• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.641-653
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• 2008

This paper proposes a practical and realistic method to establish an optimal lifetime maintenance strategy for deteriorating bridges by considering the life-cycle performance as well as the life-cycle cost. The proposed method offers a set of optimal tradeoff maintenance scenarios among other conflicting objectives, such as minimizing cost and maximizing performance. A genetic algorithm is used to generate a set of maintenance scenarios that is a multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem related to the lifetime performance and the life-cycle cost as separate objective functions. A computer program, which generates optimal maintenance scenarios, was developed based on the proposed method using the life-cycle costs and the performance of bridges. The subordinate relation between bridge members has been considered to decide optimal maintenance sequence and a corresponding algorithm has been implemented into the program. The developed program has been used to present a procedure for finding an optimal maintenance scenario for steel-girder bridges on the Korean National Road. Through this bridge maintenance scenario analysis, it is expected that the developed method and program can be effectively used to allow bridge managers an optimal maintenance strategy satisfying various constraints and requirements.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.2 s.89
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• pp.179-185
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• 2006

Effect of organic loading rate on UASB performance was evaluated under the renditions of some surface area/reactor volume ratio and different reactor diameter. At the low leading rate of 0.4 kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}d$, reactor performance was not affected by reactor diameter. At the organic loading rate of 6 kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}d$, however, volatile acid accumulation and low COD removal efficiency is observed in reactor having 6.4 cm diameter, while volatile acid is not accumulated at all and high COD removal efficiency is observed in reactor having 3 cm diameter. Such a difference of reactor performance depending on reactor diameter can be explained that sludge bed can be fluidized by evolved gas bubble in narrow reactor, while sludge bed ran not be fluidized by evolved gas bubble only in wide reactor. At a high organic loading rate of 20 kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}d$, it can be judged that there is no relation between reactor configuration and reactor performance because all reactors showed very low COD removal efficiencies regardless of reactor diameter. Narrow and tall type reactor is favorable condition for making sludge bed fluidization at a constant surface area/reactor volume ratio. Thus, it can be judged that reactor configuration and sludge bed fluidization have great influence to reactor performance.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.328-336
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• 2017

The goal of this study is simulation of optimal search pattern of ships based on performance surface which are reflected underwater environmental. The process is as follows. First, temporal and spatial environmental database are extracted in complex environment and input hull mounted SONAR system parameters. The environmental database and SONAR system parameters are substituted to SONAR equations, and calculate signal excess, detection probability, detection range. And then, the performance surface, which can be used to provide operational insight of SONAR detection performance, are pictorialized. Finally, optimal search pattern of ships are simulated using genetic algorithm based on performance surface. And then, we certify optimal search pattern in various ways.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.309-321
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• 2020

This study aims to examine the effects of strategic management accounting on firm performance of finance businesses in Thailand. Strategic management accounting comprises of environmental scanning, competitor orientation and forward-looking information. In this study, 175 finance businesses in Thailand are the samples of the study. A mail survey procedure was used for data collection. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis is employed to test the research relationships. Firstly, environmental scanning positively affects operational excellence, organizational effectiveness and firm performance. Secondly, competitor orientation is positively related to managerial efficiency and organizational effectiveness. Thirdly, forward-looking information has a positive influence on operational excellence, managerial efficiency, organizational effectiveness, and firm performance. In addition, operational excellence, managerial efficiency and organizational effectiveness have positive impact on firm performance. Finally, to verify the mediating effects, operational excellence, managerial efficiency and organizational effectiveness are the mediators of the research relationships. This study confirms that all dimensions of strategic management accounting play a significant role in determining business outcome as being congruent with the theory of resource-based views of the firms. Executives of firms need to provide valuable resources and capabilities to support the strategic management accounting implementation in order to achieve good business outcome in highly competitive environments.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.303-324
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• 2020

The objective of this study is to verify the effect of the market orientation, CEO capacity, and environmental characteristics of overseas markets on the performance of overseas expansion among the success factors of domestic overseas expansion companies. For this purpose, employees of domestic overseas companies based in the Seoul metropolitan area were surveyed, and the hypothesis test was conducted. As a result of the verification, among the contributors to overseas advancement of domestic overseas companies, the factors of CEO capacity, overseas business_education ability, market environment and market size have a significant positive effect on the financial performance of overseas expansion. However, market-oriented factors were found to have no significant effect on the financial performance of overseas expansion. Among the contributors to overseas advancement of domestic overseas companies, the market-oriented factor, the customer-oriented factor, has a significant positive effect on the non-financial performance of overseas expansion. However, factors in CEO competency and environmental characteristics in overseas markets do not have a significant positive effect on the non-financial performance of overseas expansion.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.33-53
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• 2007

Environmental problems are becoming hot issues in many countries and the role of the enterprise, which causes environmental contamination, has become one of the most important concerns in business. We consider the factors such as reduce, recycle, reuse, which is effected environment conscious logistics system, and then we are to suggest optimal directions through statistical analysis of effects and causes of the influences of environmental logistics activities on logistics performance. In order to attain this objective we simultaneously execute a literature and actual research considering many manufacturing companies. In this paper we analyze various factors of logistics activities for environment conscious logistics system (ECLS) for economy base construction under resources circulation, and we especially analyze effects and causes of the influences of logistics performance by the operation characteristic of enterprises.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.667-684
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• 2008

Numerous devices exist for reducing or eliminating seismic damage to structures. These include passive dampers, semi-active dampers, and active control devices. The performance of structural systems with these devices has often been evaluated using numerical simulations. Experiments on structural systems with these devices, particularly at large-scale, are lacking. This paper describes a real-time hybrid testing facility that has been developed at the Lehigh University NEES Equipment Site. The facility enables real-time large-scale experiments to be performed on structural systems with rate-dependent devices, thereby permitting a more complete evaluation of the seismic performance of the devices and their effectiveness in seismic hazard reduction. The hardware and integrated control architecture for hybrid testing developed at the facility are presented. An application involving the use of passive elastomeric dampers in a three story moment resisting frame subjected to earthquake ground motions is presented. The experiment focused on a test structure consisting of the damper and diagonal bracing, which was coupled to a nonlinear analytical model of the remaining part of the structure (i.e., the moment resisting frame). A tracking indictor is used to track the actuator ability to achieve the command displacement during a test, enabling the quality of the test results to be assessed. An extension of the testbed to the real-time hybrid testing of smart structures with semi-active dampers is described.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1279-1300
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• 2017

In the interweave cognitive networks, the interference from the primary user degrades the performance of the cognitive user transmissions. In this paper, we propose an adaptive cooperation scheme in the interweave cognitive networks to improve the performance of the cognitive user transmissions. In the proposed scheme for the bidirectional communication of two end-source cognitive users, the bidirectional communication is completed through the non-relay direct transmission, the one-way relaying cooperation transmission, and the two-way relaying cooperation transmission depending on the limited feedback from the end-sources. For the performance analysis of the proposed scheme, we derive the outage probability and the finite-SNR diversity multiplexing tradeoff (f-DMT) in a closed form, considering the imperfect spectrum sensing, the interference from the primary user, and the power allocation between the relay and the end-sources. The results show that compared with the direct transmissions (DT), the pure one-way relaying transmissions (POWRT), and the pure two-way relaying transmissions (PTWRT), the proposed scheme has better outage performance. In terms of the f-DMT, the proposed scheme outperforms the full cooperation transmissions of the POWRT and PTWRT.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2014

This paper presents a preliminary experimental and computational study on the evaluation of thermal performance and initial cost of U, W and coil type ground heat exchangers (GHEs). Heat exchange rate of the individual GHE was evaluated from the thermal resperformance test (TPT) results, and the construction cost was also calculated. For more information, GLD (ground loop design) simulations of various piping size are carried out. From simulation results, the optimized GHE was suggested based on the thermal performance and construction cost as well. Besides, the required borehole length of U and W type GHEs was calculated considering a real construction condition using GLD program.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.329-338
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• 2021

The mobile payment system has not only changed the payment pattern but also has improved the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals' quality of life by saving their energy, reducing the risk of taking cash, and enabling them to give more time to businesses and do international business. Besides, with the current advancement in the Internet as well as the digital transformation, SMEs are being forced to adopt mobile payment systems (MPS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) determinants on the adoption of MPS and its impact on SMEs' firm performance operating in Ghana. This research employed a closed-ended questionnaire to collect data from January 2020 - April 2020. This study used a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach using SmartPLS 3.0 for path analysis of 145 responses. The findings of the study include the statistically significant effects of technological (relative advantage and compatibility), organizational (top management support and employees' readiness), and environmental (social influence and competitive pressure) factors on the adoption of MPS. Furthermore, this study also proved the positive and statistically significant effect of MPS on SMEs' performance. This study demonstrated that the TOE factor explains 70% variations in the adoption of MPS.