• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.153-170
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• 1970

1. Isolation and identification of amylase-producing bacteria. The powerful strain A-12 and S-8 were respectively isolated from air and soil after screening a large number of amylase-producing bacteria. Their bacterial characteristics have been investigated and it has been found that all characteristics of strain A-12 and S-8 are similar to Bac. subtilis of Bergey's manual except for the acid formation from a few carbohydrates and the citrate utilization, i.e., the strain A-12 shows negative in the citrate utilization, and the acid formation from arabinose and xylose, S-8 shows negative in the acid formation from xylose. 2. Amylase production by Liquid cultures with solid materials. Several conditions for amylase production by strain A-12 in stationary cultures have been studied. The results obtained are as follows. (1) The optimum conditions are:temperature $35^{\circ}C$, initial pH 6.5 to 7.0 and incubation time 3 to 4 days. (2) The amylase production is not affected by the preservation period of the stock cultures. (3) Among the various solid material, the defatted soy bean is found to be the best for t1e amylase production. However, the alkali treatment of the defatted soy bean gives no effect contrary to the cage of defatted rape seed. The addition of soluble starch to the alkali extract of defatted soy bean shows the increased amylase production. (4) Up to 1% addition of ethanol to carbon dificient media gives the improved amylase production, whereas the above effect is not found in the case of carbon rich media. (5) The amylase production can be increased 2.5 times when 10% of defatted soy bean is admixed to cheaply available wheat bran. (6) The excellent effect is found for amylase production when 20% of wheat bran is admixed to defatted dry milk which is a poor medium. The activity is found to be $D^{40^{\circ}}_{30'}$ 7,000(L.S.V. 1,800) in 10% medium. (7) No significant effect is observed due to the addition of various inorganic salts. 3. Amylase production by solid cultures. Several conditions for amylase production by strain A-12 in wheat bran cultures have been studied and the results obtained are as follows. (1) The optimum conditions: are temperature $33^{\circ}C$, incubation lime 2 days, water content added 150 to 175% and the thickness of the medium 1.5cm, The activity is found to be $D^{40^{\circ}}_{30'}$ 36,000(L.S.V. 15,000) (2) No significant effect is found in the case of the additions of various organic and inorganic substances.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.55-80
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• 2012

I. Introduction Developing the relationships between companies is very important issue to ensure a competitive advantage in today's business environment (Bleeke & Ernst 1991; Mohr & Spekman 1994; Powell 1990). Partnerships between companies are based on having same goals, pursuing mutual understanding, and having a professional level of interdependence. By having such a partnerships and cooperative efforts between companies, they will achieve efficiency and effectiveness of their business (Mohr and Spekman, 1994). However, it is difficult to expect these ideal results only in the B2B corporate transaction. According to agency theory which is the well-accepted theory in various fields of business strategy, organization, and marketing, the two independent companies have fundamentally different corporate purposes. Also there is a higher chance of developing opportunism and conflict due to natures of human(organization), such as self-interest, bounded rationality, risk aversion, and environment factor as imbalance of information (Eisenhardt 1989). That is, especially partnerships between principal(or buyer) and agent(or supplier) of companies within supply chain, the business contract itself will not provide competitive advantage. But managing partnership between companies is the key to success. Therefore, managing partnership between manufacturer and supplier, and finding causes of conflict are essential to improve B2B performance. In conclusion, based on prior researches and Agency theory, this study will clarify how business hazards cause conflicts on supply chain and then identify how developed conflicts have been managed by two control mechanisms. II. Research model III. Method In order to validate our research model, this study gathered questionnaires from small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs). In Korea, SMEs mean the firms whose employee is under 300 and capital is under 8 billion won(about 7.2 million dollar). We asked the manufacturer's perception about the relationship with the biggest supplier, and our key informants are denied to a person responsible for buying(ex)CEO, executives, managers of purchasing department, and so on). In detail, we contact by telephone to our initial sample(about 1,200 firms) and introduce our research motivation and send our questionnaires by e-mail, mail, and direct survey. Finally we received 361 data and eliminate 32 inappropriate questionnaires. We use 329 manufactures' data on analysis. The purpose of this study is to identify the anticipant role of business hazard (environmental dynamism, asset specificity) and investigate the moderating effect of control mechanism(formal control, social control) on conflict-performance relationship. To find out moderating effect of control methods, we need to compare the regression weight between low versus. high group(about level of exercised control methods). Therefore we choose the structural equation modeling method that is proper to do multi-group analysis. The data analysis is performed by AMOS 17.0 software, and model fits are good statically (CMIN/DF=1.982, p<.000, CFI=.936, IFI=.937, RMSEA=.056). IV. Result V. Discussion Results show that the higher environmental dynamism and asset specificity(on particular supplier) buyer(manufacturer) has, the more B2B conflict exists. And this conflict affect relationship quality and financial outcomes negatively. In addition, social control and formal control could weaken the negative effect of conflict on relationship quality significantly. However, unlikely to assure conflict resolution effect of control mechanisms on relationship quality, financial outcomes are changed by neither social control nor formal control. We could explain this results with the characteristics of our sample, SMEs(Small and Medium sized Enterprises). Financial outcomes of these SMEs(manufacturer or principal) are affected by their customer(usually major company) more easily than their supplier(or agent). And, in recent few years, most of companies have suffered from financial problems because of global economic recession. It means that it is hard to evaluate the contribution of supplier(agent). Therefore we also support the suggestion of Gladstein(1984), Poppo & Zenger(2002) that relational performance variable can capture the focal outcomes of relationship(exchange) better than financial performance variable. This study has some implications that it tests the sources of conflict and investigates the effect of resolution methods of B2B conflict empirically. And, especially, it finds out the significant moderating effect of formal control which past B2B management studies have ignored in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-71
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• 1994

I investigated actual conditions of smoking of teenagers who were randomly chosen middle and high school students. 1. Juvenile smoking 1) Parents' opinions of juvenile smoking Most parents do not want their children to smoke after growth : 88.6% of fathers (middle school students: 88.9%, high school students: 88.4%) and 95.1% of mothers (middle school students: 93.4%, high school students :95.5%). 2) Teenagers' opinions of smoking after growth The rate of students who will smoke after growth is 10.8% (middle school students: 12.0%, high school students: 9.9%): students in agricultural areas show the higher rate than those in cities. 3) Parents' opinions of their children's smoking now 1.5% of fathers want their children to smoke now (middle school students: 1.3%, high school students: 1.6%) and 1.1% of mothers do (middle school students: 0.6%, high school students: 1.5%). This shows that most parents do not want their children to smoke now. 4) Students' opinions of their friends' smoking now Students who want their friends smoke now cover 7.8% (middle school students: 7.1%, high school students: 8.4%). This rates are higher than those of parents shown in (3). And more high school students and more girl students gave the positive reponse than middle school boy and girl students, respectively. 5) Students' views of smoking "Look like an adult" covers the rate of 4.0% (boy: 7.8%, girl:3.6%) 6.7% of middle school students have this view, while 3.7% of high school students have. 16.1% of students had an experience of smoking during the last one year (boy: 29.9%, girl: 8.6%): this shows that the rate of the boy students is more than 3 times greater than that of the girl students and high students who experienced smoking last year covers 20.2%, while middle school students shows 10.9%. 6) Actual conditions of students' smoking The present rate of students' smoking is 22.4% (boy:38.3%, girl:13.8%): the rate of boy students is greater than that of girl students. Students who smoke more than pack of cigarettes a day cover 8.2% (boy: 17.5%, girl: 3.2%): 5.2% of middle school students (boy:11.4%, girl: 2.1%) smoke more than one pack while 10.7% of high school students do (boy:21.5%, girl: 4.2%). This shows that the rate of boy students' smoking is greater than that of girl students' smoking. 7) The rate of smoking of students' parents 75.4% of fathers (city: 74.5%, agricultural area:75.9%) smoke: and more than a half (62.4%) smoke more than a pack cigarettes a day. On the other hand, the rate of smoking mothers is 5.2%(city: 4.3%, agricultural area: 7.3%): the rate is higher in agricultural areas. 8) Opinions of smoking population in the future 61.4% of students answered that smoking population will increase, while 27.0% have the opinion that smoking population will decrease. 2. Opinions of the effects of smoking on health 1) Have you heard that smokers are likely to suffer from tuberclosis? 78.3% of students said yes (boy: 80.8%, girl: 76.4%): it is shown that the rate of boys is greater than that of girls. 2) Have you heard that smokers are likely to get out of endurance? 76.6% of students (boy: 69.3%, girl: 49.7%) answered yes: it is shown that the rate of boys is greater than that of girls. 3) Have you heard that heart-beats get fast when one smokes? 32.5% of students (boy: 35.5%, girl: 30.9%) answered yes: 32.2% in cities(boy: 33.0%, girl: 31.8%) and 33.5% in agricultural areas(boy: 41.8%, girl: 28.8%): and 28.7% middle students and 35.5% of high school students answered yes. 4) Have you heard that smokers are likely to have heart-diseases? 35.1% of students (boy: 34.0%, girl: 34.1%) answered yes: 35.3% in cities (boy: 37.2%, girl: 34.2%) and 36.7% in agricultural areas (boy: 39.0%, girl: 33.9%): 34.8% of middle school students and 35.4% of high school students. 5) Have you heard that smokers are likely to have a lung cancer? 91.4% of students (boy: 93.2%, girl: 89.9%) answered yes: 90.35% in cities and 94.2% in agricultural areas. 6) Have you heard that the life of smokers gets shorter? 94.3% of students (boy:94.6%, girl: 92.2%) answered yes. 7) Have you heard that pregnant smokers will deliver a baby with low birth weight? 29.6% of students (boy: 29.8%, girl: 29.4%) answered yes: the rates of boys and girls almost the same. 8) Have you heard that one feels calm when one smokes? 80.1% of students (boy: 81.8%, girl: 79.2%) answered yes: boys and girls showed almost the same rate. 3. Preventive measures Smoking people continued to increase all over the world because smoking not only mitigated emotional uneasiness such as loneliness, nervousness and so on, but also could be very helpful from the social perspective. This was so because they did not consider harmful effects of smoking on health, and victims. However, because any -one can have physical disorders caused by smoking, people should always keep in mind the following preventive measures. 1) Doctors or teachers should set an example of giving up smoking. Informing patients or students of harmful effects of smoking to persuade their family and relatives not to smoke. 2) Through mass media like newspapers, periodicals or broadcasting, to make people know harmful effects of smoking and not smoke. 3) To prohibit selling teenagers cigarette by law. 4) To prohibit smoking in public places like work places, offices, lecture rooms, recreation rooms, buses, trains and so on. 5) To decrease the rate of life insurance for non-smokers as in foreign countries and to give a warming of the harmful effects on cigarette packets or ads.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.357-373
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• 1975

This study was conducted to evaluate the winter active polycross progenies of 10 genotypes selected at the hot and dry climate of the Southern Oregon in their performance in the progeny test comparing with a high yielding variety, 'Fawn', and a winter active variety, 'TFM', as the control varieties at Daejon, Korea. Various plant and leaf characteristics, especially which related to photosynthesis, and forage production during the first summer after their establishment, were examined. The important conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The winter active genotypes and variety had less leaf fresh weight and dry weight per leaf than variety 'Fawn'. Variations among polycross progenies of genotypes for these characteristics were great. 2. The winter active genotypes and variety had less leaf area per leaf than variety 'Fawn'. Leaf area among polycross progenies of genotypes deviated greatly and poly cross progenies of 'genotype-16' had the same average leaf area as 'Fawn'. 3. Differences of specific leaf weight (S. L. W.) in the winter active genotypes and variety were not significant. Probably the genetic diversity for S. L. W were not big and were narrowed down already in this genetic population. It was suggested that the photosynthate production within the population might not be different and there might be differences in the photosynthate production-translocation balance. Further study for the diurnal change in S. L. W. within the population might be useful. 4. The winter active variety and genotypes had less leaf width than 'Fawn' does. Leaf width among polycross progenies of genotypes deviated significantly. 5. Differences among controls and polycross progeny group in the initial plant height were significant and variety 'Fawn' was taller than the winter active genotypes and variety. But the differences were not significant in the regrowth of plant height after the first forage harvest. On the contrary. the differences among polycross progenies of genotypes were not significant in the initial plant but the differences in their polycross progeny performance became obvious and great in the regrowth ability which is an improtent agronomic characteristics for forage crops produced in the pasture and for hay and silage. 6. Plant width of the winter active genotypes and variety was lesser than 'Fawn' variety. 7. Differences of tiller number became evident and variety 'Fawn' had higher tiller number than the winter active genotypes and variety after the first forage cutting. There, deviations among polycross progenies of genotypes were great for this characteristic. It was obvious that the genetic differences became more evident in the second measurement after the first cutting of forage probably because this characteristic were stimulated by defoliation in the cartain genotypes and variety. 8. The winter active genotypes and variety on the initial growth. the regrowth ability andtotal yield had lesser forage yield than variety 'Fawn'. Deviation of forage yield among polycross progenies of genotypes were great and gave basis for selection according to their polycross progeny performance improving the forage yield of these winter active tall fescue population during summer. 9. It was concluded that the winter active variety and genotypes in this study was poorer than variety 'Fawn' for the most of leaf and plant characteristics including forage yield. For these measurements, the variations among polycross progenies of genotypes were great. and plant breeding might able to improve further this winter active tall fescue through the polycross progeny testing method for the higher forage production during summer in Korea. 10. The result of the associations among various characteristics under study were quite agreeable with the results of the analysis of variance and woul be useful in the selection of desirable genotypes for the development of a new variety.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.341-356
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• 1975

This study was carried out to evaluate three winter active synthetic varieties in a succeeding generations of improvement and polycross progenies of seven genotypes selected at the cool and wet climate of the Western Oregon, in their performance of the polycross progeny test comparing with a control variety, high yielding 'Fawn', at Daejon, Korea. Various plant and leaf characteristics, especially related to photosynthesis, and forage production during the first summer after the establishment were examined. The important conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The differences of leaf fresh weight among groups and control exhibit genetic differences. The a verage of leaf fresh weight of polycross progeny group was the heaviest and those of winter active synthetic varieties in the succeeding generations of improvement was heavier than variety 'fawn'. Within polycross progeny group the genotypes exhibit genetic differences for leaf dry weight. 2. The leaf area exhibited genetic differences among groups and control. The average of winter active synthetic varieties in a succeeding generation was larger than variety 'Fawn'. Those oi the polycross progeny group was the largest among groups and control. 3. Differences of specific leaf weight(S. L. W.) among and within varieties, genotypes and control were not significant. Further investigation in this respect is necessary through the study of the diurnal change in S. L. W. 4. Differences of leaf width among groups and control exhibited genetic differences. The average leaf width of winter active varieties was larger than those of 'Fawn' variety. And those of polycross progenies of genotypes was the largest. 5. Plant height of 'fawn' variety in the first measurement was higher than those of winter active tall fescue varieties and genotypes. The deviation in plant height among polyeross progenies of seven genotypes gave a great deviation. The regrowth ability of plant height was not different suggesting that this characteristics was about the same among and within groups and control. 6. Plant width, spreading ability, improved through the succeeding generations of the improvement of the winter active synthetic varieties for the first measurement. Differences of plant width at the second measurement among genotypes within polycross progeny group were big enough to show the genetic difference. 7. Tiller number of the winter active synthetic varieties and the average of genotypes in polycross progeny was more than those of the control 'Fawn' in the first measurement. On the second measurement, the differences of tiller number appeared among three synthetic varieties indicating improvement, and there were genetic differences among seven genotypes in polycross progeny test. 8. Forage yield on the first cutting showed a considerble improvement of forage yield in the more advanced generation of synthetic varieties and genetic differences among seven genotypes in the polycross progeny test. The average of polycross progeny group was higher than those of the control or three winter active varieties. It was suggested that we could make a further improvement for the forage yield. 9. The regrowth ability of these winter active varieties and genotypes was about the same capacity at least on the measurement of the regrowth in forage yield and plant height during summer. 10. On the whole, the averages of the polycross progeny group was in the highest value and those of synthetic varieties were higher than the control variety, 'Fawn', for the most characteristics except S. L. W. and the plant height on the first measurement even though the differences were not always significant. And there were genetic differences among seven gentypes in their performance of the polycross progeny. 11. Although it was not always sgnificant, the most advanced winter active variety, '1002', had in the highest value for all plant characteristics and forage yield measurements than the other two varieties, '1001'. 12. The results of the association study among various characteristics were quite agreeable and would be useful in the selection of desirable genotypes for the development of a better variety.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.340-349
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• 2011

This study examined the roles of autolytic enzymes and microorganisms in the ripening process of salted Alaska pollack tripe made with various concentrations of salt i.e, 7.5% and 20% by weight. Salted Alaska pollack tripe treated with antibiotic agents for the inhibition of microbial growth and a control were prepared experimentally, and changes in chemical composition and viable cell counts were investigated, individually, during the ripening process. Just after the preparation of the low salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 7.5% salt, viable bacterial cells occurred at a level of $10^5$ CFU/g. In the control, bacterial counts increased rapidly to $10^7$ CFU/g by the 14th day of ripening. However, in the sample treated with antibiotic agents, counts were decreased to a level of $10^4$ CFU/g by the 3rd day of ripening and increased gradually to $10^6$ CFU/g by the 5th day of ripening, and then the same value was maintained there-after. Just after the preparation of the high salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 20% salt, viable bacterial cells occurred at a level of $10^3$ CFU/g. In both the samples treated with antibiotic agents and the control, bacterial counts decreased rapidly to $10^0$ CFU/g by the 45th day of ripening and increased gradually there-after. The content of amino type nitrogen was 76.3 mg% just after the preparation of the low salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 7.5% salt. Amino type nitrogen content was increased to 283.5 mg% by the 5th day of proper ripening in the control, but it was increased to 208.0 mg% in the sample treated with antibiotic agents. The difference in amino type nitrogen content was 75.5 mg/100 g. The content of amino type nitrogen was 57.2 mg% just after the preparation of the high salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 20% salt. Amino type nitrogen content was increased to 198.3 mg by the 60th day of proper ripening in the control, but it was increased to 162.0 mg% in the sample treated with the antibiotic agents. The difference in amino type nitrogen content was 36.3 mg/100 g. The contents of VBN and TMA-N were 102.1 mg% and 20.5 mg%, respectively, at the 7th day of ripening in the low salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 7.5% salt. The content of VBN was 60.0 mg% and TMA-N was not detected at the 21st day of ripening in the sample treated with antibiotic agents. The control sample was spoiled by the 7th day of ripening but the sample treated with antibiotic agents was not spoiled by the 21st day of ripening. On the other hand, VBN content was 37.2 mg% and TMA-N was not detected at the 90th day of ripening in the high salt Alaska pollack tripe made with 20% salt, and the control sample was not spoiled.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.109-134
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• 2014

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation of assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights (Regulation No 261/2004) provides extra protection to air passengers in circumstances of denied boarding, cancellation and long-delay. The Regulation intends to provide a high level of protection to air passengers by imposing obligations on air carriers and, at the same time, offering extensive rights to air passengers. If denied boarding, cancellation and long-delay are caused by reasons other than extraordinary circumstances, passengers are entitled for compensation under Article 7 of Regulation No 261/2004. In Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane SpA(Case C-549/07, [2008] ECR I-11061), the Court did, however, emphasize that this does not mean that it is never possible for technical problems to constitute extraordinary circumstances. It cited specific examples of where: an aircraft manufacturer or competent authority revealed that there was a hidden manufacturing defect on an aircraft which impacts on safety; or damage was caused to an aircraft as a result of an act of sabotage or terrorism. Such events are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and is beyond the actual control of that carrier on account of its nature or origin. One further point arising out of the court's decision is worth mentioning. It is not just necessary to satisfy the extraordinary circumstances test for the airline to be excused from paying compensation. It must also show that the circumstances could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. It is clear from the language of the Court's decision that this is a tough test to meet: the airline will have to establish that, even if it had deployed all its resources in terms of staff or equipment and the financial means at its disposal, it would clearly not have been able - unless it had made intolerable sacrifices in the light of the capacities of its undertaking at the relevant time - to prevent the extraordinary circumstances with which it was confronted from leading to the cancellation of the flight.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-177
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• 2014

Corporate credit rating assessment consists of complicated processes in which various factors describing a company are taken into consideration. Such assessment is known to be very expensive since domain experts should be employed to assess the ratings. As a result, the data-driven corporate credit rating prediction using statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques has received considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. In particular, statistical methods such as multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) and multinomial logistic regression analysis (MLOGIT), and AI methods including case-based reasoning (CBR), artificial neural network (ANN), and multiclass support vector machine (MSVM) have been applied to corporate credit rating.2) Among them, MSVM has recently become popular because of its robustness and high prediction accuracy. In this study, we propose a novel optimized MSVM model, and appy it to corporate credit rating prediction in order to enhance the accuracy. Our model, named 'GAMSVM (Genetic Algorithm-optimized Multiclass Support Vector Machine),' is designed to simultaneously optimize the kernel parameters and the feature subset selection. Prior studies like Lorena and de Carvalho (2008), and Chatterjee (2013) show that proper kernel parameters may improve the performance of MSVMs. Also, the results from the studies such as Shieh and Yang (2008) and Chatterjee (2013) imply that appropriate feature selection may lead to higher prediction accuracy. Based on these prior studies, we propose to apply GAMSVM to corporate credit rating prediction. As a tool for optimizing the kernel parameters and the feature subset selection, we suggest genetic algorithm (GA). GA is known as an efficient and effective search method that attempts to simulate the biological evolution phenomenon. By applying genetic operations such as selection, crossover, and mutation, it is designed to gradually improve the search results. Especially, mutation operator prevents GA from falling into the local optima, thus we can find the globally optimal or near-optimal solution using it. GA has popularly been applied to search optimal parameters or feature subset selections of AI techniques including MSVM. With these reasons, we also adopt GA as an optimization tool. To empirically validate the usefulness of GAMSVM, we applied it to a real-world case of credit rating in Korea. Our application is in bond rating, which is the most frequently studied area of credit rating for specific debt issues or other financial obligations. The experimental dataset was collected from a large credit rating company in South Korea. It contained 39 financial ratios of 1,295 companies in the manufacturing industry, and their credit ratings. Using various statistical methods including the one-way ANOVA and the stepwise MDA, we selected 14 financial ratios as the candidate independent variables. The dependent variable, i.e. credit rating, was labeled as four classes: 1(A1); 2(A2); 3(A3); 4(B and C). 80 percent of total data for each class was used for training, and remaining 20 percent was used for validation. And, to overcome small sample size, we applied five-fold cross validation to our dataset. In order to examine the competitiveness of the proposed model, we also experimented several comparative models including MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, ANN and MSVM. In case of MSVM, we adopted One-Against-One (OAO) and DAGSVM (Directed Acyclic Graph SVM) approaches because they are known to be the most accurate approaches among various MSVM approaches. GAMSVM was implemented using LIBSVM-an open-source software, and Evolver 5.5-a commercial software enables GA. Other comparative models were experimented using various statistical and AI packages such as SPSS for Windows, Neuroshell, and Microsoft Excel VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Experimental results showed that the proposed model-GAMSVM-outperformed all the competitive models. In addition, the model was found to use less independent variables, but to show higher accuracy. In our experiments, five variables such as X7 (total debt), X9 (sales per employee), X13 (years after founded), X15 (accumulated earning to total asset), and X39 (the index related to the cash flows from operating activity) were found to be the most important factors in predicting the corporate credit ratings. However, the values of the finally selected kernel parameters were found to be almost same among the data subsets. To examine whether the predictive performance of GAMSVM was significantly greater than those of other models, we used the McNemar test. As a result, we found that GAMSVM was better than MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, and ANN at the 1% significance level, and better than OAO and DAGSVM at the 5% significance level.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.297-308
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• 1985

Differences in lipid composition including fatty acid, lipid class, sterol and especially carotenoid between fleshes of wild and cultured prawn, Penaeus japonicus, were studied. Total lipids were extracted from the flesh during the spawning period and fractionated into two lipid classes of polar and nonpolar lipids by silicic acid column chromatography. The fatty acid composition of each lipid classes, total lipid (TL), nonpolar lipid (NL) and polar lipid (PL) were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography. The sterol and carotenoid composition of total lipids were determined by using thin layer chromatography, gas liquid chromatography and column chromatography using MgO-celite 545 and silicic acid-celite 545 as an absorbent, and by UV spectrophotometry. Total lipid contents of both fleshes from the wild and cultured prawn were about $2.0\%$ on average, but the content of the unsaponifiable matters in the cultured prawn (about $16.2\%$ in total lipid) showed a little higher than that of the wild prawn (about $13.9\%$ in total lipid) and the ratio of NL to PL in total lipid was 1:1.7. In the fatty acid composition of TL, the contents of $Cl_{16:0}\;and\;C_{20:3}$ fatty acids were higher in wild prawn than in cultured prawn, while the contents of $Cl_{18:1}\;and\;C_{20:5}$ fatty acids in cultured prawn were higher than those in wild prawn. The cultured prawn contained higher amounts of monoenoic acids and lower amounts of polyenoic acids than the wild prawn. In the fatty acid composition of NL, the wild prawn showed higher levels in $Cl_{18:0}\;and\;C_{20:1}$ fatty acid contents than the cultured prawn, while the cultured prawn contained much amout of $Cl_{16:0}\;and\;C_{18:1}$ fatty acids. On the other hand, the fatty acid composition of PL showed that $Cl_{16:1}\;and\;C_{17:1}$ fatty acid were higher in the wild prawn than in the cultured prawn, but in $Cl_{16:0}\;and\;C_{18:1}$ fatty acids, the levels were reversed. Consequently, the cultured prawn contained higher amount of monoenoic acids, and similar amounts of saturated acids and polyenoic acids to the wild prawn in NL. And the cultured prawn contained lower amount of monoenoic acids, and similar amounts of saturated acids and polyenoic acids to the wild prawn in PL. In sterol composition of both the wild and cultured prawn, the predominant sterol was cholesterol with the proportion of $78.7{\sim}88.9\%$ to the total sterol. In addition to the cholesterol, the other minor sterols such as 24-methylene cholesterol and sitosterol were detected. Total carotenoid content in flesh of the wild prawn was relatively higher than that of the cultured prawn marking 70 mg/100g of lipid in wild prawn and 40 mg/100 g of lipid in cultured prawn, respectively. The main carotenoids of the both prawns were astaxanthin($54.1{\sim}60.8%$), phoenicoxanthin ($16.5{sim}22.9%$),${\bata}-carotene\;(20.0{\sim}22.0%)$.