• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.80-91
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• 2017

Multiple prior studies stress that continued Kaizen activity is conducive to building and maintaining competitive advantages of manufacturing companies. Meanwhile, it remains unclear as to what kind of management factors may exert impact on sustainment of Kaizen activity. This paper discusses a study conducted on the cases of two manufacturing lines, where such activity has been continued for more than ten years. At first, it was discovered that study period was divided into different periods. It was also found out that 'standstill conditions' which prevent smooth progress of activity exist in many periods, and that such conditions are hard to avoid. The study went on to categorize progress of activity in each period into different patterns, including at which points standstill conditions occurred, thereby, circumstances of standstill conditions were made clear. This paper verified a detailed process of Kaizen activity development in each period and the relationship between that detailed process and points of occurrence of standstill conditions. Thought was also given to factors and actions for smooth development, and effects brought about by overcoming such challenges. Lastly, consideration was given to the future perspectives of the study for elucidating how better Kaizen activity may be managed for continuation.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.190-198
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• 1992

Among the variety of welding processes available, the flux cored arc welding is one of the most frequently used process, because of its wide range of application and high productivity. The weld joint tracking is indispensable to improve the flexibility of the arc welding robot application for the flux cored arc welding (FCAW) process. In this study, an arc sensor which utilizes the electrical signal obtained from the welding arc itself was developed for weld joint tracking in FCAW. Because a model of the welding arc in flux cored arc welding was required to develop the arc sensor, a mathematical model was proposed by analysing the welding arc behaviour, and also an experimental model by using the factorial experiment and least square method. For overcoming the fluctuation in the welding current signal during tracking the weld joint, it was fitted to a curve which is inversely proportional to a trace of tip-to-workpiece distance by using the quadratic curve-fitting method.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.677-684
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• 2006

An ejector is a fluid transfer device to be used for mixing of fluids, maintaining vacuum, and overcoming a poor suction condition. To date, most ejectors have been made from the casting process. which is time-consuming and high-cost process. Therefore, a new production method of ejectors is desired if any. In this experimental study, we proposed a new type ejector manufactured from the commercial fitting materials and the welding process, which is equipped with an orifice type nozzle. The proposed ejector has a good integrity compared with the conventional ejector because the fittings have manufactured by forging and they have more strength than the casting materials. Furthermore we adopted a multi-opening orifice type nozzle for improving a suction capacity and compared with a single-opening orifice type nozzle. From the experimental results. we confirmed that the multi-opening nozzle had a food suction capacity than the single-opening nozzle and the proposed new type ejector showed higher vacuum than the conventional type ejector in non-load condition. These improved characteristics suggests that a new type ejector by using the commercial fittings opens the feasibility to be adopted in various industry fields and that the increased suction capacity can be achieved by altering the nozzle design of a conventional ejector.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.661-666
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• 2016

This study was to explore the living experiences of the disabled adults who were participating in public education Yahak program held at evening class. The study designed in-depth interviews with ten disabled people using a grounded theory approach. Through analyzing process, 34 concepts, 15 subcategories, and eight categories were deduced. In axial coding, casual condition, 'Suffering from unknown cause disabilities' and 'Isolated by social cause', context condition, 'Taking discriminative treat for disabilities' impacted on phenomenon, 'Overcoming their conditions by themselves'. Intervening conditions was 'Taking social supports' and action-interaction condition, 'Enjoying public programs' totally lead to consequence in 'Controlling daily life' and 'Exploring their own social roles'. The periods of process were divided three stages, reflecting disabled situation, formation phase of social relation, and self-developing phase. The core category, 'Trying to be recognized as a member of society' incorporated the relationship between and among all categories and explained the process. The study indicates that social education program for the disabled helped to develop themselves as a member of society. Therefore, we suggest there may be a need for training for professionals who work with disabled people to develop social adaptation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.521-531
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• 2020

The behavior variation of concrete dam is investigated, based on a new method for analyzing the data model of concrete dam in service process for the limitation of wavelet transform for solving concrete dam service process model. The study takes into account the time and position of behavior change during the process of concrete dam service. There is no dependence on the effect quantity for overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional identification method. The panel data model is firstly proposed for analyzing the behavior change of composite concrete dam. The change-point theory is used to identify whether the behavior of concrete dams changes during service. The phase space reconstruction technique is used to reconstruct the phase plane of the trend effect component. The time dimension method is used to solve the construction of multi-transformation model of composite panel data. An existing 76.3-m-high dam is used to investigate some key issues on the behavior change. Emphasis is placed on conversion time and location for three time periods consistent with the practical analysis report for evaluating the validity of the analysis method of the behavior variation of concrete dams presented in this paper.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.50-71
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• 2014

This paper is an attempt to understand the external technology acquisition (ETA) process of the machinery SME sector in Bangalore city, India. With the onset of economic liberalization, Bangalore based machinery SMEs have significantly shifted their ETAs from India to abroad, particularly Germany and Japan, among others. The primary objective of ETAs is to enhance their competitiveness by means of improving product quality and productivity as well as meeting customer demand. Replacing outdated machinery or overcoming technological obsolescence is a primary objective of only a few. As a result, majority of the SMEs has gone for multiple ETAs since their inception and we found a statistically significant positive correlation between firm age and number of ETAs. The present study has made two empirical contributions: (i) We have thrown light on the core technology up-gradation issue - How do SMEs approach the problem of external technology acquisition in the current globalization era? (ii) We are able to identify and develop a map of ETA process based on the "learning and experiences" of these SMEs.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.274-286
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• 2009

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant raw material for bioconversion in many country. However the high costs for pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis currently deter commercialization of lignocellulosic biomass, especially wood biomass which is considered as the most recalcitrant material for enzymatic hydrolysis mainly due to the high lignified structure and the nature of the lignin component. Therefore, overcoming recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass for converting carbohydrates into intermediates that can subsequently be converted into biobased fuels and biobased products is the primary technical and economic challenge for bioconversion process. This study was mainly reviewed on the research trend of pretreatment with lignocellulosic biomass in bioethanol production process.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.12spc
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• pp.375-382
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• 2021

The paper introduces a model for evaluating and prioritizing mobile quality attributes and refactoring techniques through the examination of their effectiveness during the mobile application development process. The astonishing evolution of software and hardware has increased the demand for techniques and best practices to overcome the many challenges related to mobile devices, such as those concerning device storage, network bandwidth, and energy consumption. A number of studies have investigated the influence of refactoring, leading to the enhancement of mobile applications and the overcoming of code issues as well as hardware issues. Furthermore, rapid and continuous mobile developments make it necessary for teams to apply effective techniques to produce reliable mobile applications and reduce time to market. Thus, we investigated the influence of various refactoring techniques on mobile applications to understand their effectiveness in terms of quality attributes. First, we extracted the most important mobile refactoring techniques and a set of quality attributes from the literature. Then, mobile application developers from nine mobile application teams were recruited to evaluate and prioritize these quality attributes and refactoring techniques for their projects. A prioritization-based model is examined that integrates the lightweight multi-criteria decision making method, called the best-worst method, with the process of refactoring within mobile applications. The results prove the applicability and suitability of adopting the model for the mobile development process in order to expedite application production while using well-defined procedures to select the best refactoring techniques. Finally, a variety of quality attributes are shown to be influenced by the adoption of various refactoring techniques.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.119-140
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate and confirm the main factors of IMAGO relationship therapy(IRT) which influences overcoming a crisis of divorce, the role of the Imago relationship therapist and the changes made by the couple themselves in the process of the therapy. Method: This case study was based on the interviews with a couple who had participated in ten sessions of IRT. The couple who had been in the middle of a divorce lawsuit withdrew their suit after the therapy. The Interviews were conducted twice on the couple. The data from the interviews were analyzed by using constant comparative analysis, open coding method and Miles & Huberman's network display. Results: The findings of the study were as follows. Firstly, the factors influencing overcoming a crisis of divorce included preparation for the Imago dialogue and the structure of the Imago dialogue. Secondly, the role of the therapist was providing safety and confidence, deepening couple's conversations, and building the connectedness of the couple. Thirdly, the changes evident after the therapy included awareness of the influence of the original family, new image formation for each spouse, intimacy restoration and a changed perspective. Conclusions: Based on the findings, the study can contribute to healthy relational progress of married couples in conflict by developing the conditions to effectively apply the IRT. In addition, this study can be used to equip therapists with necessary tools and abilities for the therapy.

• Journal of Leisure Studies
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.39-59
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand and investigate the process of making negotiation strategy to do leisure activity with overcoming leisure constraints which highschool students participating in their club activity meet. For this study, students who have at least one-year career for their club activity -more than two times a week and two hours at a time -were selected. Survey through in-depth interview, non-participating observation and field note were conducted. The results are as follow. Firstly, the fascination for club activity was the important factor for overcoming leisure constraints. Secondly, leisure constraints never let students stop doing their activity. Thirdly, the subjects of this study practiced negotiation strategies and came to have self-achievement and self-esteem, improving their relationships effectively. Finally, it was found out that they were creating their own club culture with continuous leisure constraints negotiation. The results of this study present the case and the method of continuous students' participation in their leisure and are able to help them to build up their positive leisure experiences.