The Fate of Intractable Tuberculosis Cases Under National Tuberculosis Programme (국가결핵관리 체계내의 난치성 결핵환자(만성 배균자)의 운명)
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- Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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- v.42 no.1
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- pp.11-18
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- 1995
Background: The natural history of bacillary tuberculosis was studied in India and results showed that at the end of the 5-year period, 49% of the patients were dead, 33% were cured and 18% remained sputum-positive. The aim of this survey is to observe the natural course of the patients with intractable tuberculosis disease who were incurable with all drug regimens of the national tuberculosis programme(NTP). Method: Of the patients who have been found as intractable cases in Kang-Weon Province by the supervisory medical officer during the period from January 1,1987 to December 31,1992, 179 were eligible for this study. Sputum examination was done for those who were survived until October in 1993 at the Kang-Weon provincial laboratory of KNTA. 49 out of 179 patients were transferred to the private sectors and retreated with the combination of prothionamide, cycloserine, ofloxacin, enviomycin, etc. They seemed to have been bacteriologically cured, and so they were excluded from the study. Finally 130 patients were analyzed by modified life table method to calculate the fatality rate and the survival rate during the period of 7 years. Results: 1) 80.8% of intractable cases were male and 19.2%, female. 2) More than 94% of intractable cases showed moderately or far advanced Tb findings on their X-rays at the time of registration at health centres. 3) The cumulative case-fatality rate was 19.74% at the end of 1-year period and has risen to 34.55% by the end of 4-year period(increasing by 4.9% a year on an average). The case-fatality rate has shown no appreciable rise since then until the end of 7-year period. 4) The case-survival rate was 80.26% at the end of 1-year period and has decreased to 65.45% by the end of 4-year period. And then there was no appreciable change in the survival rate until the end of 7-year observation. Conclusion: The case-survival rate of intractable cases was higher than that of untreated pulmonary tuberculosis patients and they may have risk of spreading multidrug resistant organisms. It is time we made an effort to improve case-management qualitatively.
Background : The statistical analysis is an essential procedure ensuring that the results of researches are based on evidences rather than opinion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate which statistical techniques are used and whether these statistical methods are used appropriately or not in the journal of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases. Materials and Methods : We reviewed 185 articles reported in the journal of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in 1999. We evaluated the validity of used statistical methods based upon the checklist that was developed on the basis of the guideline for statistical reporting in articles for medical journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Results : Among 185 articles, original articles and case reports were 110 (59.5%) and 61 (33.0%) respectively. In 112 articles excluding case reports and reviews, statistical techniques were used in 107 articles (95.5%). In 94 articles (83.9%) descriptive and inferential methods were used, while in 13 (11.6%) articles only descriptive methods were used. With the types of inferential statistical techniques, comparison of means was most commonly used (64/94, 68.1%), followed by contingency table (43/94, 45.7%) and correlation or regression (18/94, 19.1%). Among the articles in which descriptive methods were used, 83.2% (89/107) showed inappropriate central tendency and dispersion. In the articles in which inferential methods were used, improper methods were applied in 88.8% (79/89) and the most frequent misuse of statistical methods was inappropriate use of parametric methods (35/89, 39.3%). Only 14 articles (13.1%) were satisfactory in utilization of statistical methodology. Conclusion : Most of the statistical errors found in the journal were misuses of statistical methods related to basic statistics. This study suggests that researchers should be more careful when they describe and apply statistical methods and more extensive statistical refereeing system would be needed.
음주습관과 심혈관계 질환 위험요인사이의 관련성을 파악하기 위하여, 1996년 한국 경북에 있는 도시지역 한 철강회사에서 40-50대(40-59세) 남자 근로자 3444명으로부터 공복시 혈액을 10m1 채취하여 혈청지질, 혈당, Uric acid를 측정하고 신장, 체중, 혈압(10-20분 휴식후 측정)과 EKG를 측정하였다. 과거병력, 현재 건강상태, 음주량과 기간 및 음주종류를 포함한 생활습관, 흡연량/일, 운동시간/주 등의 설문지를 작성하였다. 알콜 소비량은 양-빈도의 Index에 의해 측정되었다. 한국 중년 남자에 대한 음주량, 음주기간, 알콜종류등에 따른 심혈관계 질환의 위험요인 유무 정도를 알아보기 위해, 비음주자를 기준으로하여 비교대상군은 금주자와 음주량(2군) 등에 의해 3군으로 분류하였으며, 음주기간에 따른 심혈관계 질환의 위험요인 유무정도를 알아보기 위해 비음주자을 기준으로하여 비교 대상군은 금주자와 음주기간(4군)에 따라 5군으로 분류하였다. 알콜종류에 따른 심혈관계 질환의 위험요인 유무정도를 알아보기 위해 비음주자을 기준으로하여 비교 대상군은 금주자와 음주알콜종류(3군)에 따라 4군으로 분류하였다. 심혈관계 질환 위험요인은 기준되는 범주를 2개(Table 1)로 분류하여 2*2표를 이용하여 odds ratio(dummy variable로 처리),
There are several ways to demonstrate white organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for displays and solid state lighting applications. Among these approaches are the stacked three primary or two complementary colors light-emitting layers, multiple-doped emissive layer, and excimer and exciplex emission [1-10]. We report on white phosphorescent excimer devices by using two light emitting materials based on platinum complexes. These devices showed a peak EQE of 15.7%, with an EQE of 14.5% (17 lm/W) at
Franchising is one of the fastest growing types of business. It is already popular and well-known in the U.S., and has been growing in many other countries including Korea. Furthermore, many Korean franchising companies have expanded their business overseas actively. According to the data by the Ministry of Industry and Resource, 82 companies out of a sample of 500 franchising companies are already operating in many foreign countries and 48% of them have started their foreign business since 2006. This clearly indicates the fast growing current trend of foreign operation by Korean franchising companies. In spite of the fast growing trend of foreign expansion in the industry, academic research on internationalization of franchising companies is extremely difficult to find. Accordingly, academic research on the issue is necessary and urgent in Korea. Among the various research questions on internationalization of franchising business, this study intends to investigate the difference in organizational factors between the franchising companies doing foreign operation and those doing business only domestically. More specifically, this research has the following purposes. First, considering the lack of theoretical basis of previous studies, resource-based theory and agency theory are employed as the theoretical bases. Second, this study explains the difference in internationalization based on organizational factors such as company size, history and growth rate. Third, the five hypotheses regarding the difference in organizational factors are presented and tested empirically, which is the first attempt in the area of this topic. Finally, the study attempts to clarify the conflicting implications among theories regarding some organizational factos such as growth rate. As the theoretical background, resource-based theory and agency theory are discussed. According to resource-based theory, a firm can grow continuously when it has competence and resource, and also the ability to develop them. The competence and resource can include capital, human resource, management skill, market information, ability to manage risk, etc. Meanwhile, agency theory views the relationship between franchisor and franchisee as an agency relationship. In agency theory, bonding capability and monitoring capability are the two key factors which promote internationalization of franchising companies. Based on the two theories, a conceptual model is designed. The model consists of two groups of variables. One is organizational factors including size, history, growth rate, price bonding and geographic dispersion. The other is whether a franchising company is operating overseas or not. We developed the following five research hypotheses basically describing the relationship between organizational factors and internationalization of franchising companies. H1: The size of franchising companies operating overseas is larger than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H2: The history of franchising companies operating overseas is longer than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H3: The growth rate of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H4: The price bonding of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H5: The geographic dispersion of franchising companies operating overseas is wider than that of franchising companies operating domestically. Data for the analyses are obtained from 2005 Korea Franchise Survey data co-generated by Ministry of Industry and Resource, GS1 Korea, and Korea Franchise Association. Out of 2,804 population companies, 2,489 companies are excluded for various reasons and 315 companies are selected as the final sample. Prior to hypotheses tests, validity and reliability of the measures of size, history, growth rate and price bonding are examined for further analyses. Geographic dispersion is not validated since it is measured using nominal data. A series of independent sample T-tests is used to find out whether there exists any significant difference between the companies internationalized and those operating only domestically for each organizational factor. Among the five factors, size and geographic dispersion show significant difference, growth rate and price bonding do not reveal any difference and, finally, history factor shows conflicting results in the difference depending on how to measure it.