• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.303-303
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• 2017

Japanese agriculture has faced to several threats: aging and decrease of farmer population, global competition, and the risk of climate change as well as harsh and variable weather. On the other hands, the number of large scale farms is increasing, because farm lands have been being aggregated to fewer numbers of farms. Cost cutting, development of efficient ways to manage complicatedly scattered farm lands, maintaining yield and quality under variable weather conditions, are required to adapt to changing environments. Information and communications technology (ICT) would contribute to solve such problems and to create innovative technologies. Thus we have been developing an early warning and decision support system to reduce weather and climate risks for rice, wheat and soybean production in Japan. The concept and prototype of the system will be shown. The system consists of a weather data system (Agro-Meteorological Grid Square Data System, AMGSDS), decision support contents where information is automatically created by crop models and delivers information to users via internet. AMGSDS combines JMA's Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) data, numerical weather forecast data and normal values, for all of Japan with about 1km Grid Square throughout years. Our climate-smart system provides information on the prediction of crop phenology, created with weather forecast data and crop phenology models, as an important function. The system also makes recommendations for crop management, such as nitrogen-topdressing, suitable harvest time, water control, pesticide spray. We are also developing methods to perform risk analysis on weather-related damage to crop production. For example, we have developed an algorism to determine the best transplanting date in rice under a given environment, using the results of multi-year simulation, in order to answer the question "when is the best transplanting date to minimize yield loss, to avoid low temperature damage and to avoid high temperature damage?".

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-111
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• 2008

Due to the development of digital technology, studies regarding smart wear integrating daily life have rapidly increased. However, consumer research about perception and attitude toward smart clothing hardly could find. The purpose of this study was to identify innovative characteristics and perceived risk of smart clothing and to analyze the influences of theses factors on product attitudes and intention to adopt. Specifically, five hypotheses were established. H1: Perceived attributes of smart clothing except for complexity would have positive relations to product attitude or purchase intention, while complexity would be opposite. H2: Product attitude would have positive relation to purchase intention. H3: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention. H4: Perceived risks of smart clothing would have negative relations to perceived attributes except for complexity, and positive relations to complexity. H5: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. After pretest, the data were collected during September, 2006, from university students in Korea who were relatively sensitive to innovative products. A total of 300 final useful questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 program. About 60.3% were male with the mean age of 21.3 years old. About 59.3% reported that they were aware of smart clothing, but only 9 respondents purchased it. The mean of attitudes toward smart clothing and purchase intention was 2.96 (SD=.56) and 2.63 (SD=.65) respectively. Factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation was conducted to identify perceived attribute and perceived risk dimensions. Perceived attributes of smart wear were categorized into relative advantage (including compatibility), observability (including triability), and complexity. Perceived risks were identified into physical/performance risk, social psychological risk, time loss risk, and economic risk. Regression analysis was conducted to test five hypotheses. Relative advantage and observability were significant predictors of product attitude (adj $R^2$=.223) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.221). Complexity showed negative influence on product attitude. Product attitude presented significant relation to purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.692) and partial mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.698). Therefore hypothesis one to three were accepted. In order to test hypothesis four, four dimensions of perceived risk and demographic variables (age, gender, monthly household income, awareness of smart clothing, and purchase experience) were entered as independent variables in the regression models. Social psychological risk, economic risk, and gender (female) were significant to predict relative advantage (adj $R^2$=.276). When perceived observability was a dependent variable, social psychological risk, time loss risk, physical/performance risk, and age (younger) were significant in order (adj $R^2$=.144). However, physical/performance risk was positively related to observability. The more Koreans seemed to be observable of smart clothing, the more increased the probability of physical harm or performance problems received. Complexity was predicted by product awareness, social psychological risk, economic risk, and purchase experience in order (adj $R^2$=.114). Product awareness was negatively related to complexity, meaning high level of product awareness would reduce complexity of smart clothing. However, purchase experience presented positive relation with complexity. It appears that consumers can perceive high level of complexity when they are actually consuming smart clothing in real life. Risk variables were positively related with complexity. That is, in order to decrease complexity, it is also necessary to consider minimizing anxiety factors about social psychological wound or loss of money. Thus, hypothesis 4 was partially accepted. Finally, in testing hypothesis 5, social psychological risk and economic risk were significant predictors for product attitude (adj $R^2$=.122) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.099) respectively. When attitude variable was included with risk variables as independent variables in the regression model to predict purchase intention, only attitude variable was significant (adj $R^2$=.691). Thus attitude variable presented full mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention, and hypothesis 5 was accepted. Findings would provide guidelines for fashion and electronic businesses who aim to create and strengthen positive attitude toward smart clothing. Marketers need to consider not only functional feature of smart clothing, but also practical and aesthetic attributes, since appropriateness for social norm or self image would reduce uncertainty of psychological or social risk, which increase relative advantage of smart clothing. Actually social psychological risk was significantly associated to relative advantage. Economic risk is negatively associated with product attitudes as well as purchase intention, suggesting that smart-wear developers have to reflect on price ranges of potential adopters. It will be effective to utilize the findings associated with complexity when marketers in US plan communication strategy.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.170-179
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• 2016

In this paper we have tackled the outstanding inventory planning problems over new product launching period in a more holistic manner by addressing first the definition of efficient business rules to effectively control and reduce the inventory risks followed by the rigorous explanations on the implementation guide on suggested inventory planning rules. It is not unusual for many companies in the consumer electronics market to make a great effort to reduce the time to launch a new product because the ability to bring out higher performing products in such a short time period greatly increases the probability for them to remain competitive in the high tech market. Among so many newly developed products, those products with new features and technologies appeal to many potential customers while products which fail to win customers by design and prices rapidly disappear in the market. To adapt to this business environment, those companies have been trying to find the answer to minimize the inventory of old products so they can move to next generation products quickly with less obsolete material. In the experimental implementation of our rule-based inventory planning, Company 'S' reduced the inventory cost for the outgoing products as low as 49% of its peak level of its preceding product version in just 5 month after the adoption of rule-based inventory planning process and system. This paper concluded the subject with a suggestion that the best performance of rule-based inventory planning is guaranteed not from one-time campaign of process improvement along with system development but the decision maker's continuing support and attention even without seeing any upcoming business crisis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1415-1420
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• 2015

Background: We compared the health-promoting behavior of long-term cancer survivors with those of the general population to identify necessary behavioral interventions to reduce the health risk among cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We used data from the 2007 and 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES IV [2007~2009] and KNHANES V [2010~2012]) on smoking status, alcohol use, physical exercise, and disease screening. We compared long-term cancer survivors with members of the general population; the controls were matched by propensity score matching. A multiple logistic regression model was used to investigate the association between cancer status and health-promoting behavior. Results: Long-term cancer survivors had a lower risk of smoking than the general population controls (OR: 0.42, 95%CI: 0.25-0.71). In addition, the long-term cancer survivors had a lower risk of alcohol use than the general population controls (OR: 0.70, 95%CI: 0.50-0.98). However, in terms of physical exercise and disease screening, no statistically significant differences were detected (physical exercise OR: 1.01, 95%CI: 0.75-1.35; disease screening OR: 1.27, 95%CI: 0.93-1.74). All covariates were adjusted. Conclusions: The long-term cancer survivors had a much lower risk of smoking and alcohol use than the general population controls. However, almost no differences in physical exercise and screening for cancer recurrence or secondary disease were detected between the long-term cancer survivors and general population controls. To reduce the health risks and challenges facing long-term cancer survivors, interventions to encourage physical exercise and screening for cancer recurrence and secondary disease should be implemented.

• Plant Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2013

This study investigates the risks that can occur during the development stage of IPP project in developing countries. In case that ECA and MLA cannot participate due to poor credit rating of the country, the diversification of power purchaser in marginal states can be a great help to reduce both market risk and country risk at the same time. In case of thermal power plants and combined cycle power plants, the effect of performance degradation as time passed will be considered and expected profit of sponsors should be maintained. Recently, developing countries are expanding IPP projects to reduce the financing cost and Korean power companies are positively participating in IPP projects. Accordingly, the loss of Korean companies should be minimized by risk management through the risk mitigation methods of this study.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.194-204
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• 2019

The mobile payment app market has been expanding recently. However, the usage rate of mobile payment apps is not meeting service providers' expectations due to concerns about security and privacy. This study investigated how personal predisposition and how the security signals of the payment app affect users' perceived privacy and security risks, and how these factors ultimately affect the trust of mobile payment apps. The results showed that privacy concerns increase the risk of perceived personal information leaks and reduce perceived mobile system security, while familiarity, perceived reputation, and assurance seal reduce the risk of perceived personal information leaks and increase perceived mobile system security. Finally, it revealed that the reduced risk of perceived personal information leaks and the increased security of mobile systems had a positive impact on the reliability of mobile payment apps.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.352-367
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• 2021

Purpose: Minimally invasive gastrectomy is a promising surgical method with well-known benefits, including reduced postoperative complications. However, for total gastrectomy of gastric cancers, this approach does not significantly reduce the risk of complications. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the incidence and risk factors for the severity of complications associated with minimally invasive total gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The study included 392 consecutive patients with gastric cancer who underwent either laparoscopic or robotic total gastrectomy between 2011 and 2019. Clinicopathological and operative characteristics were assessed to determine the features related to postoperative complications after minimally invasive total gastrectomy. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression models were used to identify the risk factors for overall complications and mild and severe complications, respectively. Results: Of 103 (26.3%) patients experiencing complications, 66 (16.8%) and 37 (9.4%) developed mild and severe complications, respectively. On multivariate multinomial regression analysis, independent predictors of severe complications included obesity (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.02-6.43; P=0.046), advanced stage (OR, 2.90; 95% CI, 1.13-7.43; P=0.026), and more intraoperative bleeding (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02-1.06; P=0.001). Operation time was the only independent risk factor for mild complications (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.001-1.13; P=0.047). Conclusions: The risk factors for mild and severe complications were associated with surgery, indicating surgical difficulty. Surgeons should be aware of these potential risks that are related to the severity of complications so as to reduce surgery-related complications after minimally invasive total gastrectomy for gastric cancer.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2023

Purpose: The risk of disaster from extreme weather events is increasing due to the increase in occurrence and the strength of heavy rains and storms from continued climate change. To reduce these risks, emergency weather information customized for the characteristics of the information users and related circumstances should be provided. Method: A first-stage emergency weather information delivery system has been developed to provide weather information to the disaster-risk area residents and the disaster response personnel. Novel methods to apply artificial intelligence to identify emergencies have been studied. The relationship between special weather reports from meteorological administration and disaster-related news articles has been analyzed to identify the significance of a pilot study using text analytic artificial intelligence. Result: The basis to identify the significance of the relations between disaster-related articles and special weather reports has been established and the possibility of the development of a real-world applicable system based on a broader analysis of data has been suggested. Conclusion: Through direct alert delivery of weather emergency alerts, a weather emergency alert system is expected to reduce the risk of damage from extreme weather situations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.217-218
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• 2021

With the prolonged Covid-19 epidemic, movement restrictions such as social distancing are prolonged, and as people stay indoors for a longer time, interest in indoor air pollution is increasing. Indoor air quality is not easily purified unlike outdoors. Among indoor building materials, paints and flooring contain formaldehyde that causes sick house syndrome and VOCs that contain carcinogenicity and harmfulness. For modern people who spend a lot of time living indoors for more than an hour, the occurrence of these harmful substances can be said to be fatal. In response to these risks, in July 2019, the government reinforced the standards for indoor air quality to protect the public's health by raising the detection standards for fine dust, ultrafine dust, and formaldehyde in indoor multi-use facilities. People use machines such as air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, or make efforts such as periodic ventilation. In order to reduce or support these other ancillary efforts more effectively, to reduce the generation of pollutants in the building itself, or to adsorb or purify pollutants in the air, use carbon black as an admixture to make a cement hardened body, and to grasp basic physical properties and adsorption capacity. And the result is as follows. As a result of the experiment to determine the appropriate amount of carbon black, it was confirmed that the more the amount of carbon black was added, the better it was in the formaldehyde emission test, but the tendency was not clear when measuring the flexural strength, so a further experiment to improve this is needed.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2023

Purpose - Using a sample of Korean multinational corporations, we examine whether the relationship between tax risk and the implied cost of capital discriminates between the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) of highly rated firms. Design/methodology - Firms with high tax risks have an increased uncertainty of future cash flows. Therefore, as the volatility of future cash flow increases, information asymmetry and the required return increases. Highly rated ESG firms can reduce information asymmetry, thereby weakening the positive relationship between tax risk and cost of capital. We employ the standard deviation of the cash effective tax rate as proxy of tax risk. We utilize the ESG rating data of the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS). We use a PEG model, MPEG model, and GM model to measure the implied cost of capital. Findings - We find a positive association between the implied cost of capital and tax risk. The positive relationship between tax risk and the implied cost of capital weakens in highly rated ESG firms. Highly rated ESG firms prefer a stable tax position to invest after-tax cash flows into sustainable management. Therefore, the negative effects of tax risk on cost of capital can be reduced. Originality/value - This study provides empirical evidence that ESG activities can mitigate the negative impact of tax risk on the cost of capital for Korean multinational corporations. In a business environment where ESG activities are more important, the empirical results that ESG activities can reduce the corporate risk of Korean FDI companies are expected to provide implications for the ESG activities of multinational corporations.