• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.239-276
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• 2009

The paper investigates the possible relationship between earnings prediction by security analysts and special ownership ties that link security companies those analysts belong to and firms under analysis. "Security analysts" are known best for their role as information producers in stock markets where imperfect information is prevalent and transaction costs are high. In such a market, changes in the fundamental value of a company are not spontaneously reflected in the stock price, and the security analysts actively produce and distribute the relevant information crucial for the price mechanism to operate efficiently. Therefore, securing the fairness and accuracy of information they provide is very important for efficiencyof resource allocation as well as protection of investors who are excluded from the special relationship. Evidence of systematic distortion of information by the special tie naturally calls for regulatory intervention, if found. However, one cannot presuppose the existence of distorted information based on the common ownership between the appraiser and the appraisee. Reputation effect is especially cherished by security firms and among analysts as indispensable intangible asset in the industry, and the incentive to maintain good reputation by providing accurate earnings prediction may overweigh the incentive to offer favorable rating or stock recommendation for the firms that are affiliated by common ownership. This study shares the theme of existing literature concerning the effect of conflict of interests on the accuracy of analyst's predictions. This study, however, focuses on the potential conflict of interest situation that may originate from the Korea-specific ownership structure of large conglomerates. Utilizing an extensive database of analysts' reports provided by WiseFn(R) in Korea, we perform empirical analysis of potential relationship between earnings prediction and common ownership. We first analyzed the prediction bias index which tells how optimistic or friendly the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings. It is shown that there exists no statistically significant relationship between the prediction bias and common ownership. This is a rather surprising result since it is observed that the frequency of positive prediction bias is higher with such ownership tie. Next, we analyzed the prediction accuracy index which shows how accurate the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings regardless of its sign. It is also concluded that there is no significant association between the accuracy ofearnings prediction and special relationship. We interpret the results implying that market discipline based on reputation effect is working in Korean stock market in the sense that security companies do not seem to be influenced by an incentive to offer distorted information on affiliated firms. While many of the existing studies confirm the relationship between the ability of the analystand the accuracy of the analyst's prediction, these factors cannot be controlled in the above analysis due to the lack of relevant data. As an indirect way to examine the possibility that such relationship might have distorted the result, we perform an additional but identical analysis based on a sub-sample consisting only of reports by best analysts. The result also confirms the earlier conclusion that the common ownership structure does not affect the accuracy and bias of earnings prediction by the analyst.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.41-62
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• 2019

In this intangible good-oriented, modern service economy era, we have to first understand the characteristics of the healthcare service in order to enhance the competitiveness of the healthcare industry and achieve continuous growth. In addition, service nature and characteristics should be reinforced so that connections can be made to the organizational job performance. To achieve the aforementioned results, this study analyzes the direct effects service nature and characteristics have on job performance in the healthcare industry and investigates the indirect effects with individual personality as the moderating effect. While conducting this study, a total of 340 healthcare workers were surveyed. Survey data from a total of 315 workers were used for analysis during empirical investigation of the research hypothesis. According to the analysis, it was proven that interactivity and horizontality among service nature and characteristics have a positive (+) effect on job effectiveness. This means that customer needs can be identified at customer touchpoints to quickly and accurately provide customers with the products and services they want, while horizontality among service nature and characteristics have a positive (+) effect on job effectiveness. This means that customer needs can be identified at customer touchpoints to quickly and accurately provide customers with the products and services they want, while horizontal communication enhance from department to department and from colleague to colleague within the organization can be linked to job performance. Also, with regards to the relationship shared between the customer or the patient, the job performance of healthcare workers may also improve if they provide customers with their desired service as an expert at the same level. In a rapidly changing healthcare environment, if the healthcare service nature and characteristics are put into practical use, it will be possible to propel the growth of hospitals and sustain it while investigating the moderating effects of individual personality, a partial moderating effect was observed for self-esteem and growth desire. As the study on service nature and characteristics came about only just recently, there is a needs for futher research. The study focuses on the healthcare service industry and hopefully, it will serve as a base study that can be applied to different service industries as well.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.304-310
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• 1999

Background: IFN-$\gamma$ plays an important role in host response to intracellular organisms such as mycobacterium. Human infection with mycobacterium leads to a wide variety of outcomes, ranging from asymptomatic infection to widespread and rapidly fatal disease. Recent reports suggest that alteration of the function of IFN-$\gamma$ caused by a defective IFN-$\gamma$ receptor gene can explain different host response to mycobacterium. In this study, we investigated the role of IFN-$\gamma$ in the development of chronic refractory tuberculosis. Methods: The LPS-induced TNF-$\alpha$ production with or without IFN-$\gamma$ priming was compared by using monocytes taken from recently diagnosed tuberculosis, chronic refractory tuberculosis patients and controls. And the IFN-$\gamma$ receptor was measured by indirect fluorescent antibody technique to know whether change in the priming effect of IFN-$\gamma$ is related to IFN-$\gamma$ receptor deficiency or not. Results: The ratio of TNF-$\alpha$ produced in response to stimulation with INF-$\gamma$ and LPS to LPS alone was $13.5{\pm}7.6$ in controls, $10.8{\pm}6.4$ in recently diagnosed tuberculosis patients and $6.7{\pm}3.9$ in chronic refractory tuberculosis patients. The priming effect of IFN-$\gamma$ significantly decreased in chronic refractory tuberculosis patients compared with that in controls(p=0.002). However, IFN-$\gamma$ receptor deficiency was detected in one of chronic refractory tuberculosis patients. Conclusion: The decrease of the priming effect of IFN-$\gamma$ may play an important role in the development of chronic refractory tuberculosis, and in some patients, this may be related to the IFN-$\gamma$ receptor deficiency.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.57-82
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• 2012

The purpose of the study is to suggest the measure for the improvement of job satisfaction and level of empowerment of sanatoriums' social workers by analyzing factors of empowerments' effect on the job satisfaction, and investigating level of empowerment and job satisfaction of social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped. The result of investigation and analysis on subjects of 420 social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped in Youngnam area for this is as follows: First, job characteristic that is empowerments' influence factor of sanatoriums' social workers is appeared in order of feedback, and function variety, and in organization characteristic is appeared in order of leadership, reward, and employee development. Second, level of empowerment that is recognized by sanatoriums' social workers is appeared a little higher than normal level and significance is appeared highest, and next are capability, self-determination ability, and influence. Third, features that showed significant difference with significance in general characteristic of sanatoriums' social workers were 'sex', 'marital status', and 'religion', and features that showed significant difference with capability were sex, age, marital status, academic background, and employment history. And features that showed significant difference with self-determination ability were sex, age, marital status, and employment history, and features that showed significant difference with influence were sex, age, employment history and types of facilities. Fourth, the whole average of job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers was 3.82 out of 5, which is generally high, features that showed significant difference statistically were age, marital status, academic background, employment history, and types of facilities. Thus, job satisfaction was appeared as high as 'more than age of thirty' in age, 'married' in marital status, 'under graduates of colleges' in academic background, and 'less than three years' in employment history. Fifth, as for factors that had influence on job satisfaction, the indirect effect with empowerment was appeared that had significant effect in organization characteristic, and had few effect in organization features. On these results, practical measures to increase job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers are as follows: First, political approach is required to standardize duty system(by various types of facilities and clients' characteristic) of social workers of sanatoriums for elderly and the handicapped, and help to do the role as professionals with giving better treatment and building self-respect by enough reward. Second, to suggest chances to perform the responsibility for the duty of the scenes by the regular supervision, establish regular supervision system of social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped, and the extension of duty to increase the functional varieties. Third, it is required to motivate to have self confidence for the work and to use potential ability with transforming leadership, and to have more chances of education for the self-development. To increase job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers who give direct services in sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped, more active and positive empowerment's level improvement is in need by improvement of empowerment for them.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.371-381
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• 2022

This study causally investigates whether high school student with high science learning motivation becomes to achieve more or vice versa, and also how those two factors affect STEM career motivation. Research participants were 1st year students in a high school at Seoul. We surveyed their science learning motivation three times in the same time interval in the fall semester of 2021, and once a STEM career motivation in the third period. We collected data from 171 students with their mid-term and final exam scores, with which, we constructed and fitted an autoregressive cross-lagged model. The research model shows high measurement stability and fit indices. All the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths were statistically significant. However, standardized regression coefficients were larger in path from motivation to achievement compared to the opposite. Only science learning motivation shows significant direct effect on STEM career motivation, rather than achievement. For indirect effects, the first science learning motivation affected the final exam score and STEM career motivation, and the final exam score affected STEM career motivation. However, the final exam score did not have a total effect toward STEM career motivation. The result of this study shows reciprocal and cyclic causality between science learning motivation and achievement - in comparison, the effect of motivation for the opposite is larger than that of achievement. Also the result of this study strongly reaffirms the importance of science learning motivation. Instructional implications for strengthening science learning motivation throughout a semester was discussed, and a study for the longitudinal effect of science learning motivation and achievement in high school student toward future STEM vocational life was suggested.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-33
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• 2019

The small and medium sized enterprises (hereinafter SMEs) are already at a competitive disadvantaged when compared to large companies with more abundant resources. Manufacturing SMEs not only need a lot of information needed for new product development for sustainable growth and survival, but also seek networking to overcome the limitations of resources, but they are faced with limitations due to their size limitations. In a new era in which connectivity increases the complexity and uncertainty of the business environment, SMEs are increasingly urged to find information and solve networking problems. In order to solve these problems, the government funded research institutes plays an important role and duty to solve the information asymmetry problem of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to identify the differentiating characteristics of SMEs that utilize the public information support infrastructure provided by SMEs to enhance the innovation capacity of SMEs, and how they contribute to corporate performance. We argue that we need an infrastructure for providing information support to SMEs as part of this effort to strengthen of the role of government funded institutions; in this study, we specifically identify the target of such a policy and furthermore empirically demonstrate the effects of such policy-based efforts. Our goal is to help establish the strategies for building the information supporting infrastructure. To achieve this purpose, we first classified the characteristics of SMEs that have been found to utilize the information supporting infrastructure provided by government funded institutions. This allows us to verify whether selection bias appears in the analyzed group, which helps us clarify the interpretative limits of our study results. Next, we performed mediator and moderator effect analysis for multiple variables to analyze the process through which the use of information supporting infrastructure led to an improvement in external networking capabilities and resulted in enhancing product competitiveness. This analysis helps identify the key factors we should focus on when offering indirect support to SMEs through the information supporting infrastructure, which in turn helps us more efficiently manage research related to SME supporting policies implemented by government funded institutions. The results of this study showed the following. First, SMEs that used the information supporting infrastructure were found to have a significant difference in size in comparison to domestic R&D SMEs, but on the other hand, there was no significant difference in the cluster analysis that considered various variables. Based on these findings, we confirmed that SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure are superior in size, and had a relatively higher distribution of companies that transact to a greater degree with large companies, when compared to the SMEs composing the general group of SMEs. Also, we found that companies that already receive support from the information infrastructure have a high concentration of companies that need collaboration with government funded institution. Secondly, among the SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure, we found that increasing external networking capabilities contributed to enhancing product competitiveness, and while this was no the effect of direct assistance, we also found that indirect contributions were made by increasing the open marketing capabilities: in other words, this was the result of an indirect-only mediator effect. Also, the number of times the company received additional support in this process through mentoring related to information utilization was found to have a mediated moderator effect on improving external networking capabilities and in turn strengthening product competitiveness. The results of this study provide several insights that will help establish policies. KISTI's information support infrastructure may lead to the conclusion that marketing is already well underway, but it intentionally supports groups that enable to achieve good performance. As a result, the government should provide clear priorities whether to support the companies in the underdevelopment or to aid better performance. Through our research, we have identified how public information infrastructure contributes to product competitiveness. Here, we can draw some policy implications. First, the public information support infrastructure should have the capability to enhance the ability to interact with or to find the expert that provides required information. Second, if the utilization of public information support (online) infrastructure is effective, it is not necessary to continuously provide informational mentoring, which is a parallel offline support. Rather, offline support such as mentoring should be used as an appropriate device for abnormal symptom monitoring. Third, it is required that SMEs should improve their ability to utilize, because the effect of enhancing networking capacity through public information support infrastructure and enhancing product competitiveness through such infrastructure appears in most types of companies rather than in specific SMEs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.917-925
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• 2014

An accurate feed formulation is essential for optimizing feed efficiency and minimizing feed cost for swine and poultry production. Because energy and amino acid (AA) account for the major cost of swine and poultry diets, a precise determination of the availability of energy and AA in feedstuffs is essential for accurate diet formulations. Therefore, the methodology for determining the availability of energy and AA should be carefully selected. The total collection and index methods are 2 major procedures for estimating the availability of energy and AA in feedstuffs for swine and poultry diets. The total collection method is based on the laborious production of quantitative records of feed intake and output, whereas the index method can avoid the laborious work, but greatly relies on accurate chemical analysis of index compound. The direct method, in which the test feedstuff in a diet is the sole source of the component of interest, is widely used to determine the digestibility of nutritional components in feedstuffs. In some cases, however, it may be necessary to formulate a basal diet and a test diet in which a portion of the basal diet is replaced by the feed ingredient to be tested because of poor palatability and low level of the interested component in the test ingredients. For the digestibility of AA, due to the confounding effect on AA composition of protein in feces by microorganisms in the hind gut, ileal digestibility rather than fecal digestibility has been preferred as the reliable method for estimating AA digestibility. Depending on the contribution of ileal endogenous AA losses in the ileal digestibility calculation, ileal digestibility estimates can be expressed as apparent, standardized, and true ileal digestibility, and are usually determined using the ileal cannulation method for pigs and the slaughter method for poultry. Among these digestibility estimates, the standardized ileal AA digestibility that corrects apparent ileal digestibility for basal endogenous AA losses, provides appropriate information for the formulation of swine and poultry diets. The total quantity of energy in feedstuffs can be partitioned into different components including gross energy (GE), digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), and net energy based on the consideration of sequential energy losses during digestion and metabolism from GE in feeds. For swine, the total collection method is suggested for determining DE and ME in feedstuffs whereas for poultry the classical ME assay and the precision-fed method are applicable. Further investigation for the utilization of ME may be conducted by measuring either heat production or energy retention using indirect calorimetry or comparative slaughter method, respectively. This review provides information on the methodology used to determine accurate estimates of AA and energy availability for formulating swine and poultry diets.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2011

There is the uncertain period of the construction in case of the products meeting the quality standard of KS M 6080, the quality is degraded because of the abrasive loss of the paint caused by vehicle tires as the traffic amount increases and of the loss and detachment of the glass beads providing the retroreflective function. The abrupt degradation of visibility causes the high frequency of traffic accidents at night and increases the traffic accident rate. Additional supplementary construction induces the direct material and construction costs. As the more cost induction effect than the direct cost, the traffic jam caused by the additional construction increases the indirect social costs such as time cost and vehicle cost. Hence, the study is concerned with performing the abrasion resistance test based on the EN 1436 standard to check and improve the quality of various road marking materials resulting in improving the durability of road marking materials. However, even though the difference in the durability lifetime of resins(binders) is bibliographically or theoretically clear, there was no difference in the durability lifetime (retroreflectivity aspect) of the road marking paint using these binders. The reason is that the bonding of beads was very insufficient or that the cross density caused by crack or freshness was low. Moreover, the measured wet retroreflectivity was distributed as the Rw3 or higher class in average on the basis of EN 1436 but was very insufficient on the basis of the minimum wet threshold retroreflectivity with 100mcd/($m^2{\cdot}lx$) managed overseas.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.281-291
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• 2020

This study used Gauss-Poisson jump diffusion process on standard assets to estimate the statutory reserves of Variable Annuity (VA) guarantees specified in Korean bylaw of insurance supervision and calculated guarantee fees and risks based on the model to see the effect of considering the jumps. Financial assets, except KOSPI 200, have fat-tailed return distributions, which is an indirect evidence of discontinuous jumps. In the case of a domestic stock index and foreign stock indexes(Korean Won), guarantee fees and risks decrease when jumps are considered in models of underlying assets. This is explained by decreases in standard deviations after the jump diffusion is considered. On the other hand, in the case of domestic bond indexes and a foreign bond index(Korean Won), guarantee fees and risks tend to increase when jumps are considered. Results from a foreign stock index(US Dollar) and a foreign bond index(US Dollar) were opposite to those from the same kinds of Korean Won indexes. We conclude that VA guarantee fees and risks may be under or over estimated when jumps are not considered in models of underlying assets.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1071-1086
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• 2016

The safety of aircraft can be threatened by environmental factors, such as icing, turbulence, and lightning strike. Due to its adverse effects on aircraft structure and electronic components of aircraft, lightning strike is one of the biggest hazards on aircraft safety. Lightning strike can inject high voltage electric current to the aircraft, which may generate strong magnetic field and extreme hot spots, leading to severe damage of structure or other equipment in aircraft. In this work, mechanism of lightning strike and associated direct and indirect effects of lightning on aircraft were studied. First, on the basis of aircraft lightning regulations provided by Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP), we considered different lightning waveform and zones of an aircraft. A coupled thermal-electrical computational model of ABAQUS was then used for simulating flow of heat and electric current caused by a lightning strike. A study on fuel tank, with and without lightning protection system, was also conducted using the computational model. Finally, electric current flow on two full scale airframes was analyzed using the EMA3D code.