• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2009

For the last few decades, many studies have tried to explore and unveil venture companies' success factors and unique features in order to identify the sources of such companies' competitive advantages over their rivals. Such venture companies have shown tendency to give high returns for investors generally making the best use of information technology. For this reason, many venture companies are keen on attracting avid investors' attention. Investors generally make their investment decisions by carefully examining the evaluation criteria of the alternatives. To them, credit rating information provided by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch is crucial source as to such pivotal concerns as companies stability, growth, and risk status. But these types of information are generated only for the companies issuing corporate bonds, not venture companies. Therefore, this study proposes a method for evaluating venture businesses by presenting our recent empirical results using financial data of Korean venture companies listed on KOSDAQ in Korea exchange. In addition, this paper used multi-class SVM for the prediction of DEA-based efficiency rating for venture businesses, which was derived from our proposed method. Our approach sheds light on ways to locate efficient companies generating high level of profits. Above all, in determining effective ways to evaluate a venture firm's efficiency, it is important to understand the major contributing factors of such efficiency. Therefore, this paper is constructed on the basis of following two ideas to classify which companies are more efficient venture companies: i) making DEA based multi-class rating for sample companies and ii) developing multi-class SVM-based efficiency prediction model for classifying all companies. First, the Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) is a non-parametric multiple input-output efficiency technique that measures the relative efficiency of decision making units(DMUs) using a linear programming based model. It is non-parametric because it requires no assumption on the shape or parameters of the underlying production function. DEA has been already widely applied for evaluating the relative efficiency of DMUs. Recently, a number of DEA based studies have evaluated the efficiency of various types of companies, such as internet companies and venture companies. It has been also applied to corporate credit ratings. In this study we utilized DEA for sorting venture companies by efficiency based ratings. The Support Vector Machine(SVM), on the other hand, is a popular technique for solving data classification problems. In this paper, we employed SVM to classify the efficiency ratings in IT venture companies according to the results of DEA. The SVM method was first developed by Vapnik (1995). As one of many machine learning techniques, SVM is based on a statistical theory. Thus far, the method has shown good performances especially in generalizing capacity in classification tasks, resulting in numerous applications in many areas of business, SVM is basically the algorithm that finds the maximum margin hyperplane, which is the maximum separation between classes. According to this method, support vectors are the closest to the maximum margin hyperplane. If it is impossible to classify, we can use the kernel function. In the case of nonlinear class boundaries, we can transform the inputs into a high-dimensional feature space, This is the original input space and is mapped into a high-dimensional dot-product space. Many studies applied SVM to the prediction of bankruptcy, the forecast a financial time series, and the problem of estimating credit rating, In this study we employed SVM for developing data mining-based efficiency prediction model. We used the Gaussian radial function as a kernel function of SVM. In multi-class SVM, we adopted one-against-one approach between binary classification method and two all-together methods, proposed by Weston and Watkins(1999) and Crammer and Singer(2000), respectively. In this research, we used corporate information of 154 companies listed on KOSDAQ market in Korea exchange. We obtained companies' financial information of 2005 from the KIS(Korea Information Service, Inc.). Using this data, we made multi-class rating with DEA efficiency and built multi-class prediction model based data mining. Among three manners of multi-classification, the hit ratio of the Weston and Watkins method is the best in the test data set. In multi classification problems as efficiency ratings of venture business, it is very useful for investors to know the class with errors, one class difference, when it is difficult to find out the accurate class in the actual market. So we presented accuracy results within 1-class errors, and the Weston and Watkins method showed 85.7% accuracy in our test samples. We conclude that the DEA based multi-class approach in venture business generates more information than the binary classification problem, notwithstanding its efficiency level. We believe this model can help investors in decision making as it provides a reliably tool to evaluate venture companies in the financial domain. For the future research, we perceive the need to enhance such areas as the variable selection process, the parameter selection of kernel function, the generalization, and the sample size of multi-class.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.107-119
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• 2008

To determine the true digestible phosphorus (TDP) requirement of growing pigs, two experiments were designed with the experimental diets containing five true digestible P levels (0.16%, 0.20%, 0.23%, 0.26% and 0.39%) and the ratio of total calcium to true digestible P (TDP) kept at 2:1. In Experiment 1, five barrows (Duroc${\times}$Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire) with an average initial body weight of 27.9 kg were used in a $5{\times}5$ Latin-square design to evaluate the effect of different dietary P levels on the digestibility and output of P and nitrogen. In Experiment 2, sixty healthy growing pigs (Duroc${\times}$Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire) with an average body weight (BW) of 21.4 kg were assigned randomly to one of the five dietary treatments (12 pigs/diet), and were used to determine the true digestible phosphorus (TDP) requirement of growing pigs on the basis of growth performance and serum biochemical indices. The results indicated that the true digestibility of P increased (p<0.05) linearly with increasing dietary TDP level below 0.26%. The true P digestibility was highest (56.6%) when dietary TDP was 0.34%. Expressed as g/kg dry matter intake (DMI), fecal P output increased (p<0.05) linearly with increasing P input. On the basis of g/kg fecal dry matter (DM), fecal P output was lowest for Diet 4 and highest (p<0.05) for Diet 5. The apparent digestibility of crude protein (CP) did not differ (p>0.05) among the five diets, with the average nitrogen output of 12.14 g/d and nitrogen retention of 66% to 74% (p>0.05), which suggested that there was no interaction between dietary P and CP protein levels. During the 28-d experimental period of Experiment 2, the average daily gain (ADG) of pigs was affected by dietary TDP levels as described by Eq. (1): $y=-809,532x^4+788,079x^3-276,250x^2+42,114x-1,759$; ($R^2=0.99$; p<0.01; y = ADG, g/d; x = dietary TDP, %), F/G for pigs by Eq. (2): $y=3,651.1x^4-3,480.4x^3+1,183.8x^2-172.5x+10.9$ ($R^2=0.99$; p<0.01; y = F/G; x = dietary TDP, %), and Total P concentrations in serum by Eq. (3): $y=-3,311.7x^4+3,342.7x^3-1,224.6x^2+195.6x-8.7$ (R2 = 0.99; p<0.01; y = total serum P concentration and x = dietary TDP, %). The highest ADG (782 g/d), the lowest F/G (1.07) and the highest total serum P concentration (3.1 mmol/L) were obtained when dietary TDP level was 0.34%. Collectively, these results indicate that the optimal TDP requirement of growing pigs is 0.34% of the diet at a total Ca to TDP ratio of 2:1.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.209-217
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• 2015

Development of food industry and increased city life induced enlarged generation of food waste which is currently reused in a wide range of way. In this study, treatment of food waste generated from the public agricultural product wholesale markets (they are categorized as business places which imposes the duty for reducing the food waste discarded) in Korea was investigated, and subsequently, a scheme for improving the food waste recycling business was suggested. The food waste treatment plants are mainly located in Kyeongki-do at 39.5% of total plants in Korea and the other provinces have less than 10% of the total numbers, among which public treatment plant was 38.0% and private plant was 62.0%. The treatment methods included recycling as animal feed at 47.5%, as compost at 36.4%, and the rest of food waste (12.6%) was treated in other ways. Remarkably, it was noticed that the amount of food waste treated in anaerobic digestion have been increased up to 5.4% since 2011. This implied that food waste treated in anaerobic digestion method is gradually increased according to government policy. Amongst 33 public agricultural product wholesale markets distributed all over the country, the trading volume dealt in Garakdong market in Seoul, Gangseo market in Seoul, Daegu market in Daeju, Eomgung market in Busan, Guri market in Guri accounted for 34.67, 7.47, 6.98, 5.41, and 5.30% of the total trading volume in Korea, respectively. 2.65% of the total trading agricultural products dealt in the markets were remained as food waste and treated. In 2006, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs implemented the package policy for radish and Chinese cabbage in order to reduce the amount of food waste and indeed, food waste generated in Garakdong market declined to one third of the food waste before the package policy implementation. In 2010, the food waste amount treated by 'dehydration', 'discarding as raw materials', and 'drying after dehydration' accounted for 56.3%, 33.7%, and 10.0% of the total food waste generated in the public agricultural product wholesale market. However, in 2013, discarding as raw materials accounted for the most at 56.3% followed by dehydration at 37.5%, and by drying after dehydration at 6.3%. The remarkable increment of the food waste discarded as raw materials was attributed to the increase of them in Garakdong market in Seoul. In general, the agricultural food waste contains high amount of moisture at 88% in average and low amount of salt at 0.02% in average. Therefore, it is highly recommended to treat the agricultural food waste through drying after dehydration in order for improving the treatment capability. Also, this recommendation can be supported by the fact that the end-products via drying after dehydration can be utilized as compost material. Overall, the agricultural food waste recycling business can be developed through integration of the treatment via 'drying after dehydration' and compost production.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2006

This study was conducted to screen in vitro angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activities of methanol (MeOH) and aqueous extracts which were prepared by four different extractions-80% methanol extracts(ME) at $20^{\circ}C\;and\;70^{\circ}C$, respectively and aqueous extracts (AE) at both temperatures with the residue of the MEs-of ten marine green algae and nineteen brown algae collected along Jeju coast of Korea. Most marine brown algae extracts showed higher capacities than those of marine green algae in ACE inhibitory activity. Particularly, $70^{\circ}C$ MeOH extract (70ME) of Hizikia fusiforme showed the strongest inhibition activity (about 87%) among all the extracts. Also, 70 MEs of Enteromorpha linza, Ishige sinicola, Laminaria ochotensis, Petrospongium rugosum, Sagrassum horneri, Undaria pinnatifida and $20^{\circ}C$ MeOH extracts (20ME) of Myagropsis myagroides, Petrospongium rugosum, $20^{\circ}C$ aqueous extracts (20AE) of Codium contractum, Enteromorpha compressa, and $70^{\circ}C$ aqueous extracts (70AE) of Ecklonia cava, Petrospongium rugosum showed moderate ACE inhibitory activities more than 50% and the other extracts exhibited weak activities. On tile other hand, E. cava had the best ACE inhibitory activity among 70AEs. This indicates that 70AE of E. cava contains potential anti-ACE macromolecular. We tried to proteolytic digest 70AE of E. cava to induce production of anti-ACE peptides from E. cava 70AE. The enzymes used are five pretenses including Kojizyme, Flavourzyme, Neutrase, Alcalase, and Protamex, which are food grade-commercial enzymes from Novo Co. Flavourzyme-digest of E. cava 70AE showed the highest inhibitory activity about 90%. And the five different enzymatic digests of the E. cava 70AE ranged from 2.33 to 3.56 ${\mu}g/mL$, respectively in $IC_{50}$ values of anti-ACE activity.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.782-789
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• 2013

Carrot (Daucus carota L. var. sativa) is one of the most widely used crops in the world and is nutritionally important crop. However, seed-hair which is generated in epidermal cell of seeds causes the difficulty of the seedling process, because of the seed germination and absorption inhibitions. For these reasons, carrot seeds are commercialized after mechanical hair removal process. However, in this process, various damage and seed loss occur and breeding of hairless-seed carrot cultivar is needed to overcome these various weaknesses and additional seed production costs. In this study, cDNA libraries using 2 combinations, which were composed of short-hair seed CT-ATR 615 OP 666-13 & long-hair seed CT-ATR 615 OP 671-9, and short-hair seed CT-SMR 616 OP 659-1 & long-hair seed CT-SMR 616 OP 677-14, were constructed and EST sequences of each individuals were analyzed to reveal carrot seed-hair characteristics. Firstly, analyzed EST sequences were classified into FunCat functional categories. As a result, significant differences have been identified in metabolism category, protein folding and stabilization, protein binding, C-compound binding category from both of two combinations. Secondly, several candidate EST sequences related to seed trichome differentiation and cellulose biosynthetic process were selected based on GO data of EST sequences. These differences based on FunCat categories and candidate EST obtained by GO data analysis are thought to be involved in the formation of carrot seed hair. Finally, 741 SSR sites and 33 SNP sites were identified from analyzed EST sequences of two combinations. Then we designed SNP and SSR primer sets to develop molecular markers. These molecular markers will be used for classification of carrot cultivars and study seed-hair characteristic.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.328-333
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• 2006

Many plant extracts are known to have antioxidative effects. However, their activities can be reduced or disappeared during mass production process. The purpose of this study is to compare antioxidative effects of edible plant extracts distributed in Korea. forty three kinds of edible plant extracts commercially available in Korea were selected and investigated for their total phenolics contents and antioxidative potentials(DPPH radical and superoxide anion radical scavenging activities). In contents of total phenolics, the commercial plant extracts from Artemisia annua(whole plant), Ilex paraguariensis(leaf, Silybum marianum(fruit and leaf, Ulmus pumila(bark), Coliolus versicolor(fruit), and Curcuma longa(root and stem) contained over 70 mg/g of powder, DPPH radical scavenging activities($SC_{50}$, 50% scavenging concentration) of A. annua, I. paraguariensis, Pinus densiflora(leaf),S. marianum, U. pumila, and C. longa were $53.96{\pm}0.81\;ppm,\;24.61{\pm}2.12\;ppm,\;35.96{\pm}1.11\;ppm,\;57.46{\pm}2.13\;ppm,\;55.25{\pm}1.65\;ppm\;and\;12.99{\pm}1.67ppm$, respectively, while that of positive control(vitamin C) was $3.86{\pm}0.81\;ppm$. $SC_{50}$ values against superoxide anion radical of A. annua, Cinnamomum zeylanicum(bark), I. paraguariensis, Rubus coreanus(fruit and leaf), Morus alba(leaf), P. densiflora, S. marianum, U. pumila, C. versicolor, C. longa, Perilla frutescens var. acuta(leaf), and H. sabdariffa(leaf and newer) were $53.21{\pm}1.83ppm,\;50.12{\pm}2.12ppm,\;5.59{\pm}0.84ppm,\;41.60{\pm}8.93ppm,\;20.19{\pm}0.97ppm,\;15.19{\pm}1.66ppm,\;21.20{\pm}1.88ppm,\;15.71{\pm}0.91ppm,\;55.48{\pm}2.42ppm,\;52.12{\pm}2.44ppm,\;23.80{\pm}1.98ppm\;and\;11.14{\pm}0.51ppm$, respectively($SC_{50}$ value of vitamin C: $9.61{\pm}0.93ppm$). In particular, both 1 paraguariensis and P. densiflora had high content of phenolics as well as high scavenging activities of DPPH radical and superoxide anion radical. Consequently, above two commercial extracts may be useful as a source of antioxidative nutraceutics.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.264-272
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• 2013

Climate changes have caused not only changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, but also temperature and precipitation. The damages on agricultural production system will be increased by heavy rainfall and snow. In this study we assessed vulnerability of crop cultivation facility and animal husbandry facility by heavy rain in 232 agricultural districts. The climate data of 2000 years were used for vulnerability analysis on present status and the data derived from A1B scenario were used for the assessment in the years of 2020, 2050 and 2100, respectively. Vulnerability of local districts was evaluated by three indices such as climate exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, and each index was determined from selected alternative variables. Collected data were normalized and then multiplied by weight value that was elicited in delphi investigation. Jeonla-do and Gangwon-do showed higher climate exposures than the other provinces. The higher sensitivity to abnormal weather was observed from the regions that have large-scale cultivation facility complex compared to the other regions and vulnerability to abnormal weather also was higher at these provinces. In the projected estimation based on the SRES A1B, the vulnerability of controlled agricultural facility in Korea totally increased, especially was dramatic between 2000's and 2020 year.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.783-788
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• 2005

This study was conducted to investigate the optimal CP level in growing goat kids. Forty male goats were divided into four treatment groups fed diets containing CP 12, 14, 16, and 18% of concentrate feed, and rice straw, respectively. Results are summarized as follows. Average daily gain’s(ADG) of groups fed diets with CP 14% and CP 18% were 84.0 and 83.0g/d each, which were higher than group fed diets with CP 12% grown at 69.2g of ADG(P<0.05). Daily feed intakes of concentrate and rice straw were 590g and 45g each and there was no difference found between treatments. The amounts of feed required for body weight gain(g) were similar in the range of 7.0-7.3 for groups fed diets with CP 14%, 16% or 18%. But the group fed diets with CP 12% required somewhat more feed for gain at 8.8g. Dressing percentage of groups fed diet with CP 12% was 61.7%, which was higher than groups fed diets with CP 14% or CP 18%(P<0.05) but similar to that fed diet with CP 16%. Meat percentage from goats fed diet with CP 16% was 51.7%, which were higher than goats fed diets with CP 12% or CP 14%(P<0.05). Fat deposition of CP 12% group was higher than the other groups(P<0.05). Percentage of bone weight averaged 17.0% without any difference among treatment groups. Shear force and cooking loss, which are physical properties of goat meats, were lower in CP 16% and CP 14% groups than the other two groups. Water holding capacity of goats meats from CP 16% was higher than those from CP 18% group(P<0.05). Results from panel test showed that juiciness of meats from CP 16% group was higher than those from CP 12% group(P<0.05). Meats from CP 16% also was tested to be more tender than meats from the other groups. Results from this work suggest that the optimum crude protein level in growing goat's concentrate is 14-16% and that increase above this level seems not to improve meat production.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.103-113
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• 2003

This study was conducted to investigate the optimal condition for produce of large quantity recipient oocytes on porcine cloned embryos. In order to determined the optimum concentration and exposure time of ethanol, $Ca^{2+}$-ionophore, 6-DMAP and cycloheximide, in vitro matured oocytes were activated in TCM-199 containing various chemicals and 15% FBS. The activated oocytes were cultured in Whitten's medium containing 10% FBS at 5% $CO_2$. 1. When the porcine oocytes were activated with the ethanol, the best pronucleus formation, cleavage, and in vitro development rate were obtained in the 10% for 10 minutes, which was significantly higher than all of the other treatment(53.4%, 51.6% and 39.9%, respectively). 2. When the porcine oocytes were activated with the $Ca^{2+}$-ionophore, the pronucleus furmation, cleavage, and in vitro development rate were found significantly higher in the 25$\mu$M fur 2min. treatment than those of other concentration and exposure time(59.7%, 62.2% and 43.9%, respectively). 3. When the porcine oocytes were activated with the 6-DMAP, the best pronucleus formation, cleavage, and in vitro development rate were obtained in the 2mM for 2hr~4.5hr(57.3%, 58.4% and 29.0%, respectively). 4. When the porcine oocytes were activated with the cycloheximide, result showed that pronucleus formation, cleavage, and in vifro development rate were 52.1%, 47.7% and 31.8%, respectively, in the 5$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml for 4hr~6hr treatmrent, which was significantly higher than all of the other treatment. These results suggested that the active condition of porcine oocytes was established by optimum concentration and exposure time among different chemicals for produce of large quantity recipient oocytes.s.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.284-288
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• 2005

This study was conducted to clarify the effects of supplying methods of selenium on the growth and Se uptake of hydroponically grown tomato plants. Tomato seeds (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill. cv. Momotaro T-93, Daki Seed Co.) were sown in plug tray with fifty holes, and raised for sixty days. Tomato seedlings transplanted to coco fiber slabs were supplied with the nutrient solutions adjusted to EC $2.3dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ and pH $5.8\~6.2$ recommended by the Japanese Horticultural Experiment Station. Selenium forms used were inorganic $SeO_2$ (here in after referred to Se) and organic selenium chlenium with sugar fatty acid ester (here in after referred to chelated-Se). 10 ppm selenium solutions were treated to tomato plants with foliar applications, drenching, and foliar application plus drenching. Growth characteristics in terms of plant height, number of leaves, leaf area and chlorophyll content were significantly increased in the plot of foliar application ot Se, and in the plot of foliar application plus drenching of chelated-Se than other plots, respectively. Transported contents of selenium into the tomato fruits were highest as 0.302 ppm in the plot of foliar application plus drenching of chelated-Se. Also, it had tended to be higher in the plot of foliar application plus drenching than in the plots of foliar application or drenching in both of Se and chelated-Se. Foliar application and drenching of organic chelated-Se were effective to produce the functional tomato fruits.