The purpose of this study was to investigate the displacements of cast framework by torch soldering and electric soldering techniques. Specimen had two cylinders and connecting bar that had sectioned with 0.3mm gap at mid point. 10 of total specimens were divided into two groups. In torch soldered group, soldering investment block was made and conventional torch soldering procedure was carried out. In electric soldered group, electric soldering was carried out on the master cast without soldering investment block by using electric soldering machine(Dentapunkt DP 7, Kulzer, Germany). After soldering procedure, three dimensional coordinates of two centroids of each cylinder were measured by three dimensional coordinate measuring machine. The intercentroidal displacement and global displacement were calculated and then, these values were compared and evaluated. The results were obtained as follows: 1. Intercentroidal distances of specimens decreased after both soldering procedures, and the decrease in intercentroidal distance was greater for torch soldered group than for electric soldered group 2. Global displacements of torch soldered group were greater than those of electric soldered group
Investments

BACKGROUND & METHODS: The purpose of this research is to estimate the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms and the determinants of their efficiency. Stochastic frontier analysis(SFA) and panel study are applied to the data of 60 domestic pharmaceutical firms from 2006 to 2012. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: First, the result of the stochastic frontier analysis shows that overall efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms is increasing as time goes by. However, if firms are classified by the scale, the larger firms show more efficiency and if classified by the degree of innovativeness, the innovative firms show more efficiency compared to the non-innovative firms. This evidences show that the scale and R&D investment have significant relationships with the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the national level of investment for the fundamental researches to vitalize R&D of the new drugs. Second, the result of estimation of the determinants of efficiency shows that the firms with larger sales promotion expenses and entertainment expenses have less efficiency compared to the other firms. This can be explained by the structural characteristics of the small generic pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, the government had better make the pharmaceutical firms to reduce sales promotion and entertainment expenses and increase R&D expenses by introducing systems such as global budgeting system on medicine or reference pricing system.
Budgets ; Commerce ; Investments

OBJECTIVE: We firstly defined the Healthcare Information Technology Industry as the new industry and then analyzed it's National Economic Effects based on the Meta-phase Investment of Public Finance Plan. METHODS: We took the In/Output Analysis of Inter-industry Relationships as the quantitative analysis method to analyze the affect on the Healthcare Information Technology Industry. RESULTS: The EPI(Estimated Production Inducement) and the VAI(Value-Added inducement) were amounted to KRW 1.99 trillion and KRW 1.73 trillion each between 2006 and 2010. Moreover, the TEI(Total Employment Inducement) was estimated at about 2.9 thousand jobs during the same periods of time. CONCLUSION: We found the Economic Effects of the Healthcare Information Technology Industry contributed to the Core Growth Power of the overall a nation. In other words, it satisfied the desire of consumption on the healthcare and improved the quality of the life.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Employment ; Investments

PURPOSE: Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) is difficult to implement in the best of situations, but evidence is growing that the benefits are significant. The aims of this study are to analyze the current status of full PACS and establish successful installation standard of dental PACS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Materials and methods were based on the investigation of current working status and installation standard of PACS, and observation of variable issues to installation of dental PACS. RESULTS: By September 30, 2004, full PACS implementations in their facilities were 88.1% in specialized general hospitals (37 installations out of total 42 hospitals), 59.8% in general hospitals (144 installations out of total 241 hospitals), 12.3% in medical hospitals (116 installations out of total 941 hospitals) and 3.6% in dental hospitals (4 installations out of total 110 hospitals) Only 4 university dental hospitals currently have installed and are operating full PACS. Major obstacle to wide spread of dental PACS is initial high investments. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical environments of dental PACS differed from medical situation. Because of characteristic dental practice, the initial investments for dental PACS are generally much greater than those of medical PACS. Also new economic crisis makes users scruple. The best way to overcome these limitations is to establish an economic installation standard for dental PACS. Also the clear technical communication between the customer and the supplier before both sides are committed to the obstacles are critical to its success.
Hospitals, General ; Investments ; Radiology Information Systems

Environmental pressures from such sources an economic condition, the government and inter-institutional competition create managerial challenges. Economic pressures may be forcing dietetic dept, in hospital to utilize cost, benefit analysis to assist them in their problem solving. Cost, benefit analysis have been widely used in business, industry and many other fields with only limited application to foodservice. Due to the lack or this information the purposes of this study were to identify use of cost, benefit analysis in hospital foodservice system to evaluate the economic efficiency of alternatives, and to make recommendation for operation system change. Using the cost?benefit method, cash flows are separated into cost and benefits. For an alternative to be selected, indicators, such as NPV, benefit-cost ratio (B/C ratio) with 5% discount rate per annum. The sensitivity analysis was also conducted with difference rate 3%, 7% respectively and reduced employee payroll change. The result of this study can be summarized as follows : 1. The total cost of investment for operation system change was 390,570 thousand won and the total benefit through operation system change was 865,808 thousand won. 2. Net present value(NPV) for 5 years was 475,239 thousand won and benefit-cost ratio was 2.22. 3. In sensitivity analysis with different discount rate 3%, 7%, benefit-cost ratio was 2.25, 2.18 respectively, with total reduced employee payroll change, benefit-cost ratio was 2.86. In conclusion, total benefits were exceeded total costs. Therefore, the project of operation system change in hospital foodservice was found to be economically efficient.
Commerce ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Investments ; Problem Solving

Endoscopic procedures have been well-documented in the obesity field, but have not yet reached a sufficient level of evidence as stand-alone methods for treating obesity. It is unclear if they should take over. Although expanding, the array of bariatric surgical techniques does not fully meet the current needs, and there are not enough resources for increasing surgery. Surgery is avoided by a majority of patients, so that less aggressive procedures are necessary. For the time being, relevant endoscopic methods include intra-gastric balloons, gastric partitioning (Endo-plication), and the metabolic field (Endo-barrier). Surgical novelties and basic research are also important contributors owing to their potential combination with endoscopy. Conditions have been listed for implementation of bariatric endoscopy, because innovation is risky, expensive, and faces ethical challenges. A scientific background is being built (e.g., hormonal studies). Some techniques require additional study, while others are not ready but should be priorities. Steps and goals include the search for conceptual similarities and the respect of an ethical frame. Minimally invasive bariatric techniques are not ready for prime time, but they are already being successful as re-do procedures. A time-frame for step-strategies can be defined, and more investments from the industry are mandatory.
Endoscopy ; Gastric Balloon ; Humans ; Investments ; Obesity*

The purpose of this study was to investigate setting and thermal expansion of dental soldering investments. In order to compare expansion rates and to investigate the effect of water/powder ratio on expansion, setting and thermal expansion of four dental soldering investments were measured under three different water/powder ratio conditions: standard, 20% decreased and 20% increased. Setting expansion of investments was measured by use of dialgauge method. Each measurement was started two minutes later from the beginning of spatulation and recorded every one minute for one hour. Thermal expansion of cylindrical test specimens, 10mm diameter, 50mm length, was recorded in a Thermodilatometer at heating rate of 10degrees C per minute from 25degrees C to 700degrees C. The results of this study were obtained as follows: 1. Setting expansion rates under the standard water/power ratio condition were 0.198% in Speed-E, 0.090% in Deguvest, 0.080% in CM and Hi-temp. Setting expansion of Speed-E was significantly different from those of CM, Deguvest and Hi-temp, and setting expansion of Deguvest was significantly different from those of CM and Hi-temp(p<.05). 2. Under the decreased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant increase in setting expansion of 4 dental soldering investments(p<.05). 3. There were no significant differences in setting expansions of investments except Hi-temp between standard and increased water/powder ratio condition(p<.05). 4. Thermal expansion rates under the standard water/powder ratio condition were 1.923% in Deguvest, 1.629% in Speed-E, 1.619% in Hi-temp and 1.580% in CM. No significant difference in thermal expansions under the standard water/powder ratio condition existed only between Speed-E and Hi-temp(p<.05). 5. Under the decreased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant increase in thermal expansion of CM and Deguvest but decrease in thermal expansion of Speed-E(p<.05). 6. Under the increased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant decrease in thermal expansion of CM, Deguvest and Speed-E but decrease in thermal expansion of Hi-temp(p<.05).
Dental Soldering* ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Investments*

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Despite of the recent development of the titanium casting system methods, the casting defects such as imperfect casting and internal porosity were frequently observed. PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to compare and measure the castability, microhardness, and surface reaction between Grade 2 pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V by casting these alloys from the different sprue design conditions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Depending on the sprue designs and titanium alloys, 42 ready-made wax patterns were used. By analyzing the remodeling of the cast, internal porosity, microhardness, and titanium surface layer of SEM, there were several results we observed. RESULTS: 1. The measured castability of titanium were categorized in the ascending order: individual sprue group, runner bar group, and single group. This data are based on the statistically signigicant differences. 2. The castability of titanium has not showed the statistically significant differences among the alloys. However, CP-Ti groups were superior to Ti-6Al-4V groups by showing the noticeable castability. 3. The surface layers of the castings of all groups have showed 5 micrometer titanium oxide layers irrespective of sprue designs and titanium alloys. CONCLUSION: From the above study results, by fabricating the restorations from the centrifugal casting machine direct sprue designs revealed better castability. As we increased the number of sprues in the wax pattern, it revealed better castability. The castability of pure titanium rather than that of Ti-6Al-4V was remarkable. To fabricate the complex forms of the restorations, further researches on the efficient sprue designs and titanium alloys must be made.
Alloys ; Celiac Disease ; Investments* ; Porosity ; Titanium*

The development of Information technology affects the medical field a lot. Even though the PACS is developed for filmless hospital, the initial cost is very high and the investment effect is not clear yet. The purpose of this paper is to develop a costeffective hospital PACS which can be integrated with existing hospital information systems. Even though the PACS is developed for small sized hospitals, it has all the important functions of the large-scaled PACS system can provide such as image processing, clinic and patient information management, image file transfer through communication, and report generator functions for various types of hard output. Also, the developed system is designed for future expansion and compatibility with other hospital information systems.
Hospital Information Systems ; Humans ; Information Management ; Investments

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of investing conditions on the marginal discrepancy of conical telescope outer crown with Co-Cr-Ti alloy(Dentitan) and to compare the marginal discrepancy and the retention force of outer crowns using different pattern materials (plastic foil, casting wax, pattern resin). To evaluate the effects of investing conditions on the marginal discrepancy, patterns with plastic foil were invested under three different liquid/powder ratio conditions using phosphate bonded investment (Univest-nonprecious): standard, 10% decreased and 10% increased. At each liquid/powder ratio condition, metal ring was lined with single or double layers of ceramic ring liner. The marginal discrepancy of outer crown at different investing conditions was measured by x 100 compact measuring microscope(STM5, Olympus, Japan). For measurement of the marginal discrepancy and the retention force of outer crown using different pattern materials, the investing condition of 10% decreased liquid/powder ratio and double layers of ring liner was selected because this investing condition resulted in the best fit of outer crown. Marginal discrepancy was measured in the same way above and retention force on universal testing machine. Under the conditions of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. The thickness of ring liner had more influence on the marginal discrepancy of outer crown than the liquid/powder ratio, and the acceptable marginal fitness could not be expected at the investing condition directed by investment manufacturer. 2. There were no differences in the marginal discrepancy of outer crown among three different pattern materials 00.05). 3. Casting wax showed the greatest retention force(1640g) of outer crown, followed by pattern resin(1110g), plastic foil(820g). However, there was no significant difference between plastic foil and pattern resin(p>0.05). 4. Plastic foil showed the least variation in marginal discrepancy and retention force.
Alloys* ; Ceramics ; Crowns* ; Investments ; Plastics ; Telescopes*