• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.663-682
• /
• 2016

Continuum manipulators as a kind of mechanical arms are useful tools in special robotic applications. In medical applications, like colonoscopy, a maneuverable thin and flexible manipulator is required. This research is focused on developing a basic module for such an application using shape memory alloys (SMA). In the structure of the module three wires of SMA are uniformly distributed and attached to the circumference of a flexible tube. By activating wires, individually or together, different rotation regimes are provided. SMA model is used based on Brinson work. The SMA model is combined to model of flexible tube to provide a composite model of the module. Simulating the model in Matlab provided a platform to be used to develop controller. Complex and nonlinear behavior of SMA make the control problem hard especially when a few SMA actuators are active simultaneously. In this paper, position control of the two degree of freedom module is under focus. An experimental control strategy is developed to regulate a desired position in the module. The simulation results present a reasonable performance of the controller. Moreover, the results are verified through experiments and show that the continuum module of this paper would be used in real modular manipulators.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.299-321
• /
• 2016

Previous studies on strategic alliance formation have largely overlooked the effects that organizations' routine development can have on the relationship between organizations' network position and their alliance ambidexterity strategy. This study extends ambidexterity research by adding internal and network perspectives and examining their cumulative effects on alliance ambidexterity. We first acknowledge the interplay between organizations' internal knowledge exploration/exploitation strategies and organizations' alliance ambidexterity and determine that organizations with a high level of internal knowledge breadth are more likely to make focused alliance decisions. Second, our analysis of 145 US-based information technology organizations with an active alliance behavior reveals that having well-formed routines as a result of previous collaborations strengthens the tendency of brokerage organizations to follow alliances that focus on either exploration or exploitation. Although most alliance studies have commonly argued in favor of an ambidextrous approach, this study provides critical evidence that both internal knowledge exploration/exploitation strategies and development of routines constrain organizations' alliance formation decisions, guiding them towards a more focused approach.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.22-27
• /
• 2013

Inter-organizational Relationships (IORs) governance is one of the emerging research areas that have been studied in different contexts (e.g. economics, strategy, organization, and management). This view, particularly, attracted rising attention from academics and practitioners in the context of construction projects, due to the complex forms of IORs in terms of inter-firm exchanges (e.g. engineering, procurement, finance, construction, and operation) in these projects. The focus of IORs governance is to control Inter-organizational relationships among two or more cooperative parties to alleviate conflict and achieve mutual gains. One of the mechanisms that have been identified in the related literature is formal governance mechanism. Although many empirical studies have been conducted using formal governance terms and indicators, there isn't yet a consensual definition of this mechanism and its components that may cause misinterpretation of research results and also impede future research. This paper makes contribution to the concept of IORs governance by clarifying the meaning of formal governance mechanism and identifying different indicators of this mechanism that have been used and identified in previous studies. This provides an innovative and useful framework to understand formal governance mechanism and its application in construction projects.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.29-47
• /
• 2005

Objectives: Individuals' self-reported unmet needs are an important indicator of heath care of their society. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Cycle 1.2, we examine unmet needs for mental health care in Canada and discuss its implications to health education. Results: The most frequently reported reason for unmet needs was barriers to acceptability issues, which stem primarily from lack of knowledge of mental health, negative attitudes towards mental disorder, and mistrust of mental health professionals. Unmet needs for mental health care appeared an especially serious issue among the young. Also, individuals who reported unmet needs tended to have some ill health behavior such as illicit drug use that could be their coping mechanism. On the other hand, emotional and informational support factors have shown an important mitigating effect on unmet needs. Conclusions: These findings of unmet needs pose a major challenge to health education. To effectively address unmet mental health care needs, it is recommended that the focus of relevant policies and programs should be on enhancing a multi-level mental health education strategy including efforts on individual, environmental and professional level education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.567-579
• /
• 2018

This study analyzed consumers' recognition and demand for probiotic products and dietary and living habits according to their probiotics ingestion experience to provide information on the development of probiotic products and marketing strategies in the health functional food-related industry. A total of 280 consumers living in Seoul, Incheon and Kyeonggi-do area were enrolled in this study. The consumers expected mostly intestinal health (80.4%) after ingesting probiotics. The appropriate price level for purchasing probiotics was between 20,000-50,000 won (58.2%), preferring a price range of 50,000 won or less (77.1%). There was a significant difference in the dietary habits depending on the experience of probiotics ingestion, but there was no difference in the living habit. Consumers took Vitamin C, red Ginseng and Ginseng the most instead of probiotics as health functional foods. Based on the results, a marketing strategy could be established to meet the consumer's needs, such as focusing on the effects of probiotics, building up various price policies and the development of new products mixing with other commonly consumed health supplements.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.12 no.12
• /
• pp.5782-5799
• /
• 2018

With the development of GPS and the popularity of mobile devices with positioning capability, collecting massive amounts of trajectory data is feasible and easy. The daily trajectories of moving objects convey a concise overview of their behaviors. Different social roles have different trajectory patterns. Therefore, we can identify users or groups based on similar trajectory patterns by mining implicit life patterns. However, most existing daily trajectories mining studies mainly focus on the spatial and temporal analysis of raw trajectory data but missing the essential semantic information or behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel trajectory semantics calculation method to identify groups that have similar behaviors. In our model, we first propose a fast and efficient approach for stay regions extraction from daily trajectories, then generate semantic trajectories by enriching the stay regions with semantic labels. To measure the similarity between semantic trajectories, we design a semantic similarity measure model based on spatial and temporal similarity factor. Furthermore, a pruning strategy is proposed to lighten tedious calculations and comparisons. We have conducted extensive experiments on real trajectory dataset of Geolife project, and the experimental results show our proposed method is both effective and efficient.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.64 no.5
• /
• pp.196-207
• /
• 2021

Over the last few decades, the rates of pediatric obesity have more than doubled regardless of sociodemographic categorization, and despite these rates plateauing in recent years there continues to be an increase in the severity of obesity in children and adolescents. This review will discuss the pediatric obesity mediated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as attenuated levels of satiety and energy metabolism hormones, insulin resistance, vascular endothelial dysfunction, and arterial stiffness. Additionally, early intervention to combat pediatric obesity is critical as obesity has been suggested to track into adulthood, and these obese children and adolescents are at an increased risk of early mortality. Current suggested strategies to combat pediatric obesity are modifying diet, limiting sedentary behavior, and increasing physical activity. The effects of exercise intervention on metabolic hormones such as leptin and adiponectin, insulin sensitivity/resistance, and body fat in obese children and adolescents will be discussed along with the exercise modality, intensity, and duration. Specifically, this review will focus on the differential effects of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and combined exercise on the cardiovascular risks in pediatric obesity. This review outlines the evidence that exercise intervention is a beneficial therapeutic strategy to reduce the risk factors for CVD and the ideal exercise prescription to combat pediatric obesity should contain both muscle strengthening and aerobic components with an emphasis on fat mass reduction and long-term adherence.

• International Journal of Contents
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2021

Online streaming wars are intensifying. Netflix is known as the market leader in the streaming business. However, since 2019, Netflix has been losing subscribers in the United States and is at a turning point where it needs to reassess its current position in the market. While Netflix is losing dominance, rivals Amazon Prime and Hulu continue to gain market shares. Studies from Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated a new shift in the streaming landscape caused by the abundance of streaming options and rising subscription costs. Recent surveys showed that consumers are excited about new streaming services, such as Disney +. Nearly two-thirds of consumers intend to terminate or downgrade one or more of their current subscriptions to make room for a new service. Moreover, it seems that consumers want ad-supported options. In Deloitte's latest Digital Media Trends survey, 65% responded that they would watch ads to eliminate or reduce subscription costs. Seventy percent of Hulu's subscribers choose its lower-priced ad-supported plan. NBC recently launched its own streaming service, Peacock, with a free ad-supported option. This opposes Netflix's brand identity of "no ads" and premium differentiation. With increasing pressure from competition and the growing risk of subscriber loss, Netflix needs to diversify its price plans. The company could try implementing the lower-priced mobile-only plan they are currently testing or plan to test in other regions. Netflix should also consider features or benefits for loyal subscribers to maintain a stronger consumer base.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.549-580
• /
• 2022

This paper assesses the influences of modeling assumptions and uncertainties on the performance of the non-linear finite element (FE) model updating procedure and model clustering method. The results of a shaking table test on a four-story steel moment-resisting frame are employed for both calibrations and clustering of the FE models. In the first part, simple to detailed non-linear FE models of the test frame is calibrated to minimize the difference between the various data features of the models and the structure. To investigate the effect of the specified data feature, four of which include the acceleration, displacement, hysteretic energy, and instantaneous features of responses, have been considered. In the last part of the work, a model-based clustering approach to group models of a four-story frame with similar behavior is introduced to detect abnormal ones. The approach is a composition of property derivation, outlier removal based on k-Nearest neighbors, and a K-means clustering approach using specified data features. The clustering results showed correlations among similar models. Moreover, it also helped to detect the best strategy for modeling different structural components.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2022

Although research on the leader's or speaker's voice has been continuously conducted, existing research has a single point of view. Sound analysis of voice characteristics has been studied from engineering perspectives, and leadership trait theory has been studied from a business perspective. Convergence studies on leader voice and member cognition are being attempted today. Convergence research on voice has a positive effect on refinement of voice analysis, diversification of voice use, and establishment of voice utilization strategy. This study explains the current flow of research on convergence between speaker's voice and listener's perception, and suggests a direction for the future development of voice fusion research. Furthermore, in connection with AI in the 4th industrial age, new attempts for voice research are sought. First, advances in AI focus on strategically generating the voices needed for individual situations. Second, the voice corrected in real time will support the leader and speaker to utilize the desired voice type. Third, voices through AI based on big data will affect the cognition, attitude and behavior of individual listeners who members, customers, and students in more diverse situations. The purpose and significance of this study is to suggest the way to research the leader's voice recognized by members, and to suggest a method that can be applied in various situations.