• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.403-408
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• 2002

As the electricity industry undergoes a process of fundamental restructuring, horizontal market power appears as a potential obstacle to a fully competitive wholesale electricity market. Market power is the ability profitably to maintain prices above competitive levels by restricting output below competitive levels. In models for imperfect competition under the consideration of the transmission constraints, the Nash equilibrium has the form of a mixed strategy. In this paper, the models for analyzing imperfect competition are compared using the solution of pure and mixed equilibria. The relation between market power and the capacity of a transmission line is investigated by imperfect competition analysis methods: Cournot, Bertrand, and Supply Curve model.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.18-24
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• 2022

State highway agencies (SHAs) typically apply a competitive procurement procedure to select contractors for their design-bid-build projects. Since the level of competition affects construction bid prices and project outcomes, the Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) suggests SHAs seek ways to improve competition among contractors continuously. However, they rarely conduct an empirical assessment of the current competition level necessary to identify room for improvement. Besides the number of bidders on a project, other factors such as winning or losing rates among the contractors in previous projects can also indicate the degree of competition; only a few contractors may have won the majority of the projects in a specific region. However, few studies have investigated such factors. This paper proposes a network analysis-based approach to evaluating contractor competition levels of highway projects using historical bid tabulation data. The proposed method provides insights into overall competition levels, the determination of competitive contractors, and winning rate distribution among contractors.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.737-746
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• 2020

A new business venture faces intense competition in a dynamic environment. To survive, new business ventures and established companies both need to generate creativity and significant new ventures to be highly competitive and have high levels of performance. In this study, we examined new business ventures that determined their competitiveness and performance generated from entrepreneurial creativity and mediated by ambidextrous innovation. This research used survey data collected from 143 Indonesian's new business shipping agencies, which was collected using an online survey and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The results showed that entrepreneurial creativity in new business ventures is positively associated with competitive advantage but not significant to create a competitive advantage. In contrast, entrepreneurial creativity is positively associated with firm performance. This result indicates that efforts to generate entrepreneurial creativity are not sufficient to create a competitive advantage despite having a significant influence on firm performance. However, entrepreneurial creativity is significantly and positively associated with firm performance and competitive advantage when mediated by ambidextrous innovation. The findings of this study suggest that the competitive advantage of a new business venture in facing intense competition in a dynamic environment condition can be overcome by generating strategic action in the form of entrepreneurial creativity and ambidextrous innovation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.147-161
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• 2001

Efficiency and competitive power in agribusiness management has became important issue due to the rapid changes in farming environment under new WTO agreement. To increase competitive power, small-sized petty farm should be restructured to be specialized large-scaled farming system. Trust farming corporation(TFC) has been introduced to increase farm productivity and competitive power through large scale farming system and refined management skills. Eventually, TFCs are expected to revitalize rural economy. TFCs are increasing in numbers, but they are unsatisfactory in quality often with insolvent operations. The typical problems with TFCs are internal conflicts among members, lack of management abilities and incentives, inefficiency in machinery use, and insolvent operations. The self effort by members and legal-institutional assistance can alleviate the negative factors against the rational for cooperative management and sustain TFCs. This study identifies the management problems of TFCs. To provide the methods for increasing management efficiency, improving rational management skills, and hence to help revitalizing the rural economy with competitive power, 20 TFCs in Nonsan County is surveyed. The major findings are as follows; 1) According to the survey result of 20 trust farming corporations, investments on the accumulation of knowledges and information, accounting management, machinery management are required due to the present lack of management/accounting ability. There also exist problems associated with revenue sources, labor uses, and public recognition. To increase management efficiency under current situation, corporations should import active business plans with expanding farming execution and off-farm season business. 2) Based on the result of corporations' business analysis, more than 50% of the corporations were not able to provide profit dividends to the members. It suggests that trust farming corporations need appropriate and stable revenue sources to sustain business. It is also required that corporations should reduce their excessive expenditure on fixed assets. 3) Theoretical amounts of consignment fees for tillage operation, planting, and harvesting were found to be 338,874 won, 216,596 won, and 332,318 won, respectively. Although actual levels of fee are 110%~120% of these theoretical levels of consignment fee, corporations' expected fee levels could not be acheived because of competency of consignment market.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.627-638
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• 2008

With the shift of the electric power industry from a regulated monopoly structure to a competitive market environment, the focus of the transmission expansion planning has been moving from reliability-driven transmission expansion to market-based transmission expansion. In market-based transmission expansion, however, a growing demand for electricity, an increasing number of transmission bottlenecks, and the falling levels of transmission investment have created the need for an incentive to motivate investors. The expectation of profit serves as a motivational factor for market participants to invest in transmission expansion in a competitive market. To promote investment in transmission expansion, there is an increasing need for a systematic method to examine transmission expansion for investment incentives from multiple perspectives. In this paper, the transmission expansion problem in a competitive market environment is formulated from ISO and investors' perspectives. The proposed method uses parametric analysis to analyze benefits for investors to identify the most profitable location and amount for transmission addition. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an 8-week competitive exercise program on physical fitness, psychological variables, and video-game playtime in game-addicted adolescents. Methods: All subjects were screened by a game behavior diagnosis scale questionnaire, and a total of 7 game-addicted, male adolescents ($16{\pm}2$ yrs of age) participated in the study. All subjects were informed of the study's purpose, procedures, and risks, and a consent form was obtained from each subject. The 8-week soccer and basketball exercise program included twice-weekly sessions of 120 minutes per session. All data were presented as $mean{\pm}SE$, and the variables were analyzed with a paired t-test. Results: Following the 8-week intervention, cardiovascular endurance and grip strength were significantly increased (approximately 17 and 7%, respectively [p<0.05]). Although there was no statistical significance on flexibility, vertical jump, and zigzag-run, all variables showed an increasing tendency. Anxiety levels changed from a mild anxiety state to a normal state, and depression levels also altered from moderate to a normal state. The video-game playtime was reduced about 20% during weekends and vacation periods. Conclusion: Given these combined results, 8 weeks of regular participation in competitive exercise (soccer/basketball) may contribute to positive effects on physical fitness, psychological variables, and video-game playtime in computer-game addicted adolescents.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.71-89
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• 2015

This research empirically investigated the influence factors on the activation of environmental innovations (EI) in Korean manufacturing firms. In this study, external factors (compulsory demand, government regulation, normative pressure and imitative pressure) and internal factors (environmental resources, top management support, integration of environmental tasks, capabilities of environmental personnel, and environmental strategy/environmental management systems) were totally considered. The results of a multiple regression analysis showed that influence factors such as top management support, environmental resources and integration of environmental tasks have a significant and positive impact on levels of EI. However, the effects of external factors were not statistically significant. We also examined whether capabilities of environmental personnel as well as environmental resources, which are directly related with degrees of EI, have a moderating impact on relationships between other internal factors and levels of EI. With a subgroup analysis, the moderating role of abilities of environmental personnel were empirically confirmed. Through a multiple regression analysis, the direct effects of external factors on the adoption or construction of internal factors were demonstrated. The effects of government regulation, normative pressure and imitative pressure on internal factors were significant and positive. It was also found that external factors have indirect effects on EI through internal factors. Finally, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated that EI positively influences the achievement of environmental competitive benefits, and environmental competitive advantages can improve the organizational performance of a firm.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.285-287
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• 1999

Changes in the expression level of splenocyte $IFN-{\gamma}$mRNA of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats infected with Paragonimus westermani were analyzed by competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) followed by southern blot. The template RNA was extracted from the splenocytes of rats infected with 20 metacercariae of P. westermani. The products of competitive RT-PCR were subjected to southern blot and enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL), and analyzed with a densitometer. In comparison with that of uninfected control rat splenocytes (value of 1), the levels of mRNA expression of $IFN-{\gamma}$had changed to 0.747 at 1 week post infection (PI), 0.00175 at 2 week PI, 0.0217 at 3 week PI, 0.194 at 4 week PI and then to 0.537 at 5 week PI. The level at 7 week PI had returned to 1.25, comparable with that of uninfected rats. These results show that, when infected with p. westermani, the levels of $IFN-{\gamma}$ mRNA of SD rat splenocytes were remarkably reduced by more than 500 times at 2 week PI and restored to normal level at 7 week PI.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.276-282
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• 2004

Marginal Zn deficiency is prevalent through the world and yet human zinc status has not been properly assessed due to the lack of a reliable diagnostic indicator. One potential possibility for zinc status assessment using Zn-binding protein, metallothionein (MT)-mRNA, has been proposed. The purpose of the present study was aimed to show whether measurement of mononuclear cell (MNC) MT mRNA, using a competitive-reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (competitive-RT-PCR) assay, could indicate zinc status in human subjects. In this study, MNC MT-mRNA expression was measured using a competitive-RT-PCR to compare before and after 14 days of zinc supplementation (50 mg Zn/das zinc gluconate). RT-PCR oligonucleotide primers which were designed to amplify both a 278 bp segment of the human MT-2A cDNA and a 198 bp mutant competitor cDNA template from MNCs, were prepared. MT-2A mRNA was normalized by reference to the housekeeping gene, $\beta$-actin, mRNA for which was also measured by competitive-RT-PCR. There was considerable inter-individual variation in MT-mRNA concentration and yet, the mean MT-2A mRNA level increased 4.7-fold after Zn supplementation, as compared to before Zn supplementation. This MT-2A mRNA level was shown as the same pattern and, even more sensitive assay, compared to the conventional plasma and red blood cells (RBCs) Zn assessment in which plasma and RBCs zinc levels increased 2.3- and 1.2-fold, respectively (p<0.05). We suggest that MT competitive-RT-PCR can be a useful assessment tool for evaluating human zinc status.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 1995

This study was carried out to suggest method which can be used to improve competitive power of theme parks. The characteristics of Hybrid Conjoint Analysis were described and its usefulness for identification of specific types of service theme parks have to provide was tested "Lotte World, " "Seoul land," and "farmland" were selected as study areas, and .7 attributes with 3 levels were utilized for analyses. Master design with 81 profiles was constructed to meet the requirement of ′Compromise Plan 1,′and data was collected by in-personal interviews on the study areas. Respondents were grouped by cluster analysis, and their characteristics were analyzed by discriminant analysis. Then, part-worth of each attribute . was estimated by stagewise estimation model Calibrated model of each group did not show part-worths of attributes clearly because both main effects and 2-way interaction effects were included in the models. Therefore, calibrated models′ coefficients were used to calculate utilities of all possible combinations of attributes levels. The results showed that managers of theme parks have several options for providing a new service: the combination of attribute levels with the highest utility is they however, they can choose the other combinations with next highest utlities is they can not afford it. Several suggestions were described to cope with the problems when Hybrid Conjoint Analysis is applied to landscape architectural study.