• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.39-69
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• 2012

With the advent of communication technologies including electronic collaborative tools and conferencing systems provided over the Internet, virtual collaboration is becoming increasingly common in organizations. Virtual collaboration refers to an environment in which the people working together are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, are geographically dispersed, and rely on mediated rather than face-to face, communication to produce an outcome. Research suggests that new sets of individual skill, knowledge, and ability (SKAs) are required to perform effectively in today's virtualized workplace, which is labeled as individual virtual competence. It is also argued that use of online social networking sites may influence not only individuals' daily lives but also their capability to manage their work-related relationships in organizations, which in turn leads to better performance. The existing research regarding (1) the relationship between virtual competence and task performance and (2) the relationship between online networking and task performance has been conducted based on different theoretical perspectives so that little is known about how online social networking and virtual competence interplay to predict individuals' task performance. To fill this gap, this study raises the following research questions: (1) What is the individual virtual competence required for better adjustment to the virtual collaboration environment? (2) How does online networking via diverse social network service sites influence individuals' task performance in organizations? (3) How do the joint effects of individual virtual competence and online networking influence task performance? To address these research questions, we first draw on the prior literature and derive four dimensions of individual virtual competence that are related with an individual's self-concept, knowledge and ability. Computer self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to use computer technology broadly. Remotework self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to work and perform joint tasks with others in virtual settings. Virtual media skill is defined as the degree of confidence of individuals to function in their work role without face-to-face interactions. Virtual social skill is an individual's skill level in using technologies to communicate in virtual settings to their full potential. It should be noted that the concept of virtual social skill is different from the self-efficacy and captures an individual's cognition-based ability to build social relationships with others in virtual settings. Next, we discuss how online networking influences both individual virtual competence and task performance based on the social network theory and the social learning theory. We argue that online networking may enhance individuals' capability in expanding their social networks with low costs. We also argue that online networking may enable individuals to learn the necessary skills regarding how they use technological functions, communicate with others, and share information and make social relations using the technical functions provided by electronic media, consequently increasing individual virtual competence. To examine the relationships among online networking, virtual competence, and task performance, we developed research models (the mediation, interaction, and additive models, respectively) by integrating the social network theory and the social learning theory. Using data from 112 employees of a virtualized company, we tested the proposed research models. The results of analysis partly support the mediation model in that online social networking positively influences individuals' computer self-efficacy, virtual social skill, and virtual media skill, which are key predictors of individuals' task performance. Furthermore, the results of the analysis partly support the interaction model in that the level of remotework self-efficacy moderates the relationship between online social networking and task performance. The results paint a picture of people adjusting to virtual collaboration that constrains and enables their task performance. This study contributes to research and practice. First, we suggest a shift of research focus to the individual level when examining virtual phenomena and theorize that online social networking can enhance individual virtual competence in some aspects. Second, we replicate and advance the prior competence literature by linking each component of virtual competence and objective task performance. The results of this study provide useful insights into how human resource responsibilities assess employees' weakness and strength when they organize virtualized groups or projects. Furthermore, it provides managers with insights into the kinds of development or training programs that they can engage in with their employees to advance their ability to undertake virtual work.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.303-345
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• 2019

This article analyzes the multi-layered communication in the Webtoon Princess Pari, released on the Daum portal site, created (written and illustrated) by Kim Naim, through analyzing the narrative structure and comments with the qualitative / quantitative methodology. The webtoon Princess Pari is structured in an omnibus style in which unit narratives are intermittently articulated, multi-lined, and interconnected. As integrated narratives which link with unitary narratives, Pari's growth story as a shaman and a romance narrative are structured. The classical original story of the shaman was used as a prehistory corresponding to the prequel of the webtoon through a preview, and the writer restructured the narrative to overcome the contradictions of the gender asymmetry and the patriarchal ideology of the original text. The viewer then creates a conversational space by giving critical and reflective comments. According to a statistical analysis conducted through sampling, the types of comments can be classified as follows: Appreciation and criticism of the contents ≫ Emotional response ≫ Intuitive overall review ≫ Knowledge and reflection ≫ Comments on comments. In the process of creation and acceptance of the Webtoon, a multi-layered dialogue between classical and modern, content and audience, acceptance and creation has been at play. In the creation dimension, the writer used a device to fill the gap of mythical symbols of the contents. At the level of the audience, they formed a culture of sharing information, knowledge, and reflection about tradition/folk/culture through comments. This corresponds to classical and modern dialogue through the webtoon. The viewers form a sympathetic bond, attempt hermeneutical coordination, supplement the information, and search for a balanced angle through controversial conversation. In addition, by commenting on attitudes, views, and perspective, the commentators showed a behavioral pattern corresponding to meta-criticism in literature. The viewers' comments acted as feedback on the creation of the webtoons, so that the creation and acceptance itself influenced the production of the content of the webtoon. The webtoon Princess Pari, which was based on Korean classical narrative, has been reorganized onto 'moving and dynamic' content, which leads to sense, thinking, criticism and reflection through the formation of various dialogues.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.507-516
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• 2010

Stationary combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants, waste incinerators, industrial manufacturing, etc. are recognized as major sources of mercury emissions. Due to rapid economic growth, zinc production in Korea has increased significantly during the last 30 years. Total zinc production in Korea exceeded 739,000 tons in 2008, and Korea is currently the third largest zinc producing country in the world. Previous studies have revealed that zinc smelting has become one of the largest single sectors of total mercury emissions in the World. However, studies on this sector are very limited, and a large gap in the knowledge regarding emissions from this sector needs to be bridged. In this paper, Hg emission measurements were performed to develop emission factors from zinc smelting process. Stack sampling and analysis were carried out utilizing the Ontario Hydro method and US EPA method 101A. Preliminary data showed that $Hg^0$ concentrations in the flue gas ranged from 4.56 to $9.90\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$, Hg(p) concentrations ranged from 0.03 to $0.09\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $0.04\;{\mu}g/m^3$, and RGM concentrations ranged from 0.23 to $1.17\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$. To date, emission factors of 7.5~8.0 g/ton for Europe, North America and Australia, and of 20 or 25 g/ton for Africa, Asia and South America are widely accepted by researchers. In this study, Hg emission factors were estimated using the data measured at the commercial facilities as emissions per ton of zinc product. Emission factors for mercury from zinc smelting pross ranged from 4.32 to 12.96 mg/ton with an average of 8.31 mg/ton. The emission factors that we obtained in this study are relatively low, considering Hg contents in the zinc ores and control technology in use. However, as these values are estimated by limited data of single measurement of each, the emission factor and total emission amount must be updated in future.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.23
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• pp.25-40
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• 2007

In the highly competitive and divers world of financial market, customer is the single most important factor to company's survival. Especially, creating a relationship with valued customers is a key to success. CRM provides the mean to retain high value customers. It takes a prospect of what customers expect. Utilizing those knowledge can help the products and service meet the customers' needs, thereby maximizing customer satisfaction and company's profit. In this report, I am going to suggest a few ways to develop successful CRM in the life insurance industry. First, CRM should innovate the way of communication to keep pace with Web 2.0 era. In other words, the customer's needs should be caught by real-time communication than traditional off-line market research. Thus, the functionality and specification of products can be decided by customer's direct choice so that the customers are able to purchase the understanding and experience of the products. Second, CRM project should consider whether the initial strategy plan can promise the stable growth of customer at the first step. When planning strategy, the project needs to identify what customer wants and how to fulfill the needs with stable growth of the customer. In addition, the CRM should be developed by realizing that customer centric benefits ultimately guarantee the growth of the organization. Third, CRM systems should enhance the organization's ability to take the customer's insight in a 360 degree view and to capture the voice of the customer directly. In order to develop the best matched product package, more precise customer segmentation should be ahead of market segmentation strategy. Forth, the biggest reward from CRM will be a customer royalty program. Many successful banks are already planning and practicing customer royalty strategy. A comprehensive analysis of customers and their behavior allow organization to identify high value potential customers' needs and determine a strategy required to meet those needs. Even life insurance companies such as Prudential Korea are developing products designed for royal customers. Fifth, understanding and managing the experience of customer called Customer Experience Management also can increase customer satisfaction. Measuring only customers' experience and adapting it to marketing strategy make products position in the gap between the customers' expectation and experience not required by market. A key component of CEM is its application across all organizational functions. At last, the direction of change and development of CRM can be defined from the conceptualization of information technology represented by Ubiquitous and Web 2.0. Instead of just managing customer information, companies should take the initiative in personalized system with customer oriented strategy. Furthermore, with the regular communication between CRM stakeholders (Sales-Marketing-IT), customer's demand should be directly reflected to enterprise strategy in real time.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.328-337
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• 2002

Looking at multimedia education contents from a design point of view, the instructor's design model may differ from the child's understanding model due to gap of the instructor's and child's knowledge. This fact implies it impacts the effectiveness of the education contents. The learning efficiency of Korean typography in WBI for children depends on the font-family, line space, font-size, the age of user, the output device such as the monitor, and other various factors. In this paper, we measured and analyzed on readability of Korean typography in WBI for children by reading speed method. The results of experiments show that readability depends on the font-family of typography, age(grade), and sex of children. In detail, "Goolymche" has the shortest time to be read, and girl and the highest grade students of elementary school have shorter time than boy and the lower grade students. Moreover, we consider the elegance of typography in WBI for holding children's interests because they prefer "Yopseoche". We provide some CSSs in WBI for children based on the experimental results, to used in school fields.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.326-332
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• 2011

Carbon, Aramid, Boron and Glass fibers are used as fibrous materials to promote structural bearing strength. Of these fiber types, carbon fiber is the most commonly used material, and is characterized by having a one-way direction, which is strengthened by tensile strength due to the attached direction only, while other types of fibers are two-way. Therefore, when applied in the field, the attachment direction of fiber is a very important factor. However, when fiber direction is not mentioned in the design drawing, there sometimes is no improvement in structural strength, as the fiber is being installed by a site engineer or workers who lack structural knowledge. The purpose of this study was to propose an optimal direction of carbon fiber through a comparison & analysis of reinforcing efficiency with reinforced experimental columns that used carbon fibers in each of the inclined, horizontal and vertical directions. According to the results, horizontal direction in the reinforced column was improved by 153.43%, but vertical direction was 104.61% only, and it was understood this was due to increased tensile strength along the fiber direction. For this reason, it is necessary to include information regarding fiber direction in design and site management.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 1991

A total of 90 surface sediment samples, collected from the continental margin area bordering east and southeast coast of Korea, were subject to the geochemical analyses with the aim of filling the gap in our knowledge of this environment. The analyzed items included the major elements (Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, K, Na, p and Mn), organic carbon, and some trace metals (Ba, Co, Cu, Sr and Zn). The sediment grain-size exerted a predominant influence on the contents of most elements, with the exceptions of Ca, K, Sr and Ba. The Ca and Sr contents, being closely interrelated each other, were mainly controlled by the calcium carbonate content. The K content, on the other hand, appeared to be influenced by both illite and feldspar. The Ba content showed a certain relationship with that of K, suggesting a common source of these two elements; potassium feldspar. The R-mode factor analysis result also reaffirmed the above-mentioned controlling factors on the sediment geochemistry. The grain-size dependency of trace metals obscures their areal distribution pattern from the total contents. However, with the metal/aluminum ratios we could differentiate the subtle difference in the metal enrichment. Hence, sediments of the southern coastal area appear to receive some anthropogenic inputs of metals, though the effect is still negligible.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.138-146
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• 2013

This study examined the characteristics of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) in Science according to gender. It investigated gender achievement differences in the science section of the 2010 NAEA, the ratio of gender difference in achievement, the ratio of correct answers within each content domain and behavioral domain, and the items which showed high differences between males and females. The results indicate first, that, for 9th graders, females outperformed males in academic achievement in science. Second, with respect to the ratio of correct answers, males outperformed females in the advanced and below basic level groups, but females outperformed males in intermediate level groups. Third, females outperformed males in knowledge and inquiry in the behavior domains, and in chemistry and biology in the content domains. Fourth, an analysis of the items showing the largest gender gap indicated that males outperformed females in interpreting data, while females outperformed males in the items concerned with daily life and items related to the memorization of rules. This research on gender differences in science will allow teachers to complement the weaknesses of students when they study science, and support improved instructional methods in science.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.245-266
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• 2021

In this study, in order to practice the social inclusion of libraries, the related policies currently announced in the 3rd Comprehensive Library Development Plan were examined, and the current status of tasks promoted by central administrative agencies and metropolitan and provincial libraries was examined based on these policies. As a result, first, in terms of active information welfare realization, various programs and services are being implemented to bridge the knowledge and information gap, but it seems that the scope of the target should be expanded in the future, cooperation with related organizations, and infrastructure improvement. Second, in terms of expanding the openness of the space, the expansion of the open space as an open space and the application of universal design are being performed. In the future, it seems that the scope of universal design application should be expanded in consideration of budget investment for continuous space reconstruction and diversity of users. Third, in terms of linking services across boundaries, services and programs are provided to infants and toddlers, children, women, the elderly, the underprivileged, job seekers, and multicultural families. In the future, it seems that the improvement of the service system for the expansion of inclusive services in libraries should precede, and cooperation between related ministries should be made to provide differentiated services. Finally, it is expected that future policy-making tasks for social inclusion should be considered not only for books, programs, and spaces, but also for librarians' education, establishment of cooperative networks with related organizations, and marketing for services and programs.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2019

Recently, product design innovation to improve user experience has been perceived as a core element of enterprise competitiveness due to the fierce market competition and decrease of the technological gap between companies, but there is insufficient services to support the product experience evaluation of small and medium-sized companies (SMCs). The aim of this study is to develop a web-based product user experience evaluation and certification system supporting product design practices for SMCs. For system interface design, we conducted systematic functional requirement elicitation methods such as user survey, workflow analysis, user task definition, and function definition. Then main functions, information structure, navigation method, and detailed graphic user interfaces were developed with consideration of user interactions and requirements. In particular, it provides the databases for evaluation efficiency to support the evaluation process above a certain level of performance and efficiency, and knowledge databases to utilize in the evaluation and product design improvement. With help of the developed service platform, It is expected that the service platform would enhance SMCs' product development capability with regard to the user experience evaluation by connecting the consulting firms with SMCs.