution. The goal of agricultural product distribution policy is to insure proper price and production cost for farmers and provide proper price and quality, and stable supply for consumers. Therefore, coping with the uncertainty of weather is very essential to make a fruitful effect of the policy. In reality, very big part of consumer price of chinese cabbage is made up of the margin of intermediaries, because they take the risk. In addition, policy makers make efforts for farmers to utilize AWIS (Agricultural Weather Information System). In order to do that, it should integrate the relevant information including distribution and marketing as well as production. Offering a consulting service to farmers about weather management is also expected to be a good option in agriculture and weather industry. Reflecting on the result of this study, the distribution authorities can offer the guideline for the timing and volume of harvest, and it is expected to contribute to the stable equilibrium of supply and demand of agricultural products.

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  • Corporate Credit Rating based on Bankruptcy Probability Using AdaBoost Algorithm-based Support Vector Machine (AdaBoost 알고리즘기반 SVM을 이용한 부실 확률분포 기반의 기업신용평가)

    • Shin, Taek-Soo;Hong, Tae-Ho
      • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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      • v.17 no.3
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      • pp.25-41
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      • 2011
    • Recently, support vector machines (SVMs) are being recognized as competitive tools as compared with other data mining techniques for solving pattern recognition or classification decision problems. Furthermore, many researches, in particular, have proved them more powerful than traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) (Amendolia et al., 2003; Huang et al., 2004, Huang et al., 2005; Tay and Cao, 2001; Min and Lee, 2005; Shin et al., 2005; Kim, 2003).The classification decision, such as a binary or multi-class decision problem, used by any classifier, i.e. data mining techniques is so cost-sensitive particularly in financial classification problems such as the credit ratings that if the credit ratings are misclassified, a terrible economic loss for investors or financial decision makers may happen. Therefore, it is necessary to convert the outputs of the classifier into wellcalibrated posterior probabilities-based multiclass credit ratings according to the bankruptcy probabilities. However, SVMs basically do not provide such probabilities. So it required to use any method to create the probabilities (Platt, 1999; Drish, 2001). This paper applied AdaBoost algorithm-based support vector machines (SVMs) into a bankruptcy prediction as a binary classification problem for the IT companies in Korea and then performed the multi-class credit ratings of the companies by making a normal distribution shape of posterior bankruptcy probabilities from the loss functions extracted from the SVMs. Our proposed approach also showed that their methods can minimize the misclassification problems by adjusting the credit grade interval ranges on condition that each credit grade for credit loan borrowers has its own credit risk, i.e. bankruptcy probability.

    A Comparative Study on Closed vs. Open Endotracheal Suctioning on the Newborn Infants Treated with Ventilator (인공호흡기 사용 신생아의 폐쇄형과 개방형 기관흡인에 관한 연구)

    • Park, Jeong-Won;Park, Yeong-Ae
      • 아동간호학회:학술대회논문집
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      • 1997.11a
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      • pp.61-74
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      • 1997
    • Endotracheal suctioning is a routine procedure used for clearing secretions from the airway of the intubated infant. This procedure is not without complications. Endotracheal suctioning has been associated with decreases in $PaO_2$, decreases in systemic venous oxygenation, alterations in mean arterial Pressure, disturbances in cardiac rhythm and development of nosocomial pneumonia. So several endotracheal suctioning techniques have been developed to prevent these blown complications. Another method of Endotracheal suctioning eliminates the risk associated with disconnecting the infant from the ventilatior to perform the suctioning procedure. Studies examining closed endotracheal suctioning methods reported that the closed method results in less arterial oxygen saturation, and less systemic venous oxygen desaturation. However those studies have focused on adult patients, and there have been no published studies for newborn infants. The specific purpose of this study is to investigate the two methods and to make a comparison in terms of (1)variations in $SaO_2$, heart rate, and respiration rate appeared before and after the endotracheal suctioning; (2)difference in occurrence of nosocomial infection; (3)difference in recovery time to arrive at pre-suction baseline after suctioning and in nursing time taken for the suctioning. The present study is based on the data obtained from two groups of newborn infants : one group comprises 8 infants with closed suctioning (a total of 304 suctions) among 17 infants treated with ventilator and the other group 9 infants with open method (a total of 629 suctions). The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical program package. As the distribution test on dependent variables with the Skewnesser Shapiro Wilk test showed an asymmetric distribution, the Wilcoxon Matched-pairs Singled- Ranks test was used for the test of variations in $SaO_2$, heart rate, and respiration rate appeared before and after the endotracheal suctioning. The difference in $SaO_2$ recovery time and nursing time was analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U-Test. The difference in physiologic consequences and occurrence of nosocomial infection between the two groups was analyzed with the Fisher's Exact Test. The results of the study are summarized as follows. For the hypothesis 1 (There would be a difference in $SaO_2$, heart rate, and respiration rate before and after suctioning between the two suctioning methods), the difference in $SaO_2$ turns out to be statistically significant (P=0.015), but heart rate and respiration rate do not procedure a notable difference (P=0.630). The hypothesis 2 (There would be a difference in rates at which a complication arises after suctioning between the two groups) does not prove to be statistically valid (P=0.246). For the hypothesis 3(There would be a difference in $SaO_2$ recovery time and nursing time between the two groups), the average $SaO_2$ recovery time after suctioning turned out to have somewhat significant difference (P=0.064), however the difference in nursing time taken for the suctioning was not statistically significant (P=0.610). The analyses indicate that the closed endotracheal suctioning is more efficient as compared with the open method, in maintaining pre-suction baseline $SaO_2$ and a rapid recovery of newborn infants. Based on these results we suggust to apply the closed method to newborn infants in the ventilation treatment. We also suggest to extend the investigation to include the comparison of suction cost taking into account the case in which a complication arises after endotracheal suctioning between the two groups.

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    Private Income Transfers and Old-Age Income Security (사적소득이전과 노후소득보장)

    • Kim, Hisam
      • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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      • v.30 no.1
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      • pp.71-130
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      • 2008
    • Using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this study investigates private income transfers in Korea, where adult children have undertaken the most responsibility of supporting their elderly parents without well-established social safety net for the elderly. According to the KLIPS data, three out of five households provided some type of support for their aged parents and two out of five households of the elderly received financial support from their adult children on a regular base. However, the private income transfers in Korea are not enough to alleviate the impact of the fall in the earned income of those who retired and are approaching an age of needing financial assistance from external source. The monthly income of those at least the age of 75, even with the earning of their spouses, is below the staggering amount of 450,000 won, which indicates that the elderly in Korea are at high risk of poverty. In order to analyze microeconomic factors affecting the private income transfers to the elderly parents, the following three samples extracted from the KLIPS data are used: a sample of respondents of age 50 or older with detailed information on their financial status; a five-year household panel sample in which their unobserved family-specific and time-invariant characteristics can be controlled by the fixed-effects model; and a sample of the younger split-off household in which characteristics of both the elderly household and their adult children household can be controlled simultaneously. The results of estimating private income transfer models using these samples can be summarized as follows. First, the dominant motive lies on the children-to-parent altruistic relationship. Additionally, another is based on exchange motive, which is paid to the elderly parents who take care of their grandchildren. Second, the amount of private income transfers has negative correlation with the income of the elderly parents, while being positively correlated with the income of the adult children. However, its income elasticity is not that high. Third, the amount of private income transfers shows a pattern of reaching the highest level when the elderly parents are in the age of 75 years old, following a decreasing pattern thereafter. Fourth, public assistance, such as the National Basic Livelihood Security benefit, appears to crowd out private transfers. Private transfers have fared better than public transfers in alleviating elderly poverty, but the role of public transfers has been increasing rapidly since the welfare expansion after the financial crisis in the late 1990s, so that one of four elderly people depends on public transfers as their main income source in 2003. As of the same year, however, there existed and occupied 12% of the elderly households those who seemed eligible for the National Basic Livelihood benefit but did not receive any public assistance. To remove elderly poverty, government may need to improve welfare delivery system as well as to increase welfare budget for the poor. In the face of persistent elderly poverty and increasing demand for public support for the elderly, which will lead to increasing government debt, welfare policy needs targeting toward the neediest rather than expanding universal benefits that have less effect of income redistribution and heavier cost. Identifying every disadvantaged elderly in dire need for economic support and providing them with the basic livelihood security would be the most important and imminent responsibility that we all should assume to prepare for the growing aged population, and this also should accompany measures to utilize the elderly workforce with enough capability and strong will to work.

    The Effects of Psychological Contract Violation on OS User's Betrayal Behaviors: Window XP Technical Support Ending Case (심리적 계약 위반이 OS이용자의 배신 행동에 미치는 영향: 윈도우 XP 기술적 지원서비스 중단 사례)

    • Lee, Un-Kon
      • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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      • v.24 no.3
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      • pp.325-344
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      • 2014
    • Technical support of Window XP ended in March, 8, 2014, and it makes OS(Operating System) users fall in a state of confusion. Sudden decision making of OS upgrade and replacement is not a simple problem. Firms need to change the long term capacity plan in enterprise IS management, but they are pressed for time and cost to complete it. Individuals can not help selecting the second best plan, because the following OSs of Window XP are below expectations in performances, new PC sales as the opportunities of OS upgrade decrease, and the potential risk of OS technical support ending had not announced to OS users at the point of purchase. Microsoft as the OS vendors had not presented precaution or remedy for this confusion. Rather, Microsoft announced that the technical support of the other following OSs of Wndow XP such as Window 7 would ended in two years. This conflict between OS vendor and OS users could not happen in one time, but could recur in recent future. Although studies on the ways of OS user protection policy would be needed to escape from this conflict, few prior studies had conducted this issue. This study had challenge to cautiously investigate in such OS user's reactions as the confirmation with OS user's expectation in the point of purchase, three types of justice perception on the treatment of OS vendor, psychological contract violation, satisfaction and the other betrayal behavioral intention in the case of Window XP technical support ending. By adopting the justice perception on this research, and by empirically validating the impact on OS user's reactions, I could suggest the direction of establishing OS user protection policy of OS vendor. Based on the expectation-confirmation theory, the theory of justice, literatures about psychological contract violation, and studies about consumer betrayal behaviors in the perspective of Herzberg(1968)'s dual factor theory, I developed the research model and hypothesis. Expectation-confirmation theory explain that consumers had expectation on the performance of product in the point of sale, and they could satisfied with their purchase behaviors, when the expectation could have confirmed in the point of consumption. The theory of justice in social exchange argues that treatee could be willing to accept the treatment by treater when the three types of justice as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice could be established in treatment. Literatures about psychological contract violation in human behaviors explains that contracter in a side could have the implied contract (also called 'psychological contract') which the contracter in the other side would sincerely execute the contract, and that they are willing to do vengeance behaviors when their contract had unfairly been broken. When the psychological contract of consumers had been broken, consumers feel distrust with the vendors and are willing to decrease such beneficial attitude and behavior as satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intention. At the same time, consumers feel betrayal and are willing to increase such retributive attitude and behavior as negative word-of-mouth, complain to the vendors, complain to the third parties for consumer protection. We conducted a scenario survey in order to validate our research model at March, 2013, when is the point of news released firstly and when is the point of one year before the acture Window XP technical support ending. We collected the valid data from 238 voluntary participants who are the OS users but had not yet exposed the news of Window OSs technical support ending schedule. The subject had been allocated into two groups and one of two groups had been exposed this news. The data had been analyzed by the MANOVA and PLS. MANOVA results indicate that the OSs technical support ending could significantly decrease all three types of justice perception. PLS results indicated that it could significantly increase psychological contract violation and that this increased psychological contract violation could significantly reduce the trust and increase the perceived betrayal. Then, it could significantly reduce satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase intention, and it also could significantly increase negative word-of-month intention, complain to the vendor intention, and complain to the third party intention. All hypothesis had been significantly approved. Consequently, OS users feel that the OSs technical support ending is not natural value added service ending, but the violation of the core OS purchase contract, that it could be the posteriori prohibition of OS user's OS usage right, and that it could induce the psychological contract violation of OS users. This study would contributions to introduce the psychological contract violation of the OS users from the OSs technical support ending in IS field, to introduce three types of justice as the antecedents of psychological contract violation, and to empirically validate the impact of psychological contract violation both on the beneficial and retributive behavioral intentions of OS users. For practice, the results of this study could contribute to make more comprehensive OS user protection policy and consumer relationship management practices of OS vendor.

    The Critical Factors on Improvement of Medical institution Competitiveness (의료기관 경쟁력 향상에 영향을 미치는 핵심 요인)

    • Yeom, Jae-Kwang;Kang, Chang-Yeol
      • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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      • v.12 no.1
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      • pp.1-30
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      • 2007
    • The study carried out a survey with employees of hospitals located in Daejeon, Chungnam, and Chungbuk from Sep. 12 to Sep. 30, 2005 in order to derive primary elements that affect the improvement of hospital's competitiveness. The study investigated and analyzed the employees' recognition on the change of competitive environment caused by the change of medical environment. The study also analyzed the elements that affect the hospital's competitiveness and the competitive strategies of the hospitals. The conclusion of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. Summary 1) Most of the employees responded that there is a rival in the competitive environment and the competitive is intense. Especially when the employees are married, live in urban areas, have an education level of university graduate or are managers, they tend to think the competitive is very intense. Also, they said that the competitive is based upon the quality of medical service. They mentioned the element that has the biggest effect on the competitiveness is the element of medical consumer and they recognized that the medical services in university and general hospitals have more competitiveness than the one-department hospitals. 2) It was investigated that the medical technique service has the most effect on the hospital's competitiveness. Also, the external service of medical techniques also has a large effect on the hospital's competitiveness. 3) When they were asked for the factors that affect the patients' decision on selecting a hospital, most of them responded "capability and technique of the medical staffs." Also, they said that "sufficient explanation from doctors" and "special center and clinic" are the factors that have big effects on the patients' decision. 4) In the SWOT analysis, most of them responded that the strength is the hospital's characteristics and the weakness is insufficient and obsolete equipment. They said the opportunity is the demands for professional medical service and the risk is the intense competitive among the hospitals. 5) In the SWOT strategy, they emphasized the strategy that uses the opportunity and the strength and the strategy that uses the opportunity while overcoming the weakness. 6) As for the basic competition strategy, most of them thought of the strategy of professionalizing the medical service most importantly. Next, they focused on the strategy of distinct service and the strategy of lower prime cost. 2. Conclusion 1) Because service competition between hospitals is happening seriously, need competitiveness security through right awareness transfer and satisfaction upgrade about medical consumer. 2) For medical technique service upgrade that equip Hospital's competitiveness but affects most, must solidify the countermeasure because professionalizing the medical service and newest medical technique induction should be achieved first, and compose task force for the external service of medical techniques improvement. 3) To improve SWOT of hospital, opportunity and the strength strategy choice that rescue hospital's characteristics heightening professionalizing the medical service level is fancied. 4) As for the basic competition strategy, will have to try in phase triangular position of hospital which is trusted medical level upgrade and excellent manpower security and finance independence through upgrade. The study was only done with hospitals in Daejeon, Chungnam and Chungbuk. Also, it is a study from the side of suppliers of medical service so there are limitations. However, the significance of the study is to present the basic data for improvement of hospital's competitiveness by examining the importance of medical techniques and external service of medical techniques that are the main effects on the improvement of hospital's competitiveness.

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    How to Reflect Sustainable Development, exemplified by the Equator Principles, in Overseas Investment (해외투자(海外投資)와 지속가능발전 원칙 - 프로젝트 파이낸스의 적도원칙(赤道原則)을 중심으로 -)

    • Park, Whon-Il
      • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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      • v.31
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      • pp.27-56
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      • 2006
    • Today's financial institutions usually take environmental issues seriously into consideration as they could not evade lender liability in an increasing number of cases. On the international scene, a brand-new concept of the "Equator Principles" in the New Millenium has driven more and more international banks to adopt these Principles in project financing. Sustainable development has been a key word in understanding new trends of the governments, financial institutions, corporations and civic groups in the 21st century. The Equator Principles are a set of voluntary environmental and social guidelines for sustainable finance. These Principles commit bank officers to avoid financial support to projects that fail to meet these guidelines. The Principles were conceived in 2002 on an initiative of the International Finance Corporation(IFC), and launched in June 2003. Since then, dozens of major banks, accounting for up to 80 percent of project loan market, have adopted the Principles. Accordingly, the Principles have become the de facto standard for all banks and investors on how to deal with potential social and environmental issues of projects to be financed. Compliance with the Equator Principles facilitates for endorsing banks to participate in the syndicated loan and help them to manage the risks associated with large-scale projects. The Equator Principles call for financial institutions to provide loans to projects under the following circumstances: - The risk of the project is categorized in accordance with internal guidelines based upon the environmental and social screening criteria of the IFC. - For Category A and B projects, borrowers or sponsors are required to conduct a Social and Environmental Assessment, the preparation of which must meet certain requirements and satisfactorily address key social and environmental issues. - The Social and Environmental Assessment report should address baseline social and environmental conditions, requirements under host country laws and regulations, sustainable development, and, as appropriate, IFC's Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines, etc. - Based on the Social and Environmental Assessment, Equator banks then make agreements with borrowers on how they mitigate, monitor and manage the risks through a Social and Environmental Management System. Compliance with the plan is included in the covenant clause of loan agreements. If the borrower doesn't comply with the agreed terms, the bank will take corrective actions. The Equator Principles are not a mere declaration of cautious banks but a full commitment of lenders. A violation of the Principles in the process of project financing, which led to an unexpected damage to the affected community, would not give rise to any specific legal remedies other than ordinary lawsuits. So it is more effective for banks to ensure consistent implementation of the Principles and to have them take responsible measures to solve social and environmental issues. Public interests have recently mounted up with respect to environmental issues on the occasion of the Supreme Court's decision (2006Du330) on the fiercely debated reclamation project at Saemangeum. The majority Justices said that the expected environmental damages like probable pollution of water and soil were not believed so serious and that the Administration should continue to implement the project seeking ways to make it more environment friendly. In this case, though the Category A Saemangeum Project was carried out by a government agency, the Supreme Court behaved itself as a signal giver to approve or stop the environment-related project like an Equator bank in project financing. At present, there is no Equator bank in Korea in contrast to three big banks in Japan. Also Korean contractors, which are aggressively bidding for Category A-type projects in South East Asia and Mideast, might find themselves in a disadvantageous position because they are generally ignorant of the environmental assessment associated with project financing. In this regard, Korean banks and overseas project contractors should care for the revised Equator Principles and the latest developments in project financing more seriously. It's because its scope has expanded to the capital cost of US$10 million or more across all industry sectors regardless of developing countries or not. It should be noted that, for a Korean bank, being an Equator bank is more or less burdensome in a short-term period, but it must be conducive to minimizing risks and building up good reputation in the long run.

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