Electrogastrography (EGG) is a non-invasive method for the measurement of gastric myoelectrical activity. It was first discovered in 1921 and popularized in 1990s. EGG is attractive because it is non-invasive. However, due to its non-invasive nature, there have also been controversies regarding validity and applications of EGG. The aim of this review is to discuss the methodologies, validation and applications of EGG. Pros and cons of EGG will also be discussed in detail. First, the gastric slow wave and its correlation with gastric motility are presented. The association between gastric dysrhythmia and impaired gastric motility is reviewed. Secondly the method for recording the electrogastrogram is presented in detail and pitfalls in the recording and analysis of EGG are discussed. Thirdly, findings reported in the literature demonstrating the accuracy of EGG in recording gastric slow waves and gastric dysrhythmia are reviewed and discussed. The correlation of the electrogastrogram with gastric contraction is carefully discussed. Finally, applications of EGG in a few major areas are reviewed.
Contracts ; Gastrointestinal Motility ; Ovum

The study was conducted in two phase. In phase I, workplace safety accidents were investigated that happened from 2004 to 2008 in 52 medium-sized contract managed foodservice companies located in Seoul. In phase II, a survey was conducted to examine the cuisine employees' awareness of workplace safety. The survey was administered to the same foodservice management companies from April 12 to April 20, 2009. The final response rate was 84% (N=336), and the data were analyzed using SPSS Windows (ver. 12.0). The analysis showed that more accidents occurred in the age groups of 51~60 and 41~50 and among women. Forty-four percents of the accidents were reported by the employees who had been engaged in foodservice for 1~4 years. The majority of the safety accidents occurred in May~June of the year and the injuries were related to the 'hands and arms'. Approximately 38.5% of the injuries happened during 'movement and transportation'. More than half of the accidents were not managed as 'industrial accidents'. By type of injuries, 28.6% of the accidents were 'fractures'. In terms of the companies' actions, 44% of the accidents were dealt by companies' paying medical bills. The results of this study could be useful to develop evaluation indicators for safety education programs, decrease cuisine employees' safety accidents, protect assets, and prevent various worker and industrial accidents to create a pleasant work environment.
Accidents, Occupational ; Contracts ; Female ; Humans

This study has attempted to collect actual spot's opinions and analyze importance-performance of indicators for the evaluation of hospital nutrition department. The results of this research were as follows: first, the average score of self-estimated performance was 3.75 based on a 5-point scale. The degrees of importance of hospital foodservice and nutrition department management were in the range of 3.71~4.85 out of 5.0 and the mean importance degree score was 4.37. Second, the verage score of self-estimated performance in each category was significantly higher in the case of general special hospital compared to general hospital. Especially average performance score of nutrition management in the general special hospital was higher than that of general hospital (P<0.001). The average performance score of the hospital with more beds was significantly higher than that with less beds. Contract managed hospital's score was significantly higher than that of self-operated hospital in two categories, "facilities management" and "nutrition management" (P<0.05, P<0.01). In foodservice and nutrition management of task-separated hospitals, the average performance scores were significantly higher than those of not-separated hospitals (P<0.01, P<0.001). Third, according to the importance-performance analysis of recognition about indicators for the hospital nutrition department's operations evaluation, 'foodservice facilities management' and 'foodservice sanitation management' were in 'doing great', 'nutritional management' and 'operational management' were in 'low priority', and 'other foodservice management' was in 'overdone'. In conclusion, there's a need for institutional specific standards of sanitation for Korean hospital foodservice.
Contracts ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, Special ; Sanitation

The following study was taken in the Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Kangwon, and Chungcheong areas to analyze the performance levels of safety management by characteristics of school foodservice. The following results were obtained from a survey conducted on 2,271 middle and high school dietitians in 808 schools. Out of the 808 schools surveyed, 513 schools (63.5%) were self-operated and 295 schools (36.5%) were managed by a contract. Regarding the performance level of the hygiene duties, contract-managed schools were rated as 4.02 points while self-operated schools were rated relatively higher (4.16 points). The self-operated schools had an average score of 3.60 points for the TQM-based HACCP system, and the areas that scored lower than the average were strategies, human resources, data and analysis. The average score of the contract-managed schools was 3.42 points, and such areas as leadership, human resources, data and analysis, and customer satisfactory level scored below the average. For the analysis of CCP performance level, the contract-managed schools scored 4.28 points while self-operated schools scored 4.34 points. Overall, the hygiene duties, CCP performance level, and TQM-based HACCP system performance of the contracted schools were lower than those of the self-operated schools. Therefore, it is advised that the contract-managed schools consider new measures to strengthen their performance level for improved safety of school foodservice.
Contracts ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Korea ; Leadership ; Safety Management

The aim of this study was to measure the brand images of contract foodservice management companies by identifying brand image attributes and then developing a measurement scale to measure the weight of these attributes. The measurement scale was developed by following a 5-stage process that included face-to-face interviews with experts, literature review, questionnaire surveys, verification of scale validity, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 137 items measuring brand image were collected: 37 items from studies of brand image and corporate image, 55 items from studies of contract foodservice management companies and 45 items from the internet and websites of contract foodservice management companies. A survey was then conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. Ultimately, the 137 items were reduced to 40 items. The calculated Cronbach's alpha for the 40 brand image items was 0.934, demonstrating good internal consistency. Based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA), employee attitude, menu content, corporate image, dining location and ambience, along with 33 subattributes, were identified as brand image attributes. Employee attitude was the most significant attribute influencing brand image. After confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a review process, four brand image attributes and 33 subattributes were finalized and incorporated into the scale.
Androsterone ; Contracts ; Internet ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results

The purpose of this study was to gauge customers' satisfaction with the hospital, university, factory, and office foodservices from a contracted provider. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) evaluations were conducted. Questionnaires were returned from 1,808 customers in 46 foodservice locations. The average total scores of the importance and performance of seventeen quality characteristics were 4.14 and 3.23, respectively, on 5-point scales. The average total score of gap (gap = performance - importance) was -0.92. Analysis of significant difference according to the type of foodservices revealed that, hospital foodservices had more items with significant high scores than those of other groups in the average total scores concerning importance (p<0.01) and performance (p<0.01). The average total scores of gap showed no significant difference. Significant differences were evident in the food and personal service dimensions, and the scores of hospital foodservices trended significantly higher than those of other groups. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) analyses for hospital foodservice implicate 'variety of menu', 'cleanness of dishes', and 'taste of food' as items requiring prompt attention and improvement.
Contracts ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE: Under ubiquitous-healthcare circumstances, interest of one's health condition has been increased. People were required the measurement of biosignal by the wearable computing technology. The purpose of this paper is to measure the portable ECG (Electro- cardiogram) with the application of wearable computing technology. Therefore, the normal ECG measurement can be measured with a chest belt either in direct contract state or loose contact state. METHODS: The belt type circuit for measuring ECG was developed. In order to remove noises in loosely contact condition, a shield circuit was assembled with the measuring electrodes. Both of High performance differential amplifiers and notch filters were incorporated into the main amplifier circuits. The ECG data was converted from analog to digital form by MCU (Micro Control Unit). The main memory was composed of a memory controller and a memory card. RESULTS: The ECG measurement having bad electrode contact to body would be usually done in daily life, so we measured the biosignal by using the loose contact potable belt for accurate ECG data. The belt can be used to measure ECG by loose contact method. CONCLUSION: In this study, we could measure ECG without any spatial-temporal restriction due to the portable belt. This device is suitable for the ubiquitous-healthcare environment.
Contracts ; Electrocardiography ; Electrodes ; Memory ; Noise ; Thorax

The objectives of the study were to investigate job burnout and leader-member exchange (LMX) levels as well as to evaluate buffering effects of LMX on burnout among dietitians and chefs at institutional foodservices. Hypotheses were proposed based on the Job Demands-Resources model and LMX theory. The study population consisted of dietitians and chefs who were in charge of managing unit operations in a nationwide contract management company. Positive/negative affectivity, workload, job burnout, and LMX scales that had been validated in previous research were adopted. A total of 552 questionnaires were distributed and 154 responses were returned. Results indicated that respondents' burnout levels were moderate and emotional exhaustion was greater than cynicism. In terms of LMX, the surveyed dietitians and chefs showed higher respect toward their supervisors than loyalty. When positive affectivity and negative affectivity were controlled, workload influenced emotional exhaustion and professional efficacy significantly. With affectivity and workload controlled, however, LMX did not influence any dimensions of burnout. The moderating effect of LMX on the relationship between workload and cynicism was significant. That is, the effect of workload on cynicism was weak if the dietitians and chefs perceived the relationship with their supervisor positively. Based on the findings and literature reviewed, how to mitigate job burnout among foodservice managers is discussed.
Contracts ; Fees and Charges ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Weights and Measures

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of push, pull and push-pull interactive factors for CFMC (Contract Foodservice Management Company)'s internationalization. The study was a quantitative study part in mixed methods (QUAL --> quan) which was mainly qualitative study and quantitative study. Mail survey was carried out for quantitative study. For study subjects, 1,281 persons who completed 'Food Service Management Professional Program' of 'Y' University were selected as a population because the program was mainly for CFMC's workers. The analysis methods used in this study were frequency analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis with SPSS 17.0. Push factors had the saturation in domestic market and the manager's purpose (fac.1) and the investment for internationalization (fac.2). Pull factors had the company's external environment for internationalization (fac.3) and the global network and spread of culture (fac.4). Push-pull interactive factors had the information about foreign market (fac.5), the procedure and budget of overseas expansion (fac.6) and the national network and size of domestic market (fac.7). Internal dynamics factors had the deterrents for internationalization (fac.8) and the enablers for internationalization (fac.9). The result showed that the company's external environment in pull factors had positive effects on the deterrents for internationalization. The global network and the spread of culture had positive effects on the enablers for internationalization. The information about foreign market in push-pull interactive factors had positive effects on the deterrents and enablers for internationalization. The national network and the size of domestic market had positive effects on the enablers for internationalization. The deterrents and enablers for internationalization had positive effects on the level of internationalization, and the deterrents had more effects on the level of internationalization than the enablers did (beta= .492 > .177).
Budgets ; Contracts ; Humans ; Investments ; Postal Service

PURPOSE: To study the safety of sequential bilateral total knee arthroplasty in low risk patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Those who had received the surgery all at once were grouped as the first group, those who had received the surgery over two weeks interval were the second group and the last group, third group were those who had received the first surgery on only one knee and they were gotten re-hospitalized for the second surgery on the rest of the knee. These groups were compared on the aspects of complication, postoperative bleeding amount, average transfusion amount, operation time and admission period. RESULTS: There were no major complications found in all groups and the minor complication rate of occurrence was 3%, 4%, 6% in each, which did not constitute a significance difference. Each of the total blood loss was 1442.9 mL, 1567.4 mL, 1616.6 mL and which did not constitute a significance difference, either. Each of the average volume of blood transfused was 1220.3 mL, 680.1 mL, 692.2 mL, and the first group had the largest volume transfused (p<0.05). The operation time was 186, 196, 211 minutes in each and the first group had the shortest duration (p<0.05). The average admission periods were 16.8, 28.6, 29.8 days and the first group had the shortest period (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: We suggest that when there are no medical diseases contracted on patients, the sequential bilateral total knee arthroplasty can be performed safely without definite increase in perioperative complications.
Arthroplasty ; Contracts ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Knee ; Postoperative Complications