• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.21-39
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• 2013

As the utilization of information technology and the turbulence of technological change increase in organizations, the adoption of IT outsourcing also grows to manage IT resource more effectively and efficiently. In this new way of IT management technique, service level management(SLM) process becomes critical to derive success from the outsourcing in the view of end users in organization. Even though much of the research on service level management or agreement have been done during last decades, the performance of the service level management process have not been evaluated in terms of final objectives of the management efforts or success from the view of end-users. This study explores the relationship between SLM maturity and IT outsourcing success from the users' point of view by a analytical case study in four client organizations under an IT outsourcing vendor, which is a member company of a major Korean conglomerate. For setting up a model for the analysis, previous researches on service level management process maturity and information systems success are reviewed. In particular, information systems success from users' point of view are reviewed based the DeLone and McLean's study, which is argued and accepted as a comprehensively tested model of information systems success currently. The model proposed in this study argues that SLM process maturity influences information systems success, which is evaluated in terms of information quality, systems quality, service quality, and net effect proposed by DeLone and McLean. SLM process maturity can be measured in planning process, implementation process and operation and evaluation process. Instruments for measuring the factors in the proposed constructs of information systems success and SL management process maturity were collected from previous researches and evaluated for securing reliability and validity, utilizing appropriate statistical methods and pilot tests before exploring the case study. Four cases from four different companies under one vendor company were utilized for the analysis. All of the cases had been contracted in SLA(Service Level Agreement) and had implemented ITIL(IT Infrastructure Library), Six Sigma and BSC(Balanced Scored Card) methods since last several years, which means that all the client organizations pursued concerted efforts to acquire quality services from IT outsourcing from the organization and users' point of view. For comparing the differences among the four organizations in IT out-sourcing sucess, T-test and non-parametric analysis have been applied on the data set collected from the organization using survey instruments. The process maturities of planning and implementation phases of SLM are found not to influence on any dimensions of information systems success from users' point of view. It was found that the SLM maturity in the phase of operations and evaluation could influence systems quality only from users' view. This result seems to be quite against the arguments in IT outsourcing practices in the fields, which emphasize usually the importance of planning and implementation processes upfront in IT outsourcing projects. According to after-the-fact observation by an expert in an organization participating in the study, their needs and motivations for outsourcing contracts had been quite familiar already to the vendors as long-term partners under a same conglomerate, so that the maturity in the phases of planning and implementation seems not to be differentiating factors for the success of IT outsourcing. This study will be the foundation for the future research in the area of IT outsourcing management and success, in particular in the service level management. And also, it could guide managers in practice in IT outsourcing management to focus on service level management process in operation and evaluation stage especially for long-term outsourcing contracts under very unique context like Korean IT outsourcing projects. This study has some limitations in generalization because the sample size is small and the context itself is confined in an unique environment. For future exploration, survey based research could be designed and implemented.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.25-34
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• 2020

This study examined the definition and major values, the designated procedures and types, and the designation trend in Korean scenic sites and national parks in the United States. Based on this, the analysis of the characteristics of the designation of the two natural heritages. The results are as follows; First, Scenic Sites has characteristics of complex heritage that includes academic, historical, and humanities values on the basis of landscape. As a natural heritage based on public nature, the U.S. National Park aims to contribute to the people's natural heritage and satisfy both ecological and historical values through the protection of the landscape. Second, the designation of a scenic sites are decided through deliberation by the Cultural Heritage Committee after the request of the owner, manager, or local government or by the authority of the head of the Cultural Heritage Administration. The designated survey is divided into basic resource surveys and resource surveys by type. Since the initial designation of the Sogeumgang Mountain in Cheonghakdong, Myeongju in 1970, the number of designated scenic sites was low until the 2000s, but the number of designated scenic sites has increased rapidly since 2006 due to the policy to promote the scenic site, and the proportion of natural and historical and cultural scenic sites has been balanced. The designation of the U.S. national park is decided by the Congress or the president, and the National Park Service makes a series of decisions on whether to conduct a special resource study of provisional resources through a preliminary inspection survey, whether to satisfy the criteria for designation of national parks based on the results of special resource research, and to prioritize them. The U.S. National Parks have been expanded not only by Congress but also by the president's empowerment to designate them as national monuments. With the integrated operation of the National Park Service, the number of designated cases increased as the national park included the heritage sites under the control of various ministries. In addition, a number of historical areas were designated by the enactment of the Historical Site Act, and recreational areas were designated to provide leisure space and classified and managed in a total of 18 units. Third, the comparison of the designation characteristics of the two heritage properties confirmed that the designation of natural heritage with complex value, the classification of types according to complementary designation system and resource characteristics, the establishment of the competent ministry and the balancing of the heritage according to the designation policy. The two heritages had the characteristics of complex natural heritages that met ecological, historical and academic values at the same time based on landscape and public nature. In addition, both countries have identified a system for deliberating the designation of heritage through a basic resource survey and an in-depth designation survey, and classified each type according to the characteristics of the resource. In addition, the policies for promoting scenic sites in Korea and the integrated operation of the National Park Service in the U.S. influenced the designated aspects of the two heritage sites, balancing natural heritage with historical and cultural heritage. Fourth, the resource types and conservation management methods of Scenic site and National Park were largely related. The natural areas of the U.S. National Park include types of natural monuments in Korea as major resources, and have characteristics similar to natural scenic sites. In addition, historical resources were similar to the criteria for designation of historical and cultural scenic sites in terms of landscape, and the aspects of war and celebrity-related relics were related to the types of historic sites. In terms of conservation management, the natural area of the U.S. national park has a way of keeping the original ecosystem intact, but the Korean natural heritage protection system is likely to be useful for focusing on the resource of viscosity. Meanwhile, historical resources include historical sites and historical and cultural scenic sites in the traditional era, but historical relics in the U.S. National Parks have set a time limit to modern times for war history and celebrity-related relics, and the active provision of entertainment programs based on existing resources was derived as a difference.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.389-406
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• 2011

As part of a feasibility study for introducing carbon labeling of fruit products in Korea, we explore the use of carbon footprints for Korean kiwifruit from Gyeongnam region as a case study. In Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) is responsible for the carbon footprint labeling certification, and has two types of certification programs: one program focuses on climate change response (carbon footprint labeling analysis) and the other on low-carbon products (reduction of carbon footprints analysis). Currently agricultural products have not yet been included in the program. Carbon labeling could soon be a prerequisite for the international trading of agricultural products. In general the carbon footprints of various agricultural products from New Zealand followed the methodology described in the ISO standards and conformed to the PAS 2050. The carbon footprint assessment focuses on a supply chain, and considers the foreground and the background systems. The basic scheme consists of four phases, which are the 'goal', 'scope', 'inventory analysis', and 'interpretation' phases. In the case of the carbon footprint of New Zealand kiwifruit the study tried to understand each phase's contribution to total GHG emissions. According to the results, shipping, orchard, and coolstore operation are the main life cycle stages that contribute to the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain stretching from the orchard in New Zealand to the consumer in the UK. The carbon emission of long-distance transportation such as shipping can be a hot-spot of GHG emissions, but can be balanced out by minimizing the carbon footprint of other life cycle phases. For this reason it is important that orchard and coolstore operations reduce the GHG-intensive inputs such as fuel or electricity to minimize GHG emissions and consequently facilitate the industry to compete in international markets. The carbon footprint labeling guided by international standards should be introduced for fruit products in Korea as soon as possible. The already established LCA methodology of NZ kiwifruit can be applied for fruit products as a case study.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.87-111
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• 2013

Regional disparities between eastern and western regions is the most of serious problem for balanced regional development in Turkey. The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) is being implemented to eliminate these regional development disparities. The work that was initially planned as predominantly for hydraulic energy production to utilize water resources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers more effectively was later transformed into an integrated multi-sector regional development project. This study noted that this region had very limited cash crop production because of the constraints of semi-arid climate of the southeastern region, however, later, it has changed Turkey's major cotton producing region since Southeastern Anatolia Project carried out. Therefore, this study investigated background, process, and content of the Southeastern Anatolia Project with respect to high cotton productivity in this region and examined the dynamic changes of cotton productivity in this region. In addition, Sanliurfa prefecture is one of the main development axes of the Southeastern Anatolia Project, because government investments are concentrated on this prefecture. Therefore, this study examined the background and process of cotton farming growth in this prefecture. In 2011, Sanliurfa prefecture produced 37.6% of Turkey's total cotton production. This is mainly due to agricultural infrastructure expansion such as land consolidation, irrigation, roads and farm roads. Also, it is one of the main factor that subsidies paid to farmers for cotton cultivation. The introduction of irrigation has dramatically changed the direction of seasonal migration of this area. Prior to irrigation, this area had a serious social issue about out-migration for seasonal labor to other areas. However, the introduction of irrigation made this area that changed to in-migration and intramigration for cotton cultivation. Irrigation water is supplied to farmers through the WUAs (Water User Associations) that handed over irrigation water management, operation from DSI (General Directorate of State of Hydraulic Works). However, the WUAs are under the influence of Ashiret, a traditional feudal social structure. Because of this reason, it does not have an efficient management for farmers. Also, it is one of the reasons that this area does not have autonomous farmer organization.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.149-167
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure(VDI) adoption. VDI performance was measured by IS manager (system quality, security, and managerial operation) and business user (usability, access, and user satisfaction). The survey questionnaires were developed for measuring VDI performance. 84 data samples were collected from the companies that had adopted cloud-based VDI. This research model was verified by Smart-PLS and SPSS. The research findings were as follows: First, the companies using VDI experienced actual performance, but they did not attain their expectation. Second, as results of comparing between IS managers and business users, IS administrators had considerably higher performance than business users, which indicates that there were big differences in performance perception among users. Compared with prior research such as technical trend, system construction, and performance improvement, this study has the following implications. First, by comparing the expected performance with the actual performance of the companies that have implemented and operating VDI, it was suggested how a company that wants to adopt VDI can manage the expectation level of VDI and achieve higher actual performance. Second, because the perception of VDI performance differs between business users and system managers, it is meaningful that a fair evaluation of VDI performance requires a balanced consideration of business users and system managers.

• Journal of The Korean Ophthalmological Society
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• v.59 no.11
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• pp.1017-1023
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• 2018

Purpose: A recently introduced phacoemulsification system, the WhiteStar $Signature^{(R)}$ PRO, has demonstrated improved nucleus followability and cutting efficiency via an improved pump regulator with a higher reaction response and an automatic occlusion sensing system. In this study, we compared various phacoemulsification parameters between the new system and an older version of the device. Methods: A total of 80 eyes of 68 patients with cataracts who had undergone phacoemulsification by a single surgeon were included in this study. Forty eyes of patients underwent phacoemulsification using the older $Signature^{(R)}$ system (WhiteStar); these patients were classified as the control group. Another 40 eyes of patients underwent phacoemulsification with the newer enhanced system, the WhiteStar $Signature^{(R)}$ PRO; these patients were assigned to the experimental group. During the operation, operative parameters, including the effective phaco time (parameter of effective phaco time with a specific coefficient for the transversal movement expressed in seconds, EFX), ultrasound time (seconds [s]), effective phacoemulsification time (EPT, s), average phacoemulsification power (AVG, %), and balanced salt solution usage, were measured to determine the performance enhancement offered by the updated system. Central corneal thickness was measured before and after surgery to compare corneal edema. The relationships between the two groups were analyzed using an independent t-test. Results: The Signature $PRO^{(R)}$ system showed a lower EFX (p < 0.001), a shorter EPT (p < 0.001), and a smaller AVG (p < 0.001). Postoperative corneal thickness did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions: Comparing the efficacy of the improved reaction speed of the device and automatic occlusion sensing system in performing phacoemulsification, the updated Signature $PRO^{(R)}$ system demonstrated superior followability and cutting efficiency regardless of nuclear cataract hardness.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.233-245
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• 2021

Many studies on the microstructures in rocks have been conducted using experimental methods with various equipment as well as natural rock studies to see the development of microstructures and understand their mechanisms. Grain boundary migration of mineral aggregates in rocks could cause grain growth or grain size changes during metamorphism or deformation as one of the main recrystallization mechanisms. This study suggests improved ways regarding the analog material experiments with reformed equipment to see sequential observations of these grain boundary migration. It can be more efficient than the existing techniques and carry out an appropriate microstructure analysis. This reformed equipment was implemented to enable optical manipulation by mounting polarizing plates capable of rotating operation on a stereoscopic microscope and a deformation rig capable of experimenting with analog materials. The equipment can automatically control the temperature and strain rate of the deformation rig by microcontrollers and programming and can take digital photomicrographs with constant time intervals during the experiment to observe any microstructure changes. The composite images synthesized using images by rotated polarizing plates enable us to see more accurate grain boundaries. As a rock analog material, norcamphor(C7H10O) was used, which has similar birefringence to quartz. Static grain growth and simple shear deformation experiments were performed using the norcamphor to verify the effectiveness of the equipment. The static grain growth experiments showed the characteristics of typical grain growth behavior. The number of grains decreases and the average grain size increases over time. These case experiments also showed a clear difference between the growth curves with three temperature conditions. The result of the simple shear deformation experiment under the medium temperature-low strain rate showed no significant change in the average grain size but presented the increased elongation of grain shapes in the direction of about 53° regarding the direction perpendicular to the shearing direction as the shear strain increases over time. These microstructures are interpreted as both the plastic deformation and the internal recovery process in grains are balanced by the deformation under the given experimental conditions. These experiments using the reformed equipment represent the ability to sequentially observe changing the microstructure during experiments as desired in the tests with the analog material during the entire process.