• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.65-77
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• 2017

Recently, many Korean major construction companies are suffering from profit loss mainly due to a direct impact from delays in their overseas projects. In general, changes are inevitable in a large-scale project, and most of changes are directly linked to construction delay. Therefore, in the event that an extension of time is necessary due to a change, the contractor must manage the delay based on the condition of the contract to effectively manage risks from delay to the completion date. Thus it is important to understand delay protocol defined in the condition of the contract early in the project, but there have been few or no study to propose methodology or tool to support this effort. This paper presents a review on the project planning and controling practices of major Korean construction companies along with the issues on delay claims and disputes in mega-international projects and suggests a tool to assess delay risk in the condition of the contract. To propose a delay risk assessment model for international construction projects, major standard conditions of contract have been reviewed including FIDIC Red Book(1999), PSSCOC(2014) and SIA 9th Edition(2010). To reflect recent trend of major international owners, standard conditions which they are utilizing for their projects also have been reviewed including those of ARAMCO and QP. The model provides a categories of risks to be reviewed on the condition of the contract along with standard level of the risk which is common in the international standard form of the contracts. This study also performed a case study on an actual international project to confirm the effectiveness of proposed model to identify and respond to a delay risk of a project.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.187-196
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• 2010

Recently, people have been suffering from stress-related fatigue and psychological disorders. Most people depend on medicine for pain relief; many treat pain also through alternative medicine or replacement therapy. However, drug therapy has many side effects, including increased stress after the therapy. In comparison, alternative therapies such as massage and foot reflexology are less damaging to the body, and such therapies can be provided without physical or psychological discomfort. In this regard, the author had previously co-developed color foot reflexology, which combines the merits of color therapy and foot reflexology; color foot reflexology has been shown to have beneficial effects without undue pain. This study investigates the effects of color foot reflexology on the physiological response of the body by comparing the body’s response to the signal with that to the placebo. Healthy adult subjects were selected for the experiment, which was conducted under optimal experimental conditions and design. The results indicated that when stimulated, parasympathetic nerves increased in HRV and that blood pressure, pulse, body heat, peripheral blood flow were dramatically activated. However, the results for the placebo indicated minimal changes or irregular outcomes. The results provide strong evidence for the beneficial effects of the color foot reflexology instrument on the autonomic nervous system and on the physiological response of the body. Future research is warranted to verify the results of the current study by examining patients suffering from diseases and disorders arising from irregular physiological functions in the context of the foot.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.373-383
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• 2022

Inflammation caused by active oxygen and the resulting barrier damage have been consistently pointed out as the cause of wrinkle formation. In this study, effective index ingredient search and efficacy analysis were performed to verify the value of use as a functional cosmetic material related to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and skin barrier improvement, and anti-aging for extracts of four types of Eleutherococcus divaricatus var. chiisanensis (ED), Eleutherococcus senticosus (EN), Eleutherococcus sessiliflorus (ES), and Eleutherococcus sieboldianus (EI) belonging to the Eleutherococcus genus. To identify the effective index composition, the content of the ingredients was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The content of eleutheroside E and chlorogenic acid was the highest in ED among the Eleutherococcus genus. As for anti-oxidant activity, DPPH radical scavenging activity was the highest in ED. In anti-inflammatory effects, ED extracts inhibited nitric oxide generation in inflammatory macrophage cells due to lipopolysaccharide by 40% at 100 ㎍/mL. In the case of IL-6 inhibition, which is known as a pro-inflammatory cytokine, ED showed 41% inhibition at 100 ㎍/mL. In addition, filaggrin and involucrin, which are skin barrier-related factors, were increased by 2.5 times and 1.6 times, respectively, in 100 ㎍/mL of ED extracts, and as for the collagenase, which is a wrinkle-related factor, ED extract showed 29% efficacy at 100 ㎍/mL. Thus, these result suggested that ED extract, among the four Eleutherococcus genus, can be used as a cosmetic ingredient for suppressing inflammation in the skin, reinforcing the skin barrier, and reducing wrinkles.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.330-336
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• 2013

Rheum tanguticum has long been used in oriental medicine as antipyretics, analgesics, anti-inflammation, aperient, hypertension medicine and medicine for skin disease. This study has investigated the effectiveness of defense for gastritis making use of Rheum tanguticum and its similar plants, Rumex cripus, Rheum officinale, Rhem palmatum and Rheum undulatum. Chysophanol, chrysophanol-8-O-glc, Desoxyrhaponticin desoxyrhaponti-genin, emodin, isorhaponticin, 2-methoxy-4-hydroxyanthraquinone-5-O-glc, physcion, pirace-tannol-3'-O-glc, resveratrol, rhaponticin and rhapontigenin are used as the components of Rheum tanguticum. In HCl ethanol-induced gastritis in rat, the most effective extract was 70 percent ethanol which is of Rheum tanguticum, showing the inhibition of 91.8 percent to the gastric lesions. 70% ethanol extract of Rhem palmatum and Rumex cripus shown inhibition of 75.6 percent and 73.2 percent, respectively. This effectiveness is considered as acid-neutralizing capacity, anti-H.pylori and anti-oxidant activity. 70% ethanol extract of Rheum tanguticum and its component, piracetannol-3'-O-glc exhibited higher free radical scavenging activity than others. These results suggest that Rheum species extracts and their active components could be utilized for the treatment of gastritis. Furthermore, these results are expected to contribute the standardization with objectivity and reliability for Rheum species, medicinal herbs. In addition, it can contribute to the prevention of indiscriminate distribution of imitation, and the rising rate of dependence on imports of medicinal herbs, and mixing prevention of low-quality goods.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.75-91
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• 2024

Recently, global business environment is changing dramatically along with the acceleration of technological innovation amid the war, climatic change, and geopolitical instability. Accordingly, it is difficult to predict or plan for the future as the volatility, complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty of the industrial ecosystem continue to increase. Therefore, organizations are undergoing inevitable restructuring in accordance with their survival strategy, for instance, removing marginal businesses or firing. Accordingly, office workers are seeking a startup as an alternative for their continuous economic activity amid rising anxiety factors that make them think they would lose their jobs unintentionally. Here, this study is aimed to verify through what paths office workers' self-determination influences the process of converting to a startup. For this study, an online survey was carried out, and 310 respondents' valid data were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. To sum up the results, first, office workers' self-determination did not have significant effects on entrepreneurial intention. However, it was confirmed that self-determination had positive (+) effects on innovativeness and perception of the startup support system. This result shows that their psychology works to prepare step by step by accumulating innovative experiences and increasing perception of the startup support system from a long-term life path perspective rather than challenging startups right way. Second, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. Also, perception of the startup support system had positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. This implies that when considering startups, they are highly aware of the government's various startup support systems. Third, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on perception of the startup support system. It is judged that perception of the startup support system is valid for prospective founders to exhibit their innovativeness and realize new ideas. Fourth, it was confirmed that innovativeness and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between self-determination and entrepreneurial intention, and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention, which shows that it is a crucial factor in entrepreneurial intention. Although previous studies related to startups deal with students mostly, this study targets office workers who form a great part in economic activities, which makes it academically valuable in terms of being differentiated from others and extending the scope of research. Also, when we consider the fact that the motivation for self-determination alone fails to stimulate entrepreneurial intention and the complete mediation of innovativeness and the startup support system, it has great implications in practical aspects such as the government's human and material support systems. In the selection and analysis of samples, this study exhibits a limitation that the problem of common method bias is not completely resolved. Also, additional definitive research is needed on whether entrepreneurial intention is formed and converted into startup behavior. Academically and practically, this study deals with the relationship between humans' psychological motives and startups which has not been handled sufficiently in previous studies. The conversion of office workers to startups is expected to have effects on individuals' economic stability and the state's job creation; therefore, it needs to be investigated continuously for its great value.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.337-347
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• 2007

An embedded system is called a multi-mode embedded system if it performs multiple applications by dynamically reconfiguring the system functionality. Further, the embedded system is called a multi-mode multi-task embedded system if it additionally supports multiple tasks to be executed in a mode. In this Paper, we address a HW/SW partitioning problem, that is, HW/SW partitioning of multi-mode multi-task embedded applications with timing constraints of tasks. The objective of the optimization problem is to find a minimal total system cost of allocation/mapping of processing resources to functional modules in tasks together with a schedule that satisfies the timing constraints. The key success of solving the problem is closely related to the degree of the amount of utilization of the potential parallelism among the executions of modules. However, due to an inherently excessively large search space of the parallelism, and to make the task of schedulabilty analysis easy, the prior HW/SW partitioning methods have not been able to fully exploit the potential parallel execution of modules. To overcome the limitation, we propose a set of comprehensive HW/SW partitioning techniques which solve the three subproblems of the partitioning problem simultaneously: (1) allocation of processing resources, (2) mapping the processing resources to the modules in tasks, and (3) determining an execution schedule of modules. Specifically, based on a precise measurement on the parallel execution and schedulability of modules, we develop a stepwise refinement partitioning technique for single-mode multi-task applications. The proposed techniques is then extended to solve the HW/SW partitioning problem of multi-mode multi-task applications. From experiments with a set of real-life applications, it is shown that the proposed techniques are able to reduce the implementation cost by 19.0% and 17.0% for single- and multi-mode multi-task applications over that by the conventional method, respectively.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.3-30
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• 2012

In the development process, small and medium-sized enterprises in China have shown their unique features and regularities which are closely related to China's national condition and economic characteristics. But in 2008, because of the global financial crisis which started in the USA, the rate of Chinese export and the rate of economic growth has evidently slowed. Due to shortage of funds, foreign orders fell, increase the value of RMB, lack of talented factors, Chinese SMEs are facing bankruptcy. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of domestic and international market environment, the government assistance for entering overseas market, entrepreneur characteristics, etc. on the global performance. Based on these, a research model and some hypotheses were set up and tested by the multiple regression analysis with total 317 effective survey data. The results of this paper are as follows. First, a positive effect relation on the financial performance was shown for the companies with high domestic and international market environment in the aspect of market environment. According to such analysis result, it was found that the market environment in which SMEs belong to is a very important factor. Second, in the aspect of government export assistance related to overseas, market development showed a positive effect relation on the both financial and non-financial performance. However, the direct financial assistance showed a positive effect relation only on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the government assistance program on entering overseas market is having significant effects on SMEs, but direct financial assistance have not achieved the desired results. Third, the innovative-ness and progressiveness of entrepreneur showed a positive effect relation on the global market performance. However, the risk-taking of entrepreneur only showed a negative effect relation on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the entrepreneurship of SMEs is an important and influential factor. This is a result implying that the propensity of taking too much risk is not desirable based on the uncertainty of the global environment market. To sum up, this study confirmed that the market environment, the government assistance and entrepreneur characteristics, which are the major prerequisites of global performance, have effects on global performance.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.21-47
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• 2013

The aim is to analysis landslide vulnerability in Inje, Korea, using GCI(Geospatial Correlative Integration) and probability rainfalls based on geographic information system (GIS). In order to achieve this goal, identified indicators influencing landslides based on literature review. We include indicators of exposure to climate(rainfall probability), sensitivity(slope, aspect, curvature, geology, topography, soil drainage, soil material, soil thickness and soil texture) and adaptive capacity(timber diameter, timber type, timber density and timber age). All data were collected, processed, and compiled in a spatial database using GIS. Karisan-ri that had experienced 470 landslides by Typhoon Ewinia in 2006 was selected for analysis and verification. The 50% of landslide data were randomly selected to use as training data, while the other 50% being used for verification. The probability of landslides for target years (1 year, 3 years, 10 years, 50 years, and 100 years) was calculated assuming that landslides are triggered by 3-day cumulative rainfalls of 449 mm. Results show that number of slope has comparatively strong influence on landslide damage. And inclination of $25{\sim}30^{\circ}C$, the highest correlation landslide. Improved previous landslide vulnerability methodology by adopting GCI. Also, vulnerability map provides meaningful information for decision makers regarding priority areas for implementing landslide mitigation policies.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.486-492
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• 2007

Seminal plasma(SP) is usually removed from semen that is to be cryopreserved. However, some reports indicate that SP has beneficial effects on spermatozoa during chilling and freezing. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of SP on sperm survival by adding SP to the extender before cooling and freezing canine spermatozoa. In replicate experiments, ejaculates obtained from four healthy dogs(1-4 years old) of various breeds were pooled, centrifuged at $300{\times}g$ for 10 min at $25^{\circ}C$, and the supernatant of seminal plasma was decanted. Spermatozoa were suspended in egg yolk-Tris(EYT) buffer. The study comprised two experiments: [Exp 1] Sperm were suspended in EYT extender containing either 0, 20, 40, 80 or 100% SP and were slowly cooled to $4^{\circ}C$ for 2h or held at $25^{\circ}C$ as controls. Sperm concentration was adjusted to $2{\times}10^8/ml$. [Exp II] Sperm samples, each of which contained $1{\times}10^8/ml$, were assigned to nine groups to be frozen. In the first four groups, sperm in EYT containing either 20, 40, 80 or 100% SP were cooled to $4^{\circ}C$, then diluted to contain final concentrations of EYT+0.6M glycerol and then were frozen. The final concentrations of SP were 10, 20, 40 or 50%. In the other four groups, sperm in EYT alone were first cooled slowly to $4^{\circ}C$, then diluted to contain final concentrations of EYT+0.6M glycerol plus 10, 20, 40 or 50% SP and then were frozen. Spermatozoa, which chilled in EYT alone and diluted to contain final concentrations of EYT+0.6M glycerol without seminal plasma, and then frozen, was regarded as control. Spermatozoa were frozen at $25^{\circ}C/min$ of cooling rate in plastic straws that were suspended above liquid nitrogen and thawed in water at $38^{\circ}C$ for 1 min. Sperm survival was assayed by determining progressive motility and integrity of plasma and acrosome membranes. Progressive motility was determined by microscopic examination at $200{\times}$ magnification. Membrane integrity was assessed by use of a double fluorescent dye, and acrosome integrity by staining sperm with Pisum sativum agglutinin. The results of the first experiment showed that adding SP did not improve motility of spermatozoa compared to those incubated without SP regardless of temperature. The results of the second experiment showed that spermatozoa suspended in EYT+0.6M glycerol containing SP exhibited the higher progressive motility before being frozen(P<0.05). However, frozen-thawed spermatozoa that had suspended in EYT+0.6M glycerol containing SP showed the similar or lower viability(P<0.05). In summary, although seminal plasma did not affect spermatozoa that were chilled in EYT without cryoprotectant(CPA), addition of seminal plasma to EYT containing CPA did significantly improved progressive motility of canine spermatozoa that were chilled.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.23-52
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• 2015

Purpose This study aims to understand the role of digital knowledge in accepting the green technology. This study combined digital option theory with the second version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). Contrary to other studies in which the UTAUT2 is used to explain IT adoption behavior, we look at the relationship between IT and the UTAUT2 from a new angle, incorporating an important aspect of IT, that is, digitized knowledge richness, as a determinant of the UTAUT2. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in the UTAUT2, a content analysis was conducted to investigate novel constructs dedicated to explaining green technology adoption. In this study, an amended version of the UTAUT2 specific to green technology is offered that better explains the green technology adoption behavior of consumers. Using the items identified by content analysis, we developed a questionnaire with 36 survey items. We measured all the items on a seven-point Likert-type scale. We randomly selected 402 survey respondents from a set of panel data. After a pilot study, we analyzed the main survey data by using PLS 2.0M3 and SPSS 20.0, and employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. Findings The results suggest that the UTAUT2 was found to be extendable to technologies other than conventional IT. Social influence is more significant than conventional utilitarian and hedonic-based constructs such as those utilized in the UTAUT and UTAUT2 in explaining adoption behavior in the context of green technologies. The hypothesized connection between digitized knowledge richness and adoption intention was supported by the results of studies on the role of IT in formation of attitudes toward eco-friendly production. The results also indicate that digital knowledge can also encourage people to try green technology when they learn that their peers are already using the technology successfully.