Essays on Monetary Policy and Economic Growth

This thesis consists of three essays concerning money supply growth, one of the main objectives in monetary policy, and economic growth. The aim of this work is to investigate the role of money in monetary policy and how money supply and seigniorage impact on output growth. The findings are derived from theoretical models and modern econometric techniques. First of all, I shall evaluate the role of money in the conduct of monetary policy in South Korea. This research analyses the effect of monetary aggregates on prices and output and examines its transmission mechanism using recursive and non-recursive vector autoregressive models. The expansionary monetary policy shocks have substantial effects on output. Specific channels of the transmission operate through the effects which monetary aggregates have on banking lending, stock prices, exchange rates and investment, export, and government consumption. Then, a cash-in-advanced model and human capital based endogenous growth model is developed. Through employing Bayesian maximum likelihood estimation, a positive money shock is created leading to an increase in seigniorage, which also has a positive impact on output growth. This is because there is a growth-enhancing effect from human capital production since seigniorage is spent by a government on public education. I shall show that money within the model also generates a connection between seigniorage and inflation. However, in the long run, the theoretical model also captures the adverse effect of seigniorage due to inflation so that I shall examine the existence of threshold effects between seigniorage and growth in developing countries using Hansen (1999)’s panel threshold methodology. The threshold level of seigniorage above which seigniorage significantly slows output growth is set at 2.27%. This thesis confirms that money supply and seigniorage have a substantial impact on output so that money is an important factor to be considered in the architecture of macroeconomic policy

Evaluating the costs and benefits of funding North Carolina’s adult Medicaid dental benefits

The objective of this paper is to compare the costs and benefits of funding North Carolina’s adult Medicaid dental benefits. First, a literature review was conducted on the scope of adult Medicaid dental benefits and dental-related emergency department(ED) visits. Second, the costs of dental care in the ED was compared to the cost of care at a private dental office. A decision tree was used to model North Carolina’s Medicaid cohort’s utilization of dental benefits. The primary outcome of interest was the change in costs associated with an ED visit for dental-related conditions when dental benefits are funded and not funded. The results can inform North Carolina General Assembly’s decision about whether to continue to fund adults’ Medicaid dental benefits. The results can further inform the shortcomings in current dental care access across North Carolina.Master of Science in Public Healt

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicle Therapy for Stroke: Challenges and Progress

Stroke is the leading cause of physical disability among adults. Stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) secrete a variety of bioactive substances, including trophic factors and extracellular vesicles (EVs), into the injured brain, which may be associated with enhanced neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and neuroprotection. EVs are circular membrane fragments (30 nm−1 μm) that are shed from the cell surface and harbor proteins, microRNAs, etc. Since 2013 when it was first reported that intravenous application of MSC-derived EVs in a stroke rat model improved neurological outcomes and increased angiogenesis and neurogenesis, many preclinical studies have shown that stem cell-derived EVs can be used in stroke therapy, as an alternative approach to stem cell infusion. Although scientific research regarding MSC-derived EV therapeutics is still at an early stage, research is rapidly increasing and is demonstrating a promising approach for patients with severe stroke. MSC therapies have already been tested in preclinical studies and clinical trials, and EV-mediated therapy has unique advantages over cell therapies in stroke patients, in terms of biodistribution (overcoming the first pass effect and crossing the blood-brain-barrier), cell-free paradigm (avoidance of cell-related problems such as tumor formation and infarcts caused by vascular occlusion), whilst offering an off-the-shelf approach for acute ischemic stroke. Recently, advances have been made in the understanding of the function and biogenesis of EVs and EVs therapeutics for various diseases. This review presents the most recent advances in MSC-derived EV therapy for stroke, focusing on the application of this strategy for stroke patients

Native speaker and nonnative speaker identities in repair practices of English conversation

Within the theoretical and methodological framework of Conversation Analysis, the present study explores the nature of the native speaker (NS) and nonnative speaker (NNS) identities in repair practices of English conversation. It has identified and analyzed in detail repair sequences in the data and has also conducted quantitative analyses in order to investigate the relationship between NS/NNS identities and repair practices. The results show that the categories of NS and NNS identities are social products that are invoked during and through the participants ongoing interaction. First of all, the participants did not invariably make their NS/NNS identities relevant to their repair work; specifically, more than half of the repair practices were irrelevant to these identities. Secondly, when the participants NS/NNS identities were made relevant to repair, both the NS and the NNS participants initiated repair in order to solve interactional problems that had resulted from the NNS participants insufficient linguistic abilities. The participants orientation to their NS/NNS identities was frequently triggered by the NNS participants repair-initiation while the NS participants invoked these linguistic identities only in a limited range of interactional environments. The findings of this study provide a further empirical basis for arguing the importance of an emic approach to NS-NNS interactions and the potential to learn new vocabulary through repair.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2013-01/102/0000031138/1SEQ:1PERF_CD:SNU2013-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000031138ADJUST_YN:NEMP_ID:A076162DEPT_CD:707CITE_RATE:0FILENAME:bae&oh_2013_ns and nns identities in repair practices of english conversation.pdfDEPT_NM:영어교육과CONFIRM:

Prevalence and Genetic Structures of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 6D, South Korea

To determine prevalence and genetic structures of new serotype 6D strains of pneumococci, we examined isolates from diverse clinical specimens in South Korea during 1991–2008. Fourteen serotype 6D strains accounted for 10.4% of serogroup 6 pneumococci from blood, sputum, nasopharynx, and throat samples. Serotype 6D strains consisted of 3 sequence types

Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Foreign Bodies

Foreign body ingestion, a common emergency encountered in clinical practice, is a potentially serious condition. Most foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract pass spontaneously. However, objects that are relatively long or large may lodge in the upper gastrointestinal tract, potentially causing perforation, bleeding, and obstruction. This literature review summarizes the natural history and clinical aspects of these types of foreign bodies in adults as well as the various methods for their removal. Endoscopic removal is a relatively safe and effective procedure for removing these types of foreign bodies. The development of endoscopic techniques and devices has resulted in their widespread use, with good results, as the primary treatment

Ionothermal Synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework

Ionothermal synthesis employs ionic liquids for synthesis of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as solvent and template. The cations and anions of ionic liquids may be finely adjusted to produce a great variety of reaction environments and thus frameworks. Organisation of the structures synthesised from related ionic liquid combinations give rise to provocative chemical trends that may be used to predict future outcomes. Further analysis of their structures is possible by reducing the complex framework to its underlying topology, which by itself brings more precision to prediction. Through reduction, many seemingly different, but related classes of structures may be merged into larger groups and provide better understanding of the nanoscopic structures and synthesis conditions that gave rise to them. Ionothermal synthesis has promised to enable us to effectively plan the synthesis ahead for a given purpose. However, for its promise to be kept, several difficult limitations must be overcome, including the inseparable cations from the solvent that reside in the framework pore

Severe COVID-19 Illness: Risk Factors and Its Burden on Critical Care Resources

In South Korea, the first confirmed case of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) was detected on January 20, 2020. After a month, the number of confirmed cases surged, as community transmission occurred. The local hospitals experienced severe shortages in medical resources such as mechanical ventilators and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) equipment. With the medical claims data of 7,590 COVID-19 confirmed patients, this study examined how the demand for major medical resources and medications changed during the outbreak and subsequent stabilization period of COVID-19 in South Korea. We also aimed to investigate how the underlying diseases and demographic factors affect disease severity. Our findings revealed that the risk of being treated with a mechanical ventilator or ECMO (critical condition) was almost twice as high in men, and a previous history of hypertension, diabetes, and psychiatric diseases increased the risk for progressing to critical condition [Odds Ratio (95% CI), 1.60 (1.14–2.24); 1.55 (1.55–2.06); 1.73 (1.25–2.39), respectively]. Although chronic pulmonary disease did not significantly increase the risk for severity of the illness, patients with a Charlson comorbidity index score of ≥5 and those treated in an outbreak area had an increased risk of developing a critical condition [3.82 (3.82–8.15); 1.59 (1.20–2.09), respectively]. Our results may help clinicians predict the demand for medical resources during the spread of COVID-19 infection and identify patients who are likely to develop severe disease