• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.1 s.93
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• pp.9-19
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• 2001

contrasting monsoon between 1993 and 1994 produced an interannual difference in hydrology. Theoretical water residence time (TWRT) in monsoon 1993 averaged 27 d, which was>3 months shorter compared to the TWRT in monsoon 1994. A dominant physical process influencing thermal stratification, water movement, and mixing regime was an interflow current in 1993. During summer 1993, river water plunged to mid-lake (location 27 km) and passed through the 10${\sim}$20m stratum of the reservoir, resulting in an isolation of epilimnetic lake water from advected river water. The interflow disrupted thermal stratification and produced a meta-hypolimnetic warming of >4$^{\circ}C$ downlake, thereby increased a mixing depth (>13 m). In contrast, during monsoon 1994 density currents were not observed and strong thermal stratification occurred in the entire reservoir, resulting in > 2 fold greater thermal resistance (8.2${\times}10^{5}$ erg)compared to 1993 (4.0${\times}10^{5}$ erg). This reservoir was identified as a typical warm monomictic reservoir which showed one mixis during early winter. The timing of overturn, however, differed between the two years as a result of distinct contrast in TWRT and thermal regime; overturn in 1993 occured about one month earlier relative to that in 1994. Hypolimnetic warming was predictable in this system; the variation in discharge accounted (Y = 4.35-0.06X+0.10X$^{2}$, p<0.0001)for 98% of the interannual variation in hypolimnetic temperature. Overall data suggest that thermal stability, the timing of fall overturn, and water residence time in this system are primarily regulated by the intensity of monsoon.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of object size and reaching distance on kinematic factors of the upper limb while performing arm reaching for normal subjects. Methods : The subjects of this study were 30 university students who were in D university in Busan, and the measuring tool was CMS-70P(Zebris Medizintechnik Gmbh, Germany), a three-dimensional motion analyzer. The task had six conditions. The average velocity of motion, average acceleration, maximum velocity, and the velocity definite number of movements were measured according to changes in object size(2cm, 10cm) and reaching distance(15%, 37.5%, 60%) when they performed arm reaching. The general characteristics of the subject were technical statistics. One-way ANOVA measurement was used to compare variables when the arm reaching task was performed from two object sizes to three reaching distance, and the post-test was conducted with Tukey test. In addition, an independent t-test was used to analyze the kinematic differences according to the two object sizes at three reaching distances. A two-way ANOVA measurement (3×2 Two-way ANOVA measurement) was performed to identify the interaction of the reaching distance(15%, 37.5%, 60%) and the object size(2cm, 10cm). The statistical significance level α was set to .05. Results : When the size of the object increased, the velocity and maximum velocity also increased, but the definite number of velocity decreased. When the reaching distance increased, the velocity and maximum velocity increased, whereas the definite number of velocity decreased. Conclusion : The clinical significance of this study could be utilized as the baseline data for grading object size and reaching distances when the reaching training is implemented for patients whose central nervous system was damaged.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2006

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of attenuation correction (AC) and scatter correction (SC) on the quantification of PET count rates. Materials and Methods: To assess the effects of AC and SC $^{18}F$-FDG PET images of phantom and cat brain were acquired using microPET R4 scanner. Thirty-minute transmission images using $^{68}Ge$ source and emission images after injection of FDG were acquired. PET images were reconstructed using 2D OSEM. AC and SC were applied. Regional count rates were measured using ROIs drawn on cerebral cortex including frontal, parietal, and latral temporal lobes and deep gray matter including head of caudate nucleus, putamen and thalamus for pre- and post-AC and SC images. The count rates were then normalized with the injected dose per body weight. To assess the effects of AC, count ratio of "deep gray matter/cerebral cortex" was calculated. To assess the effects of SC, ROIs were also drawn on the gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM), and contrast between them ((GM-WM)/GM was measured. Results: After the AC, count ratio of "deep gray matter/cerebral cortex" was increased by $17{\pm}7%$. After the SC, contrast was also increased by $12{\pm}3%$. Conclusion: Relative count of deep gray matter and contrast between gray and white matters were increased after AC and SC, suggesting that the AC would be critical for the quantitative analysis of cat brain PET data.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.427-436
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• 2004

The current study was conducted to determine the effect of suspension method on satisfaction level of Korean consumers and objective meat quality traits in Hanwoo longissimus dorsi(LD), triceps brachii(TB) and semimembranosus(SM) muscles. Eighteen Hanwoo steers were slaughtered and alternative sides were hung either by pelvic bone(TS) or Achilles tendon(Al). Sensory characteristics, WB-shear force, sarcomere length, water-holding capacity, saroomere length and cooking loss were determined after a 7-d chiller ageing. Higher carcass quality grade received significantly(p < 0.05) greater eating quality for LD, but the grade did not affect eating quality for both TB and SM. TS did not influence objective and subjective meat quality for TB, but that significantly(P < 0.05) improved eating quality for LD and SM. The most noticeable result was that when SM was tenderstretehed, eating quality was equivalent to that of nonna1ly hung LD. In relationship between objective and subjective meat quality assessments, eating qualty for LD had a significant(P < 0.05) relationship with intramuscular fat content, while that for SM was greatly(P < 0.05) related to saroomere length. The current study indicated that pelvic hanging was an effective way to improve eating quality both LD and SM, and carcass quality grades did not greatly reflect eating quality of SM and TB. The data also implied that instnunental measurements poorly estimated the satisfaction level of Korean conswners.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2010

This paper presents the occurrence and damage characteristics of the rice leaf-folder populations in the paddy fields of Dangsu-dong, Suwon from 2004 to 2007, and also reports the insecticide response of rice leaf-folder populations, which were collected from 2005 to 2006 in Korea and Vietnam. Laboratory measurements of the head capsule width and body length data enabled the identification of the rice leaf-folder larva stages collected in the field. The rice leaf-folder population in Suwon from 2004 to 2007 has a clear pattern consisting of two different group: the low and high density years. During the low density years (2004 and 2006), only one adult peak was noted in late August, with the damaged-hill percent less than 10% in late July, and the damaged-leaf percent around 2% in September. In contrast, during the high density years (2005 and 2007), two adult peaks were noted in early August and mid-September, with the damaged-hill percent was around 30% in late July, and the damaged-leaf percent 15 to 30% in September, which was beyond the economic injury level of rice leaf-folder. High correlations existed between the occurrence of rice leaf-folder in late July and early August and damages to rice during September. Based on these results, we suggest that the information on the rice leaf-folder population monitored by the adult density or damaged-hill percent in late July and early August would be very useful for predicting the damages later in the season for aiding in decision-making for timely control. In addition, the regional populations of rice leaf-folder showed the similar responses to the insecticides tested: high susceptibility to IGRs (tebufenozide and methoxyfenozide) and organophosphates (chlorpyrifos-methyl, pyridaphenthion), but relatively low to cartap.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.316-326
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• 1999

Purpose: We evaluated the feasibility of extracting pure left ventricular blood pool and myocardial time-activity curves (TACs) and of generating factor images from human dynamic N-13 ammonia PET using factor analysis. The myocardial blood flow (MBF) estimates obtained with factor analysis were compared with those obtained with the user drawn region-of-interest (ROI) method. Materials and Methods: Stress and rest N-13 ammonia cardiac PET imaging was acquired for 23 min in 5 patients with coronary artery disease using GE Advance tomograph. Factor analysis generated physiological TACs and factor images using the normalized TACs from each dixel. Four steps were involved in this algorithm: (a) data preprocessing; (b) principal component analysis; (c) oblique rotation with positivity constraints; (d) factor image computation. Area under curves and MBF estimated using the two compartment N-13 ammonia model were used to validate the accuracy of the factor analysis generated physiological TACs. The MBF estimated by factor analysis was compared to the values estimated by using the ROI method. Results: MBF values obtained by factor analysis were linearly correlated with MBF obtained by the ROI method (slope = 0.84, r = 0.91), Left ventricular blood pool TACs obtained by the two methods agreed well (Area under curve ratio: 1.02 ($0{\sim}1min$), 0.98 ($0{\sim}2min$), 0.86 ($1{\sim}2min$)). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrates that MBF can be measured accurately and noninvasively with dynamic N-13 ammonia PET imaging and factor analysis. This method is simple and accurate, and can measure MBF without blood sampling, ROI definition or spillover correction.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.33-44
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters and trend of Landrace and Yorkshire pigs, which were raised on private farms from 1999 to 2005 and tested for their reproductive performance by the Korea Animal Improvement Association. Prior to analysis, records without pedigree or having value with larger than±3×standard deviation for the Total number of born were excluded. The effects of breed and environmental factors were estimated with least square method(Harvey, 1979), and estimation of breeding values and genetic parameters were performed on the data of 1’st litter only with GIBBSF90(Misztal, 2001) which was programmed according to Gibbs Sampling method based on Bayesian Inference by Gianola and Fernando(1986), Jensen(1994) and others. Gibbs sampling was performed 50,000 times for each parameter, and the first 5000 samples were regarded as those in burn-in period and thus, excluded for post hoc analysis. Total number of born and total number of accident were statistically significant(p<0.01) for the breed, farrowing year, farrowing season and parity effects, and the number born alive at birth was statistically significantp<(0.01) for the breed, farrowing year, farrowing season and parity effects. No particular trend was observed in the genetic and phenotypic improvement of the total number of born and number born alive at birth before 2001, when the piglet registration system started, but the tendencies of increasing for the total number of born and number born alive and decreasing for the total number of accident were observed since 2001. Somewhat higher heritability estimates of our study seems to be attributed to the situations that first parity records with poor farrowing performances were used in the analyses and it was impossible to obtain accurate reproductive performance due to the absence of criteria for record keeping at the level of individual farms.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.128-135
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• 1989

To find the effects of solar energy into the rice canopy and its balance on the rice plant growth, a Tongil type rice, Raekyeong and a japonica rice, Koganebare were used with four levels of nitrogen fertilizer application, 6, 10, 14, and 18kg $l0a^{-1}$ in Chigugo, Japan. The micrometerosological data, the solar radiation and absorbed solar radiation by the rice plants, and leaf area index on cardinal growth stage of the rice community were measured. The results are as follows : Raekyeong showed increased LAI by increased nitrogen fertilizer application rates, and larger LAI than Koganebear. 1. There was no difference in total dry weight till 20 days after transplanting regardless of nitrogen levels in the same variety, after that, however, Raekyeong showed higher dry matter productions for the same durations than Koganebare. 2. In early growth stage of transplanting rice, reflection ratio of solar radiation above the crop canogy was about 6%, however, it was increased up to 20% by the increased LAI at heading date. 3. In high levels of nitrogen application plots, LAI were increased so that values were decreased. 4. Relationship between the amount of absorbed radiation by plants and its dry matter production was linearly significant. Higher levels of nitrogen application produced higher dry matter in Raekyeong, however, in lower level, the dry matter production pattern was almost similar between both rice cultivars.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.131-138
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• 2000

We compared the study of refractive error of the eyes done in 1998 with that reported three years ago at any high school in the north Kyungki. From the these data, the distribution of ammetropia was investigated. The study of refractive error for high school students was also compared with those reported before for the Adults and the middle school student. When the refractive error is refered to spherical equivalent, the 40.6% of the whole students examined above had emmetropia and the other part of them(59.4%) turned out to be ammetropia which is classified to 46.4% belonged to myopia and 13.0% belonged to hyperpia. The ratio of emmetropia for the students in 1998 is 4.4% lower, and the ratio of hyperopia is 4.3% lower, but the ratio of myopia for the students in 1998 is 8.7% higher than that for the student in 1995. In the kind of refracive error, it is classified that a simple myopia is shown to highest ratio as a 23.6% of 6143 eyes examined, a compound myopic astigmatism to the next high ratio as a 17.4%, a simple myopic astigmatism as 10.9%, a simple hyperopic astigmatism as 9.8%, a simple astigmatism as 7.1%, a compound hyperopic astigmatism as 2.2%, a mixed astigmatism as a 1.8%, respectively. The percentage of an astigmatism is a 69.6% of total eyes examined if Cyl-0.25 Dptr is included to an astigmatism. On the other hand. The percentage of an astigmatism is a 45.0% of total eyes examined if Cyl-0.25 Dptr is excluded to an astigmatism. In the kind of astigmatism, the number of students had an astigmatism with the rule is about 5.6 times than that of astigmatism against the rule. From the result of comparison the right eye with the left eye, the right eye of the students had more a myopic refractive error than the left eye, which is same as adults' case.