• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.93-109
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• 2012

This study was performed to investigate the effects of added whey protein concentrates (WPC) and whey powder (WP) on the quality and shelf life of Tofu, a traditional food in Korea. Combined whey powder and whey protein concentrates were obtained at drainage after the casein was separated by using rennet enzyme or acidification of milk. We manufactured whey Tofu and evaluated its nutritional quality by testing, the general composition for yield, moisture, pH, crude protein, crude fat, carbohydrate, rheology, sensory properties, and change during storage. 1. The general compositions of WPC and WP were as follows: (a) WPC: moisture, 5.9%; crude protein, 56.2%; crude fat, 0.1%; carbohydrate, 32.6%; ash, 5.2%; and pH 5.93 and (b) WP: moisture, 3.7%; crude protein, 13.2%; crude fat, 1.6%; carbohydrate, 74.4%; ash, 7.1%; and pH, 6.65. 2. The yield of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 and (b) in WP, 2% addition was the highest (265%) at $13.3g/cm^2$, but with 4% addition WP was the lowest (184%) at $22.2g/cm^2$. 3. The moisture content of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL = 6:4 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 and (b) in WP, 2% addition was the highest at 79.82% ($13.3g/cm^2$), but 4% was the lowest at 75.18% ($22.2g/cm^2$). 4. The pH of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the value was WPC 6% > WPC 4% > WPC 2% > control and $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 and (b) in WP, WP 4% > WP 2% > control. 5. The ash content of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 and (b) in WP, there was no difference between 2% and 4% addition. 6. The crude protein content of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 and (b) in WP, there was no difference between 2% and 4% addition. 7. The crude fat content of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 and (b) in WP, values decreased with increasing pressed weight. 8. The carbohydrate content of Tofu was as follows: (a) in WPC, the content was $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 > $CaCl_2$:GDL=9:1 and (b) in WP, values increased with increasing pressed weight. 9. The rheology test results of Tofu were as follows: (a) in WPC, hardness and brittleness was highest with $CaCl_2$:GDL=8:2 and 6% added WPC. Cohesiveness was highest with $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 and 2% added WPC. Elasticity was the highest with $CaCl_2$:GDL=7:3 and the added WPC control. (b) in WP, hardness was the highest with $22.2g/cm^2$ and added WP control. Cohesiveness was the highest with $17.8g/cm^2$ and added WP 2%. Elasticity was the highest with $17.8g/cm^2$ and added WP 4%. Brittleness was the highest with $17.8g/cm^2$ and added WP control. 10. The sensory test results of Tofu were as follows: (a) in WPC, the texture, flavor, color, and smell were the highest with $CaCl_2$:GDL=6:4 and 6% added WPC. (b) in WP, the texture was the highest in the control with $22.2g/cm^2$. Flavor and smell were the highest in WP 2% and $22.2g/cm^2$. Color was the highest in WP 2% and $17.8g/cm^2$. 11. The quality change of Tofu during storage was as follows: (a) in WPC, after 60 h, all samples began to get spoiled and their color changed, and mold began to germinate. (b) in WP, the result was similar, but the rate of spoilage was more rapid than that in the control.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.349-356
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• 2010

This study was conducted to estimate heritabilities, repeatabilities and rank correlation coefficients among breeding values for litter size and sex ratio of Yorkshire and Landrace pigs using various single trait animal models. The analyses were carried out the data comprising 26,390 litters of Yorkshire and 26,173 litters of Landrace collected from the year 1998 to 2008 at a private swine breeding farm located in central part of Korea. Five different analytical models were used for genetic parameter estimation. Model 1 was most simple basic model fitted with year-month contemporary group fixed effect, random additive genetic effect and random residual effect. Model 2 was similar to the model 1 but permanent maternal environmental effect added as random effect, and model 3 was similar with the model 2 but linear and quadratic effects of sow age were added as fixed covariate effect. Model 4 was similar as model 2 except that the parity was added as fixed effect and model 5 was similar to model 3 or model 4 but covariate of sow age was nested within parity effect. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: The means and standard error of total number of pigs born per litter (TNB) and number of pigs born alive per litter (NBA) were $11.35{\pm}0.02$ and $10.04{\pm}0.02$ for Yorkshire, $10.97{\pm}0.02$ and $9.98{\pm}0.02$ for Landrace, respectively. The sex ratio (percentage of female per litter) was $45.75{\pm}0.11%$ and $45.75{\pm}0.11%$ for Yorkshire and Landrace, respectively. The heritability estimates of TNB (0.243) and NBA (0.192) from model 1 tended to be higher than those from any other models in both breeds. Differences in heritability and repeatability for TNB were not large among models 3, 4 and 5 and same tendency of negligible differences among estimates by models 3, 4 and 5 were observed for NBA, where heritability and repeatability ranged from 0.096 to 0.099 and from 0.188 to 0.193, respectively, in Yorkshire; and ranged from 0.092 to 0.098 and from 0.193 and 0.196, respectively, in Landrace. The heritability estimates for sex ratio were close to zero which was ranged from 0.002 to 0.003 for TNB and from 0.001 to 0.003 for NBA over the models applied. The rank correlation coefficients of breeding values by model 1 with those from other models (model 2, 3, 4 and 5), and breeding values by model 2 with those from other models (model 1, 3, 4 and 5) were highly positive but lower than the coefficients among breeding values by model 3, model 4 and model 5 which were high of 0.99, approximately, for TNB and NBA of both breeds.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 1997

Purpose : Radiation pneumonitis is one of the complications caused by radiation therapy that includes a Portion of the lung tissue. The severity of radiation induced pulmonary dysfunction depends on the irradiated lung volume, total dose, dose rate and underlying Pulmonary function. It also depends on whether chemotherapy is done or not. The irradiated lung volume is the most important factor to predict the pulmonary dysfunction in breast cancer Patients following radiation therapy. There are some data that show the irradiated lung volume measured from CT scans as a part of treatment Planning with the tangential beams. But such data have not been reported in Korea. We planned to evaluate the irradiated lung volume quantitatively using CT scans for the breast tangential field and search for useful factors that could Predict the irradiated lung volume Materials and Methods : The lung volume was measured for 25 patients with breast cancer irradiated with tangential field from Jan.1995 to Aug.1996. Parameters that can predict the irradiated lung volume included; (1) the peruendicular distance from the Posterior tangential edge to the posterior part of the anterior chest wall at the center of the field (CLD) ; (2) the maximum perpendicular distance from the posterior tangential field edge to the posterior Part of the anterior chest wall (MLD) ; (3) the greatest perpendicular distance from the Posterior tangential edge to the posterior part of anterior chest wall on CT image at the center of the longitudinal field (GPD) ; (4) the length of the longitudinal field (L). The irradiated lung volume(RV), the entire both lung volume(EV) and the ipsilateral lung volume(IV) were measured using dose volume histogram. The relationship between the irradiated lung volume and predictors was evaluated by regression analysis. Results :The RV is 61-279cc (mean 170cc), the RV/EV is $2.9-13.0\%\;(mean\;5.8\%)$ and the RV/IV is $4.9-29.0\%\;(mean\;12.2\%)$. The CLD, the MLD and the GPD ave 1.9-3.3cm, 1.9-3.3cm and 1.4-3.1cm respectively. The significant relations between the irradiated lung volume such as RV. RV/EV, RV/IV and parameters such as CLD, MLD, GPO, L. $CLD\timesL,\;MLD\timesL\;and\;GPD\timesL$ are not found with little variances in parameters. The RV/IV of the left breast irradiation is significantly larger than that of the right but the RV/EVS do not show the differences. There is no symptomatic radiation pneumonitis at least during 6 months follow up. Conclusion : The significant relationship between the irradiated lung volume and predictors is not found with little variation on parameters. The irradiated lung volume in the tangential held is liss than $10\%$ of entire lung volume when CLO is less than 3cm. The RV/IV of the left tangential field is larger than that of the right but there was no significant differences in RV/EVS. Symptomatic radiation pneumonitis has not occurred during minimum 6 months follow up.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.1 s.52
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• pp.15-26
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• 1996

It has been studied that a variety of fauna and flora are sensitive biological indicators which reflect the severity of regional pollution of heavy metals, but in the center of part of Taegu City the controversial issue of lead poisoning attributable to the atmosphere which contains an increased concentrations of lead has been raised recently, it is usually hard to find suitable plants or animal in the areas with heavy traffic. Pigeons are ubiquitous in and around Taegu City area, inhabiting even the most densely populated areas with heavy traffic. With its small body size, high metabolic turnover, and rather limited mobility, a pigeon, as a biological indicator is expected. This study was conducted to monitor lead pollution in the Taegu and Kyongju City in Korea. We measured the lead content of the various tissue of three groups of feral pigeon(Columba livia) and soil and atmospheric lead concentration. First group was obtained in heavy traffic area in Taegu City, the second group was obtained a park in Taegu City and the third group was obtained light traffic area in Kyongju City. The air and soil lead concentration of heavy traffic area in Taegu City was $0.11{\mu}g/m^3,\;4.96{\mu}g/g$, that of park in Taegu City was $0.05{\mu}g/m^3,\;2.65{\mu}g/g$ and that of light traffic area in Kyongju City was $0.03{\mu}g/m^3,\;0.01{\mu}g/g$. The lead content of lung, blood, kidney, femur and liver of feral pigeons in heavy traffic area in Taegu City was significantly higher than pigeons obtained in a park in Taegu City and low traffic density area in Kyongju City(p<0.01). But stomach lead content of three group did not reflect a significant difference. In this study positive correlation was found between atmospheric lead concentrations and the concentration of lead in the pigeon's lung(r=0.5040, p<0.001), blood(r=0.3322, p<0.01), kidney(r=0.4824, p<0.001), femur(r=0.7214, p<0.001) and liver(r=0.4836, p<0.01). We can also found positive correlation between soil lead concentrations and the concentration of lead in the pigeon's femur(r=0.4850, p<0.001), kidney(r=0.4850, p<0.001) and liver(r=0.4386, p<0.01). In the pigeon's tissue there were significant correlations between concentration of lead in the blood and kidney(r=4818, p<0.001), femur(r=0.6157, p<0.001) and liver(r=0.3889, p<0.001). In conclusion, at the heavy traffic area in Taegu City, lead concentrations found in the atmosphere and soil are reflected in the lead concentrations of different tissue of urban pigeons. It is suggested that the tissue of pigeons can be good biological indicators of environmental lead pollution.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.669-685
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• 1997

Previous studies, reporting the inverse relationship between osteoarthritis and osteoporosis suggest the existence of possible pathophysiologic mechanisms between them. To examinine the hypothesis that 'bone mineral densities of women with osteoarthritis are significantly higher than that of women without osteoarthritis in Korea', subjects from the health and nutritional examination survey in Kuri city were sampled. Samples were selected through multi-stage sampling frame using established clusters in Kuri city. From August 18 to September 10,1997, the survey was conducted. Among the. total number of selected sample population (1,656 people), response .ate was 52.4 percent (348 men and 519 women). 420 women who took BMD measurement, radiologic exam, and anthropometric exam were selected for the analysis. The analytic results are as follows. 1. General characteristics: Mean BMD was $0.493g/cm^2$, mean age was 43.0, mean BMI was $23.9kg/m^2$. The number of women who experienced menopause was 106, hysterectomy was 19. There were 0 case of osteoarthritis of hip, 64 cases of osteoarthritis of knee, and 2 cases of osteoarthritis of hand. 2. Univariate analysis results: Mean BMD of women with the osteoarthritis of knee was significantly lower than that of women without the osteoarthritis of knee(0.4269 vs. $0.5057g/cm^2$). But, there were too few cases of osteoarthritis of hip and hand, so comparative studies of BMD in osteoarthritis of hip and hand could not be conducted. There were significant differences of BMD among pre-menopause group(0.5204), post-menopause group(0.4206), and hysterectomy group(0.4881). Additionally, there were significant differences of BMD among diabetes group(0.4297), impaired glucose tolerance group(0.4874), and normal group(0.5057). Furthermore, age, parity, BMI, bioimpedance were significantly related with BMD. 3. Multivariate analysis results: To examinine the relationship between osteoarthritis and BMD while controlling the other variables' effects which were significant in the univariate analyses, multiple linear regression analysis was done. But, it was found that osteoarthritis of knee was not a significant variable to BMD anymore. While age and menopause had significant negative relationship with BMD. Diabetes, parity, BMI, and bioimpedance did not have significant relationships with BMD. After stratification of subjects according to menopause, multiple linear regression analyses were done to each strata. Consequently, age in post-menopause group, age and osteoarthritis of knee in hysterectomy group showed significant negative relationship with BMD. The results did not support the many results of other previous studies done with white men and women. further studies of biological plausibility to Korean women are recommended. Also it is suggested that longitudinal study to verify the relationship between osteoarthritis and BMD will be valuable.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.27-55
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• 2008

Due to the increasing and intensifying competition in the Internet shopping market, it has been recognized as very important to develop an effective policy and strategy for acquiring loyal customers. For this reason, web site designers need to know if a new Internet shopping mall(ISM) will be accepted. Researchers have been working on identifying factors for explaining and predicting user acceptance of an ISM. Some studies, however, revealed inconsistent findings on the antecedents of user acceptance of a website. Lack of consideration for individual differences in user ability is believed to be one of the key reasons for the mixed findings. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and several studies have suggested that individual differences in ability plays an moderating role on the relationship between the antecedents and user acceptance. Despite the critical role of user ability, little research has examined the role of user ability in the Internet shopping mall context. The purpose of this study is to develop a user acceptance model that consider the moderating role of user ability in the context of Internet shopping. This study was initiated to see the ability of the technology acceptance model(TAM) to explain the acceptance of a specific ISM. According to TAM. which is one of the most influential models for explaining user acceptance of IT, an intention to use IT is determined by usefulness and ease of use. Given that interaction between user and website takes place through web interface, the decisions to accept and continue using an ISM depend on these beliefs. However, TAM neglects to consider the fact that many users would not stick to an ISM until they trust it although they may think it useful and easy to use. The importance of trust for user acceptance of ISM has been raised by the relational views. The relational view emphasizes the trust-building process between the user and ISM, and user's trust on the website is a major determinant of user acceptance. The proposed model extends and integrates the TAM and relational views on user acceptance of ISM by incorporating usefulness, ease of use, and trust. User acceptance is defined as a user's intention to reuse a specific ISM. And user ability is introduced into the model as moderating variable. Here, the user ability is defined as a degree of experiences, knowledge and skills regarding Internet shopping sites. The research model proposes that the ease of use, usefulness and trust of ISM are key determinants of user acceptance. In addition, this paper hypothesizes that the effects of the antecedents(i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and trust) on user acceptance may differ among users. In particular, this paper proposes a moderating effect of a user's ability on the relationship between antecedents with user's intention to reuse. The research model with eleven hypotheses was derived and tested through a survey that involved 470 university students. For each research variable, this paper used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context. The reliability and validity of the research variables were tested using the Crobnach's alpha and internal consistency reliability (ICR) values, standard factor loadings of the confirmative factor analysis, and average variance extracted (AVE) values. A LISREL method was used to test the suitability of the research model and its relating six hypotheses. Key findings of the results are summarized in the following. First, TAM's two constructs, ease of use and usefulness directly affect user acceptance. In addition, ease of use indirectly influences user acceptance by affecting trust. This implies that users tend to trust a shopping site and visit repeatedly when they perceive a specific ISM easy to use. Accordingly, designing a shopping site that allows users to navigate with heuristic and minimal clicks for finding information and products within the site is important for improving the site's trust and acceptance. Usefulness, however, was not found to influence trust. Second, among the three belief constructs(ease of use, usefulness, and trust), trust was empirically supported as the most important determinants of user acceptance. This implies that users require trustworthiness from an Internet shopping site to be repeat visitors of an ISM. Providing a sense of safety and eliminating the anxiety of online shoppers in relation to privacy, security, delivery, and product returns are critically important conditions for acquiring repeat visitors. Hence, in addition to usefulness and ease of use as in TAM, trust should be a fundamental determinants of user acceptance in the context of internet shopping. Third, the user's ability on using an Internet shopping site played a moderating role. For users with low ability, ease of use was found to be a more important factors in deciding to reuse the shopping mall, whereas usefulness and trust had more effects on users with high ability. Applying the EML theory to these findings, we can suggest that experienced and knowledgeable ISM users tend to elaborate on such usefulness aspects as efficient and effective shopping performance and trust factors as ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability of a shopping site before they become repeat visitors of the site. In contrast, novice users tend to rely on the low elaborating features, such as the perceived ease of use. The existence of moderating effects suggests the fact that different individuals evaluate an ISM from different perspectives. The expert users are more interested in the outcome of the visit(usefulness) and trustworthiness(trust) than those novice visitors. The latter evaluate the ISM in a more superficial manner focusing on the novelty of the site and on other instrumental beliefs(ease of use). This is consistent with the insights proposed by the Heuristic-Systematic model. According to the Heuristic-Systematic model. a users act on the principle of minimum effort. Thus, the user considers an ISM heuristically, focusing on those aspects that are easy to process and evaluate(ease of use). When the user has sufficient experience and skills, the user will change to systematic processing, where they will evaluate more complex aspects of the site(its usefulness and trustworthiness). This implies that an ISM has to provide a minimum level of ease of use to make it possible for a user to evaluate its usefulness and trustworthiness. Ease of use is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the acceptance and use of an ISM. Overall, the empirical results generally support the proposed model and identify the moderating effect of the effects of user ability. More detailed interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed. The limitations of this study are also discussed to provide directions for future research.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2012

Consumers differ in the way they make a purchase. An audio mania would willingly make a bold, yet serious, decision to buy a top-of-the-line home theater system, while he is not interested in replacing his two-decade-old shabby car. On the contrary, an automobile enthusiast wouldn't mind spending forty thousand dollars to buy a new Jaguar convertible, yet cares little about his junky component system. It is product involvement that helps us explain such differences among individuals in the purchase style. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a product is perceived to be important to a consumer (Zaichkowsky, 2001). Product involvement is an important factor that strongly influences consumer's purchase decision-making process, and thus has been of prime interest to consumer behavior researchers. Furthermore, researchers found that involvement is closely related to perceived risk (Dholakia, 2001). While abundant research exists addressing how product involvement relates to overall perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the relationship between involvement and different types of perceived risk in an electronic commerce setting. Given that perceived risk can be a substantial barrier to the online purchase (Jarvenpaa, 2000), research addressing such an issue will offer useful implications on what specific types of perceived risk an online firm should focus on mitigating if it is to increase sales to a fullest potential. Meanwhile, past research has focused on such consumer responses as information search and dissemination as a consequence of involvement, neglecting other behavioral responses like online merchant selection. For one example, will a consumer seriously considering the purchase of a pricey Guzzi bag perceive a great degree of risk associated with online buying and therefore choose to buy it from a digital storefront rather than from an online marketplace to mitigate risk? Will a consumer require greater trust on the part of the online merchant when the perceived risk of online buying is rather high? We intend to find answers to these research questions through an empirical study. This paper explores the impact of enduring product involvement and perceived risks on required trust level, and further on online merchant choice. For the purpose of the research, five types or components of perceived risk are taken into consideration, including financial, performance, delivery, psychological, and social risks. A research model has been built around the constructs under consideration, and 12 hypotheses have been developed based on the research model to examine the relationships between enduring involvement and five components of perceived risk, between five components of perceived risk and required trust level, between enduring involvement and required trust level, and finally between required trust level and preference toward an e-tailer. To attain our research objectives, we conducted an empirical analysis consisting of two phases of data collection: a pilot test and main survey. The pilot test was conducted using 25 college students to ensure that the questionnaire items are clear and straightforward. Then the main survey was conducted using 295 college students at a major university for nine days between December 13, 2010 and December 21, 2010. The measures employed to test the model included eight constructs: (1) enduring involvement, (2) financial risk, (3) performance risk, (4) delivery risk, (5) psychological risk, (6) social risk, (7) required trust level, (8) preference toward an e-tailer. The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, was used to test the internal consistency among the items within the individual measures. Based on the Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficients of the individual measure, the reliability of all the variables is supported. Meanwhile, the Amos 18.0 package was employed to perform a confirmatory factor analysis designed to assess the unidimensionality of the measures. The goodness of fit for the measurement model was satisfied. Unidimensionality was tested using convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. The statistical evidences proved that the three types of validity were all satisfied. Now the structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the individual paths along the relationships among the research constructs. The results indicated that enduring involvement has significant positive relationships with all the five components of perceived risk, while only performance risk is significantly related to trust level required by consumers for purchase. It can be inferred from the findings that product performance problems are mostly likely to occur when a merchant behaves in an opportunistic manner. Positive relationships were also found between involvement and required trust level and between required trust level and online merchant choice. Enduring involvement is concerned with the pleasure a consumer derives from a product class and/or with the desire for knowledge for the product class, and thus is likely to motivate the consumer to look for ways of mitigating perceived risk by requiring a higher level of trust on the part of the online merchant. Likewise, a consumer requiring a high level of trust on the merchant will choose a digital storefront rather than an e-marketplace, since a digital storefront is believed to be trustworthier than an e-marketplace, as it fulfills orders by itself rather than acting as an intermediary. The findings of the present research provide both academic and practical implications. The first academic implication is that enduring product involvement is a strong motivator of consumer responses, especially the selection of a merchant, in the context of electronic shopping. Secondly, academicians are advised to pay attention to the finding that an individual component or type of perceived risk can be used as an important research construct, since it would allow one to pinpoint the specific types of risk that are influenced by antecedents or that influence consequents. Meanwhile, our research provides implications useful for online merchants (both online storefronts and e-marketplaces). Merchants may develop strategies to attract consumers by managing perceived performance risk involved in purchase decisions, since it was found to have significant positive relationship with the level of trust required by a consumer on the part of the merchant. One way to manage performance risk would be to thoroughly examine the product before shipping to ensure that it has no deficiencies or flaws. Secondly, digital storefronts are advised to focus on symbolic goods (e.g., cars, cell phones, fashion outfits, and handbags) in which consumers are relatively more involved than others, whereas e- marketplaces should put their emphasis on non-symbolic goods (e.g., drinks, books, MP3 players, and bike accessories).

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-116
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• 2011

In collaborative tagging systems such as Delicious.com and Flickr.com, users assign keywords or tags to their uploaded resources, such as bookmarks and pictures, for their future use or sharing purposes. The collection of resources and tags generated by a user is called a personomy, and the collection of all personomies constitutes the folksonomy. The most significant need of the folksonomy users Is to efficiently find useful resources or experts on specific topics. An excellent ranking algorithm would assign higher ranking to more useful resources or experts. What resources are considered useful In a folksonomic system? Does a standard superior to frequency or freshness exist? The resource recommended by more users with mere expertise should be worthy of attention. This ranking paradigm can be implemented through a graph-based ranking algorithm. Two well-known representatives of such a paradigm are Page Rank by Google and HITS(Hypertext Induced Topic Selection) by Kleinberg. Both Page Rank and HITS assign a higher evaluation score to pages linked to more higher-scored pages. HITS differs from PageRank in that it utilizes two kinds of scores: authority and hub scores. The ranking objects of these pages are limited to Web pages, whereas the ranking objects of a folksonomic system are somewhat heterogeneous(i.e., users, resources, and tags). Therefore, uniform application of the voting notion of PageRank and HITS based on the links to a folksonomy would be unreasonable, In a folksonomic system, each link corresponding to a property can have an opposite direction, depending on whether the property is an active or a passive voice. The current research stems from the Idea that a graph-based ranking algorithm could be applied to the folksonomic system using the concept of mutual Interactions between entitles, rather than the voting notion of PageRank or HITS. The concept of mutual interactions, proposed for ranking the Semantic Web resources, enables the calculation of importance scores of various resources unaffected by link directions. The weights of a property representing the mutual interaction between classes are assigned depending on the relative significance of the property to the resource importance of each class. This class-oriented approach is based on the fact that, in the Semantic Web, there are many heterogeneous classes; thus, applying a different appraisal standard for each class is more reasonable. This is similar to the evaluation method of humans, where different items are assigned specific weights, which are then summed up to determine the weighted average. We can check for missing properties more easily with this approach than with other predicate-oriented approaches. A user of a tagging system usually assigns more than one tags to the same resource, and there can be more than one tags with the same subjectivity and objectivity. In the case that many users assign similar tags to the same resource, grading the users differently depending on the assignment order becomes necessary. This idea comes from the studies in psychology wherein expertise involves the ability to select the most relevant information for achieving a goal. An expert should be someone who not only has a large collection of documents annotated with a particular tag, but also tends to add documents of high quality to his/her collections. Such documents are identified by the number, as well as the expertise, of users who have the same documents in their collections. In other words, there is a relationship of mutual reinforcement between the expertise of a user and the quality of a document. In addition, there is a need to rank entities related more closely to a certain entity. Considering the property of social media that ensures the popularity of a topic is temporary, recent data should have more weight than old data. We propose a comprehensive folksonomy ranking framework in which all these considerations are dealt with and that can be easily customized to each folksonomy site for ranking purposes. To examine the validity of our ranking algorithm and show the mechanism of adjusting property, time, and expertise weights, we first use a dataset designed for analyzing the effect of each ranking factor independently. We then show the ranking results of a real folksonomy site, with the ranking factors combined. Because the ground truth of a given dataset is not known when it comes to ranking, we inject simulated data whose ranking results can be predicted into the real dataset and compare the ranking results of our algorithm with that of a previous HITS-based algorithm. Our semantic ranking algorithm based on the concept of mutual interaction seems to be preferable to the HITS-based algorithm as a flexible folksonomy ranking framework. Some concrete points of difference are as follows. First, with the time concept applied to the property weights, our algorithm shows superior performance in lowering the scores of older data and raising the scores of newer data. Second, applying the time concept to the expertise weights, as well as to the property weights, our algorithm controls the conflicting influence of expertise weights and enhances overall consistency of time-valued ranking. The expertise weights of the previous study can act as an obstacle to the time-valued ranking because the number of followers increases as time goes on. Third, many new properties and classes can be included in our framework. The previous HITS-based algorithm, based on the voting notion, loses ground in the situation where the domain consists of more than two classes, or where other important properties, such as "sent through twitter" or "registered as a friend," are added to the domain. Forth, there is a big difference in the calculation time and memory use between the two kinds of algorithms. While the matrix multiplication of two matrices, has to be executed twice for the previous HITS-based algorithm, this is unnecessary with our algorithm. In our ranking framework, various folksonomy ranking policies can be expressed with the ranking factors combined and our approach can work, even if the folksonomy site is not implemented with Semantic Web languages. Above all, the time weight proposed in this paper will be applicable to various domains, including social media, where time value is considered important.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.63-104
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• 2011

The study examines the relationships among employee's goal orientation, IT personnel competency, personal effectiveness. The goal orientation includes learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Personal effectiveness consists of personal work satisfaction and personal work performance. In general, IT personnel competency refers to IT expert's skills, expertise, and knowledge required to perform IT activities in organizations. However, due to the advent of the internet and the generalization of IT, IT personnel competency turns out to be an important competency of technological experts as well as employees in organizations. While the competency of IT itself is important, the appropriate harmony between IT personnel's business capability and technological capability enhances the value of human resources and thus provides organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. The rapid pace of organization change places increased pressure on employees to continually update their skills and adapt their behavior to new organizational realities. This challenge raises a number of important questions concerning organizational behavior? Why do some employees display remarkable flexibility in their behavioral responses to changes in the organization, whereas others firmly resist change or experience great stress when faced with the need to alter behavior? Why do some employees continually strive to improve themselves over their life span, whereas others are content to forge through life using the same basic knowledge and skills? Why do some employees throw themselves enthusiastically into challenging tasks, whereas others avoid challenging tasks? The goal orientation proposed by organizational psychology provides at least a partial answer to these questions. Goal orientations refer to stable personally characteristics fostered by "self-theories" about the nature and development of attributes (such as intelligence, personality, abilities, and skills) people have. Self-theories are one's beliefs and goal orientations are achievement motivation revealed in seeking goals in accordance with one's beliefs. The goal orientations include learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Specifically, a learning goal orientation refers to a preference to develop the self by acquiring new skills, mastering new situations, and improving one's competence. A performance approach goal orientation refers to a preference to demonstrate and validate the adequacy of one's competence by seeking favorable judgments and avoiding negative judgments. A performance avoid goal orientation refers to a preference to avoid the disproving of one's competence and to avoid negative judgements about it, while focusing on performance. And the study also examines the moderating role of work career of employees to investigate the difference in the relationship between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness. The study analyzes the collected data using PASW 18.0 and and PLS(Partial Least Square). The study also uses PLS bootstrapping algorithm (sample size: 500) to test research hypotheses. The result shows that the influences of both a learning goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.301, t = 3.822, P < 0.000) and a performance approach goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.224, t = 2.710, P < 0.01) on IT personnel competency are positively significant, while the influence of a performance avoid goal orientation(${\beta}$ = -0.142, t = 2.398, p < 0.05) on IT personnel competency is negatively significant. The result indicates that employees differ in their psychological and behavioral responses according to the goal orientation of employees. The result also shows that the impact of a IT personnel competency on both personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.395, t = 4.897, P < 0.000) and personal work performance(${\beta}$ = 0.575, t = 12.800, P < 0.000) is positively significant. And the impact of personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.148, t = 2.432, p < 0.05) on personal work performance is positively significant. Finally, the impacts of control variables (gender, age, type of industry, position, work career) on the relationships between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness(personal work satisfaction work performance) are partly significant. In addition, the study uses PLS algorithm to find out a GoF(global criterion of goodness of fit) of the exploratory research model which includes a mediating variable, IT personnel competency. The result of analysis shows that the value of GoF is 0.45 above GoFlarge(0.36). Therefore, the research model turns out be good. In addition, the study performs a Sobel Test to find out the statistical significance of the mediating variable, IT personnel competency, which is already turned out to have the mediating effect in the research model using PLS. The result of a Sobel Test shows that the values of Z are all significant statistically (above 1.96 and below -1.96) and indicates that IT personnel competency plays a mediating role in the research model. At the present day, most employees are universally afraid of organizational changes and resistant to them in organizations in which the acceptance and learning of a new information technology or information system is particularly required. The problem is due' to increasing a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in improving past practices in accordance with new organizational changes. It is not always possible for employees with positive attitudes to perform their works suitable to organizational goals. Therefore, organizations need to identify what kinds of goal-oriented minds employees have, motivate them to do self-directed learning, and provide them with organizational environment to enhance positive aspects in their works. Thus, the study provides researchers and practitioners with a matter of primary interest in goal orientation and IT personnel competency, of which they have been unaware until very recently. Some academic and practical implications and limitations arisen in the course of the research, and suggestions for future research directions are also discussed.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.163-173
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• 2006

Purpose : To reduce the number of injections necessary to vaccinate young infants, various combined vaccines have been developed. The $Comvax^{TM}$ manufactured by Merck & Co. is a combination of Hepatitis B and PRP-OMP conjugate Haemophilus influenzae Type b vaccine. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of $Comvax^{TM}$ in Korean infants. Methods : The infants who were vaccinated at 0 months of age with Hepatitis B vaccine, were recruited for this study after parental informed consent was obtained. The subjects were vaccinated with $Comvax^{TM}$ at 2 and 4 months of age. At each visit, infants were also immunized with DTaP, inactivated poliovirus vaccine, and pneumococcal vaccine when indicated. The serum anti-PRP and anti-HBs were measured at 2 months after the 1st dose(4 months age), and the 2nd dose(6 months age) by the ELISA and chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay method, respectively. The local and systemic adverse reactions of vaccination were monitored for 3 consecutive days after each immunization. Results : Among sixty-five healthy infants(35 male infants) enrolled in this study; fifty eight(32 male infants) completed the scheduled immunizations. The geometric mean titers (GMTs) of anti-PRP at 2 months after the 1st dose and the 2nd dose were 1.96 ${\mu}g/mL$ (95% CI; 1.38~2.78) and 10.02 ${\mu}g/mL$ (95% CI; 7.04~14.26), respectively. Anti-PRP ${\geq}1.0$ ${\mu}g/mL$, was obtained in 63.2%(95% CI; 53.75~72.65) after 1 dose, and 96.6%(95% CI; 93.05~100) after 2 doses. The GMTs of anti-HBs were 38.32 mIU/mL(95% CI; 22.42~65.51), and 101.17 mIU/mL(95% CI; 65.94~155.25) at 2 month after the 1st dose and 2nd dose of $Comvax^{TM}$, respectively. Anti-HBs ${\geq}10$ mIU/mL was observed in 73.7%(95% CI; 65.07~82.33) after 1 dose and 94.8%(95% CI; 90.45~99.15) after 2 doses. Most of the adverse reactions after vaccination were mild. Irritability, the most common systemic reaction, was observed in 24.8%, followed by drowsiness(19.2%), poor feeding(19.2%) and fever(7.2%). Among the local reactions tenderness was observed in 25.6%, redness(${\geq}5$ mm) in 19.2% and swelling(${\geq}5$ mm) in 4.8%. Conclusion : The $Comvax^{TM}$ vaccine was highly immunogenic for PRP and safe in Korean infants. Although the hepatitis B vaccine component was administered at 0, 2, 4 months, this study showed good immunogenicity against HBsAg.