• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2012

Consumers differ in the way they make a purchase. An audio mania would willingly make a bold, yet serious, decision to buy a top-of-the-line home theater system, while he is not interested in replacing his two-decade-old shabby car. On the contrary, an automobile enthusiast wouldn't mind spending forty thousand dollars to buy a new Jaguar convertible, yet cares little about his junky component system. It is product involvement that helps us explain such differences among individuals in the purchase style. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a product is perceived to be important to a consumer (Zaichkowsky, 2001). Product involvement is an important factor that strongly influences consumer's purchase decision-making process, and thus has been of prime interest to consumer behavior researchers. Furthermore, researchers found that involvement is closely related to perceived risk (Dholakia, 2001). While abundant research exists addressing how product involvement relates to overall perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the relationship between involvement and different types of perceived risk in an electronic commerce setting. Given that perceived risk can be a substantial barrier to the online purchase (Jarvenpaa, 2000), research addressing such an issue will offer useful implications on what specific types of perceived risk an online firm should focus on mitigating if it is to increase sales to a fullest potential. Meanwhile, past research has focused on such consumer responses as information search and dissemination as a consequence of involvement, neglecting other behavioral responses like online merchant selection. For one example, will a consumer seriously considering the purchase of a pricey Guzzi bag perceive a great degree of risk associated with online buying and therefore choose to buy it from a digital storefront rather than from an online marketplace to mitigate risk? Will a consumer require greater trust on the part of the online merchant when the perceived risk of online buying is rather high? We intend to find answers to these research questions through an empirical study. This paper explores the impact of enduring product involvement and perceived risks on required trust level, and further on online merchant choice. For the purpose of the research, five types or components of perceived risk are taken into consideration, including financial, performance, delivery, psychological, and social risks. A research model has been built around the constructs under consideration, and 12 hypotheses have been developed based on the research model to examine the relationships between enduring involvement and five components of perceived risk, between five components of perceived risk and required trust level, between enduring involvement and required trust level, and finally between required trust level and preference toward an e-tailer. To attain our research objectives, we conducted an empirical analysis consisting of two phases of data collection: a pilot test and main survey. The pilot test was conducted using 25 college students to ensure that the questionnaire items are clear and straightforward. Then the main survey was conducted using 295 college students at a major university for nine days between December 13, 2010 and December 21, 2010. The measures employed to test the model included eight constructs: (1) enduring involvement, (2) financial risk, (3) performance risk, (4) delivery risk, (5) psychological risk, (6) social risk, (7) required trust level, (8) preference toward an e-tailer. The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, was used to test the internal consistency among the items within the individual measures. Based on the Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficients of the individual measure, the reliability of all the variables is supported. Meanwhile, the Amos 18.0 package was employed to perform a confirmatory factor analysis designed to assess the unidimensionality of the measures. The goodness of fit for the measurement model was satisfied. Unidimensionality was tested using convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. The statistical evidences proved that the three types of validity were all satisfied. Now the structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the individual paths along the relationships among the research constructs. The results indicated that enduring involvement has significant positive relationships with all the five components of perceived risk, while only performance risk is significantly related to trust level required by consumers for purchase. It can be inferred from the findings that product performance problems are mostly likely to occur when a merchant behaves in an opportunistic manner. Positive relationships were also found between involvement and required trust level and between required trust level and online merchant choice. Enduring involvement is concerned with the pleasure a consumer derives from a product class and/or with the desire for knowledge for the product class, and thus is likely to motivate the consumer to look for ways of mitigating perceived risk by requiring a higher level of trust on the part of the online merchant. Likewise, a consumer requiring a high level of trust on the merchant will choose a digital storefront rather than an e-marketplace, since a digital storefront is believed to be trustworthier than an e-marketplace, as it fulfills orders by itself rather than acting as an intermediary. The findings of the present research provide both academic and practical implications. The first academic implication is that enduring product involvement is a strong motivator of consumer responses, especially the selection of a merchant, in the context of electronic shopping. Secondly, academicians are advised to pay attention to the finding that an individual component or type of perceived risk can be used as an important research construct, since it would allow one to pinpoint the specific types of risk that are influenced by antecedents or that influence consequents. Meanwhile, our research provides implications useful for online merchants (both online storefronts and e-marketplaces). Merchants may develop strategies to attract consumers by managing perceived performance risk involved in purchase decisions, since it was found to have significant positive relationship with the level of trust required by a consumer on the part of the merchant. One way to manage performance risk would be to thoroughly examine the product before shipping to ensure that it has no deficiencies or flaws. Secondly, digital storefronts are advised to focus on symbolic goods (e.g., cars, cell phones, fashion outfits, and handbags) in which consumers are relatively more involved than others, whereas e- marketplaces should put their emphasis on non-symbolic goods (e.g., drinks, books, MP3 players, and bike accessories).

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 1999

Purpose: The aims of this study are to examine clinical characteristics, patterns of medical care utilization, and factors which determine medical care utilization of elementary school children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP), to find posssible factors influencing the onset and the course of the disorder. Method: We performed questionnaires in Kwangju on children from two primary schools from June,1 1998 to June 30 and carried out statistical analysis. Result: 1) Total number of questionnaires were 1417. 715 were male and 702 were female and the ratio of male to female was 1.02:1. Average age was 10.3 years. 2) 268 children had RAP (18.9%), boys 132 (18.4%), girls136 (19.2%). 3) The duration of the pain within 10 minutes was 68.5%. 178 children with RAP (66.3%) visited the doctor. The utilization pattern of medical facilities of the pupils with RAP; the most frequently utilized medical facility was pediatrics (35.2%) and the order ran as internal medicine (31.5%), and pharmacy (29.25). The utilization pattern of medical facilities for the older students; the utilization rate of pediatrics decreased, but internal medicine increased. The major factors affecting the selection of the medical facility were geographic accessibility, kindness of the personnel, good results and traffic convenience. 4) Symptoms which were accompanied with abdominal pain were headache (44.5%), chest pain (28.2%), dizziness (26.6%), vomiting (9%), and 119 children (44.5%) had no accompanied symptoms. 5) In 95 children (35.3%) abdominal pain, occured at postprandial time, in 55 children (20.5%) before meal and in 39 children (14.7%) at school. The highest incidence rate of RAP was observed on Monday (21.4%), and the lowest on Saturday (8.7%). 6) The most frequent involved part of the abdomen was periumbrical area (38%) and the order ran as epigastrium and suprapubic area. The most frequent characteristics of abdominal pain were burning pain (36.9%) and the order ran as dull, cramping and colicky pain. Conclusion: RAP is a frequent disease entitiy in children. Too many times children with RAP are treated by other departments instead of Pediatrics. A child has a peculiar growth and development which is different to those from an adult with advancing years. So, it is necessary to choose special medical care and an adequate medical facility.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.63-78
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• 2022

Electronics industrial wastewater treatment facilities release organic wastewaters containing high concentrations of organic pollutants and more than 20 toxic non-biodegradable pollutants. One of the major challenges of the fourth industrial revolution era for the electronics industry is how to treat electronics industrial wastewater efficiently. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an electronics industrial wastewater modeling technique that can evaluate the removal efficiency of organic pollutants, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), by digital twinning an electronics industrial organic wastewater treatment facility in a cyber physical system (CPS). In this study, an electronics industrial wastewater activated sludge model (e-ASM) was developed based on the theoretical reaction rates for the removal mechanisms of electronics industrial wastewater considering the growth and decay of micro-organisms. The developed e-ASM can model complex biological removal mechanisms, such as the inhibition of nitrification micro-organisms by non-biodegradable organic pollutants including TMAH, as well as the oxidation, nitrification, and denitrification processes. The proposed e-ASM can be implemented as a Water Digital Twin for real electronics industrial wastewater treatment systems and be utilized for process modeling, effluent quality prediction, process selection, and design efficiency across varying influent characteristics on a CPS.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1014-1024
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• 2010

Pepper ($Capsicum$ spp.) anthracnose caused by $Colletotrichum$ $acutatum$ is a destructive disease susceptible to areas where chili peppers are grown. $Capsicum$ $baccatum$ var. $pendulum$ (Cbp) is resistant to anthracnose and has actively been used for interspecific hybridization for the introgression of resistance gene(s) into cultivated chili peppers. The goals of this study were to determine the inheritance of resistance to anthracnose within $Capsicum$ $baccatum$ and to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the anthracnose resistance. A genetic mapping population consisting of 126 $F_2$ plants derived from a cross between $Capsicum$ $baccatum$ var. $pendulum$ (resistant) and $Capsicum$ $baccatum$ 'Golden-aji' (susceptible) was used for linkage mapping. The linkage map was constructed with 52 SSRs, 175 AFLPs, and 100 SRAPs covering 1,896cM, with an average interval marker distance of 4.0cM. Based on this map, the number, location, and effect of QTLs for anthracnose resistance were studied using plants inoculated in the laboratory and field. A total of 19 quantitative trait loci (2 major QTLs and 16 minor QTLs) were detected. Two QTLs ($An8.1$, $An9.1$) showed 16.4% phenotypic variations for anthracnose resistance after wounding inoculation. In addition, five minor QTL loci ($An7.3$, $An7.4$, $An4.1$, $An3.1$, $An3.2$) showed a total of 60.73% phenotypic variations of anthracnose resistance in the field test. Several significant QTLs were also detected and their reproducibility was confirmed under different inoculation conditions. These QTLs are now being confirmed with different breeding populations. Markers tightly linked to the QTLs that are reliable under different environmental conditions will help to determine the success of marker-assisted selection for anthracnose -resistant breeding programs in chili pepper.

• 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.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.488-493
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• 2009

Purpose : The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of recent-generation patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closure devices applied by a new selection strategy according to the characteristics of each PDA. Methods : From February 2003 to January 2006, 138 patients underwent transcatheter closure of PDA (study group). According to the size and morphology of each ductus, a COOK Detachable Coil or 'flex' PFM Nit-Occlud was used for a small ductus (group 1, n=43); 'medium' PFM Nit-Occlud (group 2, n=49) for a moderate ductus; and an Amplatzer Duct Occluder (group 3, n=46) for a large ductus. The 83 patients who underwent transcatheter closure of PDA from February 2000 to January 2003 were defined as the comparison group. The Qp/Qs ratio, pulmonary/aorta pressure ratio, and MD of the ductus were compared. Immediate and follow-up results including residual shunts and complications were also evaluated and compared among groups. Results : In all 138 patients, complete occlusions were confirmed without major complications, while procedure failure (n=2, 2.2%), device embolization (n=1, 1.1%), and persistent residual shunt (n=4, 4.5%) were documented in the comparison group. Total complication rates were lower in the study group than in the comparison group (study group, 1.4%; comparison group, 9.0%; P<0.05). Conclusion : A novel strategy adopting the merits of various recent-generation devices for transcatheter closure of PDA provides excellent clinical results with minimal risk.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.109-125
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• 2023

This study was conducted to select target fish species as baseline research for accumulation analysis of major hazardous chemicals entering the aquatic ecosystem in Korea and to analyze the impact on fish community. The test bed was selected from a sewage treatment plant, which could directly confirm the impact of the inflow of harmful chemicals, and the Geum River estuary where harmful chemicals introduced into the water system were concentrated. A multivariable metric model was developed to select target candidate fish species for hazardous chemical analysis. Details consisted of seven metrics: (1) commercially useful metric, (2) top-carnivorous species metric, (3) pollution fish indicator metric, (4) tolerance fish metric, (5) common abundant metric, (6) sampling availability (collectability) metric, and (7) widely distributed fish metric. Based on seven metric models for candidate fish species, eight species were selected as target candidates. The co-occurring dominant fish with target candidates was tolerant (50%), indicating that the highest abundance of tolerant species could be used as a water pollution indicator. A multi-metric fish-based model analysis for aquatic ecosystem health evaluation showed that the ecosystem health was diagnosed as "bad conditions". Physicochemical water quality variables also influenced fish feeding and tolerance guild in the testbed. Eight water quality parameters appeared high at the T1 site, indicating a large impact of discharging water from the sewage treatment plant. T2 site showed massive algal bloom, with chlorophyll concentration about 15 times higher compared to the reference site.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.495-499
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• 2014

To search for myrmecochorous plant species, related ant species and diaspore selecting behaviour, collecting fruits and diaspores of four Corydalis species, cafeteria experiments, and the related ant species were studied from May 2013 to July 2014. Four Corydalis species recording in Korea were proved myrmecochorous (seed attached elaiosome) plants newly. Elaiosome shape of these species is spatulate-shaped, but their size is varied considerably in length and width. Significant differences is proved between four plant species in weight of diaspores, seeds and elaiosomes, and elaiosome ratios. Mean values of diaspores weight showed 4.08 mg, 2.56 mg, 2.49 mg and 2.06 mg in Corydalis grandicalyx, C. remota, C. turtschaninovii for. pectinata and C. turtschaninovii var. linearis, respectively. Mean values of seed weights showed 3.68 mg, 2.03 mg, 1.90 mg and 1.67 mg in Corydalis grandicalyx, C. remota, C. turtschaninovii for. pectinata and C. turtschaninovii var. linearis, respectively. Elaiosome ratio of C. turtschaninovii var. linearis was the highest, followed by C. remota, C. turtschaninovii for. pectinata and C. grandicalyx. Ant's preference for the diaspores is ordered as same as elaiosome ratio's order. Major ant species transporting the diaspores of Corydalis species are Formica japonica, Lasius alienus, Lasius japonicus and Tetramorium tsushimae. Formica japonica transports the diaspores most frequently. Ant's preference for the diaspores among plant species or individuals might be influenced on the survival rates of concerned species. Further studies on the myrmecochorous plant and related ant species, cafeteria experiments should be needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.321-330
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• 2014

Changes are expected in the future, and the future society will expect changes in education. Science curriculum needs to reflect such demands for changes in the future of education. Hence, this study explored ways to reflect the changes demanded by the future society in science education. In this study, we investigated the major issues and directions for improvements based on the findings from questionnaires given to 447 primary and secondary school science teachers as well as in-depth interviews with 12 experts. We explored the problems of the 2009 revised national science curriculum including organization of science elective courses, fusion 'science' as an elective course, intensive course-taking of science, career-focused science curriculum, variation of completion units in science elective courses, and fairness of science elective course selection in college entrance. In addition, we proposed ways to organize science curriculum around core competencies and STEAM education suggested by science teachers. According to the results, we need to add such key competencies as basic learning abilities, self-identity, and moral competencies to science curriculum in addition to existing key competencies including problem solving and communication. Regarding the fusion science, experts contended that convergence of science courses should come before that of science and other subjects, and that STEAM with science as the axis was the desired form of convergence. We also need to establish a curriculum development center that exclusively focuses on science curriculum research and development.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.269-295
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• 2013

This study purported to study the uses of information and communication technology (ICT) tools in their daily life among the undergraduate and graduate students majoring science and engineering. It also examined the purposes of the uses of the major ICT tools, the differences in their information technology uses between graduate and undergraduate students. The data were collected from 83 undergraduate and graduate students from four universities using content analysis of an observational logs and a survey questionnaire. The observational logs were collected using an instant message application available on a smart phone. Study results revealed desktop computers, laptop computers, and smart phones as the three most heavily used ICT tools among the participants and typical situations students use each of the three tools. There were also sharp distinctions between graduate and undergraduate students in their selection of the tools, and distinctions between work and non-work situations. The findings of this study can be used to redesign information services and systems for the scientists and engineers in the next generation.