• Title/Summary/Keyword: Accuracy Statistics

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Predicting the Goshawk's habitat area using Species Distribution Modeling: Case Study area Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea (종분포모형을 이용한 참매의 서식지 예측 -충청북도를 대상으로-)

  • Cho, Hae-Jin;Kim, Dal-Ho;Shin, Man-Seok;Kang, Tehan;Lee, Myungwoo
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.333-343
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    • 2015
  • This research aims at identifying the goshawk's possible and replaceable breeding ground by using the MaxEnt prediction model which has so far been insufficiently used in Korea, and providing evidence to expand possible protection areas for the goshawk's breeding for the future. The field research identified 10 goshawk's nests, and 23 appearance points confirmed during the 3rd round of environmental research were used for analysis. 4 geomorphic, 3 environmental, 7 distance, and 9 weather factors were used as model variables. The final environmental variables were selected through non-parametric verification between appearance and non-appearance coordinates identified by random sampling. The final predictive model (MaxEnt) was structured using 10 factors related to breeding ground and 7 factors related to appearance area selected by statistics verification. According to the results of the study, the factor that affected breeding point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from mixforest, density-class on the forest map and relief energy. The factor that affected appearance point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from rivers and ponds, distance from agricultural land and gradient. The nature of the goshawk's breeding environment and habit to breed inside forests were reflected in this modeling that targets breeding points. The northern central area which is about $189.5 km^2$(2.55 %) is expected to be suitable breeding ground. Large cities such as Cheongju and Chungju are located in the southern part of Chungcheongbuk-do whereas the northern part of Chungcheongbuk-do has evenly distributed forests and farmlands, which helps goshawks have a scope of influence and food source to breed. Appearance point modeling predicted an area of $3,071 km^2$(41.38 %) showing a wider ranging habitat than that of the breeding point modeling due to some limitations such as limited moving observation and non-consideration of seasonal changes. When targeting the breeding points, a specific predictive area can be deduced but it is difficult to check the points of nests and it is impossible to reflect the goshawk's behavioral area. On the other hand, when targeting appearance points, a wider ranging area can be covered but it is less accurate compared to predictive breeding point since simple movements and constant use status are not reflected. However, with these results, the goshawk's habitat can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. In particular, it is necessary to apply precise predictive breeding area data based on habitat modeling results when enforcing an environmental evaluation or establishing a development plan.

An Integrated Model based on Genetic Algorithms for Implementing Cost-Effective Intelligent Intrusion Detection Systems (비용효율적 지능형 침입탐지시스템 구현을 위한 유전자 알고리즘 기반 통합 모형)

  • Lee, Hyeon-Uk;Kim, Ji-Hun;Ahn, Hyun-Chul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.125-141
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    • 2012
  • These days, the malicious attacks and hacks on the networked systems are dramatically increasing, and the patterns of them are changing rapidly. Consequently, it becomes more important to appropriately handle these malicious attacks and hacks, and there exist sufficient interests and demand in effective network security systems just like intrusion detection systems. Intrusion detection systems are the network security systems for detecting, identifying and responding to unauthorized or abnormal activities appropriately. Conventional intrusion detection systems have generally been designed using the experts' implicit knowledge on the network intrusions or the hackers' abnormal behaviors. However, they cannot handle new or unknown patterns of the network attacks, although they perform very well under the normal situation. As a result, recent studies on intrusion detection systems use artificial intelligence techniques, which can proactively respond to the unknown threats. For a long time, researchers have adopted and tested various kinds of artificial intelligence techniques such as artificial neural networks, decision trees, and support vector machines to detect intrusions on the network. However, most of them have just applied these techniques singularly, even though combining the techniques may lead to better detection. With this reason, we propose a new integrated model for intrusion detection. Our model is designed to combine prediction results of four different binary classification models-logistic regression (LOGIT), decision trees (DT), artificial neural networks (ANN), and support vector machines (SVM), which may be complementary to each other. As a tool for finding optimal combining weights, genetic algorithms (GA) are used. Our proposed model is designed to be built in two steps. At the first step, the optimal integration model whose prediction error (i.e. erroneous classification rate) is the least is generated. After that, in the second step, it explores the optimal classification threshold for determining intrusions, which minimizes the total misclassification cost. To calculate the total misclassification cost of intrusion detection system, we need to understand its asymmetric error cost scheme. Generally, there are two common forms of errors in intrusion detection. The first error type is the False-Positive Error (FPE). In the case of FPE, the wrong judgment on it may result in the unnecessary fixation. The second error type is the False-Negative Error (FNE) that mainly misjudges the malware of the program as normal. Compared to FPE, FNE is more fatal. Thus, total misclassification cost is more affected by FNE rather than FPE. To validate the practical applicability of our model, we applied it to the real-world dataset for network intrusion detection. The experimental dataset was collected from the IDS sensor of an official institution in Korea from January to June 2010. We collected 15,000 log data in total, and selected 10,000 samples from them by using random sampling method. Also, we compared the results from our model with the results from single techniques to confirm the superiority of the proposed model. LOGIT and DT was experimented using PASW Statistics v18.0, and ANN was experimented using Neuroshell R4.0. For SVM, LIBSVM v2.90-a freeware for training SVM classifier-was used. Empirical results showed that our proposed model based on GA outperformed all the other comparative models in detecting network intrusions from the accuracy perspective. They also showed that the proposed model outperformed all the other comparative models in the total misclassification cost perspective. Consequently, it is expected that our study may contribute to build cost-effective intelligent intrusion detection systems.

Development and Analysis of COMS AMV Target Tracking Algorithm using Gaussian Cluster Analysis (가우시안 군집분석을 이용한 천리안 위성의 대기운동벡터 표적추적 알고리듬 개발 및 분석)

  • Oh, Yurim;Kim, Jae Hwan;Park, Hyungmin;Baek, Kanghyun
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.31 no.6
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    • pp.531-548
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    • 2015
  • Atmospheric Motion Vector (AMV) from satellite images have shown Slow Speed Bias (SSB) in comparison with rawinsonde. The causes of SSB are originated from tracking, selection, and height assignment error, which is known to be the leading error. However, recent works have shown that height assignment error cannot be fully explained the cause of SSB. This paper attempts a new approach to examine the possibility of SSB reduction of COMS AMV by using a new target tracking algorithm. Tracking error can be caused by averaging of various wind patterns within a target and changing of cloud shape in searching process over time. To overcome this problem, Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) has been adopted to extract the coldest cluster as target since the shape of such target is less subject to transformation. Then, an image filtering scheme is applied to weigh more on the selected coldest pixels than the other, which makes it easy to track the target. When AMV derived from our algorithm with sum of squared distance method and current COMS are compared with rawindsonde, our products show noticeable improvement over COMS products in mean wind speed by an increase of $2.7ms^{-1}$ and SSB reduction by 29%. However, the statistics regarding the bias show negative impact for mid/low level with our algorithm, and the number of vectors are reduced by 40% relative to COMS. Therefore, further study is required to improve accuracy for mid/low level winds and increase the number of AMV vectors.

Gridded Expansion of Forest Flux Observations and Mapping of Daily CO2 Absorption by the Forests in Korea Using Numerical Weather Prediction Data and Satellite Images (국지예보모델과 위성영상을 이용한 극상림 플럭스 관측의 공간연속면 확장 및 우리나라 산림의 일일 탄소흡수능 격자자료 산출)

  • Kim, Gunah;Cho, Jaeil;Kang, Minseok;Lee, Bora;Kim, Eun-Sook;Choi, Chuluong;Lee, Hanlim;Lee, Taeyun;Lee, Yangwon
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.36 no.6_1
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    • pp.1449-1463
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    • 2020
  • As recent global warming and climate changes become more serious, the importance of CO2 absorption by forests is increasing to cope with the greenhouse gas issues. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it is required to calculate national CO2 absorptions at the local level in a more scientific and rigorous manner. This paper presents the gridded expansion of forest flux observations and mapping of daily CO2 absorption by the forests in Korea using numerical weather prediction data and satellite images. To consider the sensitive daily changes of plant photosynthesis, we built a machine learning model to retrieve the daily RACA (reference amount of CO2 absorption) by referring to the climax forest in Gwangneung and adopted the NIFoS (National Institute of Forest Science) lookup table for the CO2 absorption by forest type and age to produce the daily AACA (actual amount of CO2 absorption) raster data with the spatial variation of the forests in Korea. In the experiment for the 1,095 days between Jan 1, 2013 and Dec 31, 2015, our RACA retrieval model showed high accuracy with a correlation coefficient of 0.948. To achieve the tier 3 daily statistics for AACA, long-term and detailed forest surveying should be combined with the model in the future.

Assessment of Additional MRI-Detected Breast Lesions Using the Quantitative Analysis of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Scans and Its Comparability with Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Findings of the Breast (유방자기공명영상에서 추가적으로 발견된 유방 병소에 대한 조영증강 초음파의 정량적 분석을 통한 진단 능력 평가와 동적 조영증강 유방 자기공명영상 결과와의 비교)

  • Sei Young Lee;Ok Hee Woo;Hye Seon Shin;Sung Eun Song;Kyu Ran Cho;Bo Kyoung Seo;Soon Young Hwang
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.82 no.4
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    • pp.889-902
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    • 2021
  • Purpose To assess the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for additional MR-detected enhancing lesions and to determine whether or not kinetic pattern results comparable to dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of the breast can be obtained using the quantitative analysis of CEUS. Materials and Methods In this single-center prospective study, a total of 71 additional MR-detected breast lesions were included. CEUS examination was performed, and lesions were categorized according to the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of CEUS were calculated by comparing the BI-RADS category to the final pathology results. The degree of agreement between CEUS and DCE-MRI kinetic patterns was evaluated using weighted kappa. Results On CEUS, 46 lesions were assigned as BI-RADS category 4B, 4C, or 5, while 25 lesions category 3 or 4A. The diagnostic performance of CEUS for enhancing lesions on DCE-MRI was excellent, with 84.9% sensitivity, 94.4% specificity, and 97.8% positive predictive value. A total of 57/71 (80%) lesions had correlating kinetic patterns and showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.66) between CEUS and DCE-MRI. Benign lesions showed excellent agreement (weighted kappa = 0.84), and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.69). Conclusion The diagnostic performance of CEUS for additional MR-detected breast lesions was excellent. Accurate kinetic pattern assessment, fairly comparable to DCE-MRI, can be obtained for benign and IDC lesions using CEUS.

A Study on Market Size Estimation Method by Product Group Using Word2Vec Algorithm (Word2Vec을 활용한 제품군별 시장규모 추정 방법에 관한 연구)

  • Jung, Ye Lim;Kim, Ji Hui;Yoo, Hyoung Sun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.1-21
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    • 2020
  • With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, various techniques have been developed to extract meaningful information from unstructured text data which constitutes a large portion of big data. Over the past decades, text mining technologies have been utilized in various industries for practical applications. In the field of business intelligence, it has been employed to discover new market and/or technology opportunities and support rational decision making of business participants. The market information such as market size, market growth rate, and market share is essential for setting companies' business strategies. There has been a continuous demand in various fields for specific product level-market information. However, the information has been generally provided at industry level or broad categories based on classification standards, making it difficult to obtain specific and proper information. In this regard, we propose a new methodology that can estimate the market sizes of product groups at more detailed levels than that of previously offered. We applied Word2Vec algorithm, a neural network based semantic word embedding model, to enable automatic market size estimation from individual companies' product information in a bottom-up manner. The overall process is as follows: First, the data related to product information is collected, refined, and restructured into suitable form for applying Word2Vec model. Next, the preprocessed data is embedded into vector space by Word2Vec and then the product groups are derived by extracting similar products names based on cosine similarity calculation. Finally, the sales data on the extracted products is summated to estimate the market size of the product groups. As an experimental data, text data of product names from Statistics Korea's microdata (345,103 cases) were mapped in multidimensional vector space by Word2Vec training. We performed parameters optimization for training and then applied vector dimension of 300 and window size of 15 as optimized parameters for further experiments. We employed index words of Korean Standard Industry Classification (KSIC) as a product name dataset to more efficiently cluster product groups. The product names which are similar to KSIC indexes were extracted based on cosine similarity. The market size of extracted products as one product category was calculated from individual companies' sales data. The market sizes of 11,654 specific product lines were automatically estimated by the proposed model. For the performance verification, the results were compared with actual market size of some items. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.513. Our approach has several advantages differing from the previous studies. First, text mining and machine learning techniques were applied for the first time on market size estimation, overcoming the limitations of traditional sampling based- or multiple assumption required-methods. In addition, the level of market category can be easily and efficiently adjusted according to the purpose of information use by changing cosine similarity threshold. Furthermore, it has a high potential of practical applications since it can resolve unmet needs for detailed market size information in public and private sectors. Specifically, it can be utilized in technology evaluation and technology commercialization support program conducted by governmental institutions, as well as business strategies consulting and market analysis report publishing by private firms. The limitation of our study is that the presented model needs to be improved in terms of accuracy and reliability. The semantic-based word embedding module can be advanced by giving a proper order in the preprocessed dataset or by combining another algorithm such as Jaccard similarity with Word2Vec. Also, the methods of product group clustering can be changed to other types of unsupervised machine learning algorithm. Our group is currently working on subsequent studies and we expect that it can further improve the performance of the conceptually proposed basic model in this study.

Development of Adjustable Head holder Couch in H&N Cancer Radiation Therapy (두경부암 방사선 치료 시 Set-Up 조정 Head Holder 장치의 개발)

  • Shim, JaeGoo;Song, KiWon;Kim, JinMan;Park, MyoungHwan
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.43-50
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    • 2014
  • In case of all patients who receive radiation therapy, a treatment plan is established and all steps of treatment are planned in the same geometrical condition. In case of head and neck cancer patients who undergo simulated treatment through computed tomography (CT), patients are fixed onto a table for planning, but laid on the top of the treatment table in the radiation therapy room. This study excogitated and fabricated an adjustable holder for head and neck cancer patients to fix patient's position and geometrical discrepancies when performing radiation therapy on head and neck cancer patients, and compared the error before and after adjusting the position of patients due to difference in weight to evaluate the correlation between patients' weight and range of error. Computed tomography system(High Advantage, GE, USA) is used for phantom to maintain the supine position to acquire the images of the therapy site for IMRT. IMRT 4MV X-rays was used by applying the LINAC(21EX, Varian, U.S.A). Treatment planning system (Pinnacle, ver. 9.1h, Philips, Madison, USA) was used. The setup accuracy was compared with each measurement was repeated five times for each weight (0, 15, and 30Kg) and CBCT was performed 30 times to find the mean and standard deviation of errors before and after the adjustment of each weight. SPSS ver.19.0(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL,USA) statistics program was used to perform the Wilcoxon Rank test for significance evaluation and the Spearman analysis was used as the tool to analyze the significance evaluation of the correlation of weight. As a result of measuring the error values from CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.4{\pm}0.8mm$, $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, 0 for 0Kg before the adjustment. In 15Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$, $1.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.0{\pm}0.4mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$. In 30Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $4.4{\pm}0.8mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$, $1.0{\pm}0mm$, $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$. When the holder for the head and neck cancer was used to adjust the ab.0ove error value, the error values from CBCT were $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$ for the X axis, $0.40{\pm}0.54mm$ for Y axis, and 0 for Z axis. As a result of statistically analyzing each value before and after the adjustment the value was significant with p<0.034 at the Z axis with 15Kg of weight and with p<0.038 and p<0.041 at the Y and Z axes respectively with 30Kg of weight. There was a significant difference with p<0.008 when the analysis was performed through Kruscal-Wallis in terms of the difference in the adjusted values of the three weight groups. As it could reduce the errors, patients' reproduction could be improved for more precise and accurate radiation therapy. Development of an adjustable device for head and neck cancer patients is significant because it improves the reproduction of existing equipment by reducing the errors in patients' position.

Development of a Traffic Accident Prediction Model and Determination of the Risk Level at Signalized Intersection (신호교차로에서의 사고예측모형개발 및 위험수준결정 연구)

  • 홍정열;도철웅
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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    • v.20 no.7
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    • pp.155-166
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    • 2002
  • Since 1990s. there has been an increasing number of traffic accidents at intersection. which requires more urgent measures to insure safety on intersection. This study set out to analyze the road conditions, traffic conditions and traffic operation conditions on signalized intersection. to identify the elements that would impose obstructions in safety, and to develop a traffic accident prediction model to evaluate the safety of an intersection using the cop relation between the elements and an accident. In addition, the focus was made on suggesting appropriate traffic safety policies by dealing with the danger elements in advance and on enhancing the safety on the intersection in developing a traffic accident prediction model fir a signalized intersection. The data for the study was collected at an intersection located in Wonju city from January to December 2001. It consisted of the number of accidents, the road conditions, the traffic conditions, and the traffic operation conditions at the intersection. The collected data was first statistically analyzed and then the results identified the elements that had close correlations with accidents. They included the area pattern, the use of land, the bus stopping activities, the parking and stopping activities on the road, the total volume, the turning volume, the number of lanes, the width of the road, the intersection area, the cycle, the sight distance, and the turning radius. These elements were used in the second correlation analysis. The significant level was 95% or higher in all of them. There were few correlations between independent variables. The variables that affected the accident rate were the number of lanes, the turning radius, the sight distance and the cycle, which were used to develop a traffic accident prediction model formula considering their distribution. The model formula was compared with a general linear regression model in accuracy. In addition, the statistics of domestic accidents were investigated to analyze the distribution of the accidents and to classify intersections according to the risk level. Finally, the results were applied to the Spearman-rank correlation coefficient to see if the model was appropriate. As a result, the coefficient of determination was highly significant with the value of 0.985 and the ranks among the intersections according to the risk level were appropriate too. The actual number of accidents and the predicted ones were compared in terms of the risk level and they were about the same in the risk level for 80% of the intersections.

The Impacts of Social Support and Psychological Factors on Guild Members' Flow and Loyalty in MMORPG (MMORPG에서 길드 구성원들의 사회적 지지와 심리적 요인들이 플로우 및 충성도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Ju-Seon;Ko, Yoon-Jung;Ko, Il-Sang
    • 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.