• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2023

The inventory of many materials requires a large storage space, and the longer the storage period, the higher the potential maintenance cost. When materials are stored on a construction site, there are also concerns about safety due to the reduction of room for movement and working. On the other hand, construction sites that do not store materials have insufficient inventory, making it difficult to respond to demands such as sudden design changes. Ordering materials is then subject to delays and extra costs. Although securing an appropriate amount of inventory is important, in many cases, material management on a construction site depends on the experience of the site manager, so a reasonable material inventory management plan that reflects the construction conditions of a site is required. This study proposes an economical material management method by reflecting variables such as the status of the preceding and following activities, site size, material delivery cost, timing of an order, and quantity of orders. To this end, we set the appropriate inventory amount while adjusting related activities in the activity network, using float time for each activity, the size of the yard, and the order quantity as the main variables, and applied a genetic algorithm to this process to suggest the optimal order timing and order quantity. The material delivery cost derived from the results is set as a fitness index and the efficiency of inventory management was verified through a case application.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.505-524
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• 2016

This study examines the ways District 9, a film released in 2009, reworks the sci-fi genre to explore the human encounter with "other" alien populations. Like Avatar, released in the same year, District 9 addresses the tropes of conflict over land and human-alien hybridity and introduces non-humans and aliens, not as invaders, but as objects of human oppression and cruelty. Unlike many other science fiction films where the encounter between humans and non-humans occurs in an unidentifiable future time and location, District 9 crosses genre barriers to engage with urban realism, producing a social critique of contemporary urban population problems. The arrival of aliens in District 9 occurs as part of the recorded human past and the film's action is carried out in the present time in the specifically identified city of Johannesburg. A distinctly anti-Hollywood film that locates the action at the street level, District 9 plays out human anxieties about contact with others by referencing the divisions and conflicts historically attached to South Africa's sprawling metropolis and its current problems of urban poverty and illegal immigrants. Focusing on how this particular urban setting frames the film, the study investigates the ways Blomkamp's sci-fi film about extra-terrestrials presents a curious postcolonial mix of aliens and immigrants surviving in abject conditions in an urban slum and forces a realistic examination of the contemporary social problems faced by South Africa's largest city and by extension other major global cities. The paper also examines the film's representation of the human-alien hybrid and its potential as a force to resist human exploitation of the other. It also claims that though the setting is highly local, District 9 speaks to a wider global audience by making obvious the exploitative practices of profit-seeking multinationals. A sci-fi film that is keen on making a social commentary on urban population conflicts, District 9 resonates with the wider sense of insecurity and fear of others that form the horizon of the uncertain and potentially violent contemporary human world.