• Title/Summary/Keyword: Reduction efficiency

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Preliminary Inspection Prediction Model to select the on-Site Inspected Foreign Food Facility using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (차원축소를 활용한 해외제조업체 대상 사전점검 예측 모형에 관한 연구)

  • Hae Jin Park;Jae Suk Choi;Sang Goo Cho
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.121-142
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    • 2023
  • As the number and weight of imported food are steadily increasing, safety management of imported food to prevent food safety accidents is becoming more important. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety conducts on-site inspections of foreign food facilities before customs clearance as well as import inspection at the customs clearance stage. However, a data-based safety management plan for imported food is needed due to time, cost, and limited resources. In this study, we tried to increase the efficiency of the on-site inspection by preparing a machine learning prediction model that pre-selects the companies that are expected to fail before the on-site inspection. Basic information of 303,272 foreign food facilities and processing businesses collected in the Integrated Food Safety Information Network and 1,689 cases of on-site inspection information data collected from 2019 to April 2022 were collected. After preprocessing the data of foreign food facilities, only the data subject to on-site inspection were extracted using the foreign food facility_code. As a result, it consisted of a total of 1,689 data and 103 variables. For 103 variables, variables that were '0' were removed based on the Theil-U index, and after reducing by applying Multiple Correspondence Analysis, 49 characteristic variables were finally derived. We build eight different models and perform hyperparameter tuning through 5-fold cross validation. Then, the performance of the generated models are evaluated. The research purpose of selecting companies subject to on-site inspection is to maximize the recall, which is the probability of judging nonconforming companies as nonconforming. As a result of applying various algorithms of machine learning, the Random Forest model with the highest Recall_macro, AUROC, Average PR, F1-score, and Balanced Accuracy was evaluated as the best model. Finally, we apply Kernal SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) to present the selection reason for nonconforming facilities of individual instances, and discuss applicability to the on-site inspection facility selection system. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that it will contribute to the efficient operation of limited resources such as manpower and budget by establishing an imported food management system through a data-based scientific risk management model.

Analysis of Predicted Reduction Characteristics of Ash Deposition Using Kaolin as a Additive During Pulverized Biomass Combustion and Co-firing with Coal (미분탄 연소 시스템에 바이오매스 혼소시 카올린 첨가제 적용에 따른 회 점착 저감 특성 예측 연구)

  • Jiseon Park;Jaewook Lee;Yongwoon Lee;Youngjae Lee;Won Yang;Taeyoung Chae;Jaekwan Kim
    • Clean Technology
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.193-199
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    • 2023
  • Biomass has been used to secure renewable energy certificates (REC) in domestic and overseas coal-fired power plants. In recent years, biofuel has been diversified from traditional wood pellets to non-woody biomass. Non-woody biomass has a higher content of alkaline metals such as K and Na than wood-based biomass, resulting in a lower melting point and an increase in slagging on boiler tubes, which reduces boiler efficiency. This study analyzed the effect of kaolin, an additive commonly used to increase melting points, on biomass co-firing to coal through thermochemical equilibrium calculations. In a previous experiment on biomass co-firing to coal conducted at 80 kWth, it was interpreted that the use of kaolin actually increased the amount of fouling. In this study, analysis showed that when kaolin was added, aluminosilicate compounds were generated due to Al2O3, which is abundant in coal, and mullite was formed. Thus, it was confirmed that the amount of slag increased when more kaolin was used. Further analysis was conducted by increasing the biomass co-firing rate from 0% to 100% at 10% intervals, and the results showed non-linear liquid slag generation. As a result, it was found that the least amount of liquid slag was generated when the biomass co-firing rate was between 50 and 60%. The phase diagram analysis showed that high melting point compounds such as leucite and feldspar were most abundantly generated under these conditions.

Development of the paper bagging machine for grapes (휴대용 포도자동결속기 개발연구)

  • Park, K.H.;Lee, Y.C.;Moon, B.W.
    • Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.79-94
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    • 2009
  • The research project was conducted to develop a paper bagging machine for grape. This technology was aimed to highly reduce a labor for paper bagging in grape and bakery. In agriculture labor and farm population has rapidly decreased since 1980 in Korea so there was so limit in labor. In particular there is highly population in women and old age at rural area and thus labor cost is so high. Therefore a labor saving technology in agricultural sector might be needed to be replaced these old age with mechanical and labor saving tool in agriculture. The following was summarized of the research results for development of a paper bagging machine for grape. 1. Development of a new paper bagging machine for grape - This machine was designed by CATIA VI2/AUTO CAD2000 programme. - A paper bagging machine was mechanically binded a paper bag of grape which should be light and small size. This machine would be designed for women and old age with convenience during bagging work at the field site. - This machine was manufactured with total weight of less than 350g. - An overage bagging operation was more than 99% at the actual field process. - A paper bagging machine was designed with cartridge type which would be easily operated between rows and grape branches under field condition. - The type of cartridge pin was designed as a C-ring type with the length of 500mm which was good for bagging both grape and bakery. - In particular this machine was developed to easily operated among vines of the grape trees. 2. Field trials of a paper bagging machine in grape - There was high in grape quality as compared to the untreated control at the application of paper bagging machine. - The efficiency of paper bagging machine was 102% which was alternative tool for the conventional. - The roll pin of paper bagging machine was good with 5.3cm in terms of bagging precision. - There was no in grape quality between the paper bagging machine and the conventional method. - Disease infection and grape break was not in difference both treatments.

Influence of a chemical additive on the reduction of highly concentrated ammonium nitrogen(NH4+-N) in pig wastewater (양돈 폐수로부터 고농도 암모니아성 질소의 감소를 위한 화학적 첨가제의 영향)

  • Su Ho Bae;Eun Kim;Keon Sang Ryoo
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.267-274
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    • 2022
  • Excess nitrogen (N) flowing from livestock manure to water systems poses a serious threat to the natural environment. Thus, livestock wastewater management has recently drawn attention to this related field. This study first attempted to obtain the optimal conditions for the further volatilization of NH3 gas generated from pig wastewater by adjusting the amount of injected magnesia (MgO). At 0.8 wt.% of MgO (by pig wastewater weight), the volatility rate of NH3 increased to 75.5% after a day of aeration compared to untreated samples (pig wastewater itself). This phenomenon was attributed to increases in the pH of pig wastewater as MgO dissolved in it, increasing the volatilization efficiency of NH3. The initial pH of pig wastewater was 8.4, and the pH was 9.2 when MgO was added up to 0.8 wt.%. Second, the residual ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) in pig wastewater was removed by precipitation in the form of struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O) by adjusting the pH after adding MgO and H3PO4. Struvite produced in the pig wastewater was identified by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. White precipitates began to form at pH 6, and the higher the pH, the lower the concentration of NH4+-N in pig wastewater. Of the total 86.1% of NH4+-N removed, 62.4% was achieved at pH 6, which was the highest removal rate. Furthermore, how struvite changes with pH was investigated. Under conditions of pH 11 or higher, the synthesized struvite was completely decomposed. The yield of struvite in the precipitate was determined to be between 68% and 84% through a variety of analyses.

Distribution of Agalmatolite Mines in South Korea and Their Utilization (한국의 납석 광산 분포 현황 및 활용 방안)

  • Seong-Seung Kang;Taeyoo Na;Jeongdu Noh
    • The Journal of Engineering Geology
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.543-553
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    • 2023
  • The current status of domestic a agalmatolite mines in South Korea was investigated with a view to establishing a stable supply of agalmatolite and managing its demand. Most mined agalmatolite deposits were formed through hydrothermal alteration of Mesozoic volcanic rocks. The physical characteristics of pyrophyllite, the main constituent mineral of agalmatolite, are as follows: specific gravity 2.65~2.90, hardness 1~2, density 1.60~1.80 g/cm3, refractoriness ≥29, and color white, gray, grayish white, grayish green, yellow, or yellowish green. Among the chemical components of domestic agalmatolite, SiO2 and Al2O3 contents are respectively 58.2~67.2 and 23.1~28.8 wt.% for pyrophyllite, 49.2~72.6 and 16.5~31.0 wt.% for pyrophyllite + dickite, 45.1 and 23.3 wt.% for pyrophyllite + illite, 43.1~82.3 and 11.4~35.8 wt.% for illite, and 37.6~69.0 and 19.6~35.3 wt.% for dickite. Domestic agalmatolite mines are concentrated mainly in the southwest and southeast of the Korean Peninsula, with some occurring in the northeast. Twenty-one mines currently produce agalmatolite in South Korea, with reserves in the order of Jeonnam (45.6%) > Chungbuk (30.8%) > Gyeongnam (13.0%) > Gangwon (4.8%), and Gyeongbuk (4.8%). The top 10 agalmatolite-producing mines are in the order of the Central Resources Mine (37.9%) > Wando Mine (25.6%) > Naju Ceramic Mine (13.4%) > Cheongseok-Sajiwon Mine (5.4%) > Gyeongju Mine (5.0%) > Baekam Mine (5.0%) > Minkyung-Nohwado Mine (3.3%) > Bugok Mine (2.3%) > Jinhae Pylphin Mine (2.2%) > Bohae Mine. Agalmatolite has low thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, thermal deformation, and expansion coefficients, low bulk density, high heat and corrosion resistance, and high sterilization and insecticidal efficiency. Accordingly, it is used in fields such as refractory, ceramic, cement additive, sterilization, and insecticide manufacturing and in filling materials. Its scope of use is expanding to high-tech industries, such as water treatment ceramic membranes, diesel exhaust gas-reduction ceramic filters, glass fibers, and LCD panels.

Comparison and evaluation between 3D-bolus and step-bolus, the assistive radiotherapy devices for the patients who had undergone modified radical mastectomy surgery (변형 근치적 유방절제술 시행 환자의 방사선 치료 시 3D-bolus와 step-bolus의 비교 평가)

  • Jang, Wonseok;Park, Kwangwoo;Shin, Dongbong;Kim, Jongdae;Kim, Seijoon;Ha, Jinsook;Jeon, Mijin;Cho, Yoonjin;Jung, Inho
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.7-16
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    • 2016
  • Purpose : This study aimed to compare and evaluate between the efficiency of two respective devices, 3D-bolus and step-bolus when the devices were used for the treatment of patients whose chest walls were required to undergo the electron beam therapy after the surgical procedure of modified radical mastectomy, MRM. Materials and Methods : The treatment plan of reverse hockey stick method, using the photon beam and electron beam, had been set for six breast cancer patients and these 6 breast cancer patients were selected to be the subjects for this study. The prescribed dose of electron beam for anterior chest wall was set to be 180 cGy per treatment and both the 3D-bolus, produced using 3D printer(CubeX, 3D systems, USA) and the self-made conventional step-bolus were used respectively. The surface dose under 3D-bolus and step-bolus was measured at 5 measurement spots of iso-center, lateral, medial, superior and inferior point, using GAFCHROMIC EBT3 film (International specialty products, USA) and the measured value of dose at 5 spots was compared and analyzed. Also the respective treatment plan was devised, considering the adoption of 3D-bolus and stepbolus and the separate treatment results were compared to each other. Results : The average surface dose was 179.17 cGy when the device of 3D-bolus was adopted and 172.02 cGy when step-bolus was adopted. The average error rate against the prescribed dose of 180 cGy was -(minus) 0.47% when the device of 3D-bolus was adopted and it was -(minus) 4.43% when step-bolus was adopted. It was turned out that the maximum error rate at the point of iso-center was 2.69%, in case of 3D-bolus adoption and it was 5,54% in case of step-bolus adoption. The maximum discrepancy in terms of treatment accuracy was revealed to be about 6% when step-bolus was adopted and to be about 3% when 3D-bolus was adopted. The difference in average target dose on chest wall between 3D-bolus treatment plan and step-bolus treatment plan was shown to be insignificant as the difference was only 0.3%. However, to mention the average prescribed dose for the part of lung and heart, that of 3D-bolus was decreased by 11% for lung and by 8% for heart, compared to that of step-bolus. Conclusion : It was confirmed through this research that the dose uniformity could be improved better through the device of 3D-bolus than through the device of step-bolus, as the device of 3D-bolus, produced in consideration of the contact condition of skin surface of chest wall, could be attached to patients' skin more nicely and the thickness of chest wall can be guaranteed more accurately by the device of 3D-bolus. It is considered that 3D-bolus device can be highly appreciated clinically because 3D-bolus reduces the dose on the adjacent organs and make the normal tissues protected, while that gives no reduction of dose on chest wall.

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The Plan of Dose Reduction by Measuring and Evaluating Occupationally Exposed Dose in vivo Tests of Nuclear Medicine (핵의학 체내검사 업무 단계 별 피폭선량 측정 및 분석을 통한 피폭선량 감소 방안)

  • Kil, Sang-Hyeong;Lim, Yeong-Hyeon;Park, Kwang-Youl;Jo, Kyung-Nam;Kim, Jung-Hun;Oh, Ji-Eun;Lee, Sang-Hyup;Lee, Su-Jung;Jun, Ji-Tak;Jung, Eui-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.26-32
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: It is to find the way to minimize occupationally exposed dose for workers in vivo tests in each working stage within the range of the working environment which does not ruin the examination and the performance efficiency. Materials and Methods: The process of the nuclear tests in vivo using a radioactive isotope consists of radioisotope distribution, a radioisotope injection ($^{99m}Tc$, $^{18}F$-FDG), and scanning and guiding patients. Using a measuring instrument of RadEye-G10 gamma survey meter (Thermo SCIENTIFIC), the exposure doses in each working stage are measured and evaluated. Before the radioisotope injection the patients are explained about the examination and educated about matters that require attention. It is to reduce the meeting time with the patients. In addition, workers are also educated about the outside exposure and have to put on the protected devices. When the radioisotope is injected to the patients the exposure doses are measured due to whether they are in the protected devices or not. It is also measured due to whether there are the explanation about the examination and the education about matters that require attention or not. The total exposure dose is visualized into the graph in using Microsoft office excel 2007. The difference of this doses are analyzed by wilcoxon signed ranks test in using SPSS (statistical package for the social science) program 12.0. In this case of p<0.01, this study is reliable in the statistics. Results: It was reliable in the statistics that the exposure dose of injecting $^{99m}Tc$-DPD 20 mCi in wearing the protected devices showed 88% smaller than the dose of injecting it without the protected devices. However, it was not reliable in the statistics that the exposure dose of injecting $^{18}F$-FDG 10 mCi with wearing protected devices had 26% decrease than without them. Training before injecting $^{99m}Tc$-DPD 20 mCi to patient made the exposure dose drop to 63% comparing with training after the injection. The dose of training before injecting $^{18}F$-FDG 10 mCi had 52% less then the training after the injection. Both of them were reliable in the statistics. Conclusion: In the examination of using the radioisotope $^{99m}Tc$, wearing the protected devices are more effective to reduce the exposure dose than without wearing them. In the case of using $^{18}F$-FDG, reducing meeting time with patients is more effective to drop the exposure dose. Therefore if we try to protect workers from radioactivity according to each radioisotope characteristic it could be more effective and active radiation shield from radioactivity.

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Improved Social Network Analysis Method in SNS (SNS에서의 개선된 소셜 네트워크 분석 방법)

  • Sohn, Jong-Soo;Cho, Soo-Whan;Kwon, Kyung-Lag;Chung, In-Jeong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.117-127
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    • 2012
  • Due to the recent expansion of the Web 2.0 -based services, along with the widespread of smartphones, online social network services are being popularized among users. Online social network services are the online community services which enable users to communicate each other, share information and expand human relationships. In the social network services, each relation between users is represented by a graph consisting of nodes and links. As the users of online social network services are increasing rapidly, the SNS are actively utilized in enterprise marketing, analysis of social phenomenon and so on. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the systematic way to analyze social relationships among the members of the social network using the network theory. In general social network theory consists of nodes and arcs, and it is often depicted in a social network diagram. In a social network diagram, nodes represent individual actors within the network and arcs represent relationships between the nodes. With SNA, we can measure relationships among the people such as degree of intimacy, intensity of connection and classification of the groups. Ever since Social Networking Services (SNS) have drawn increasing attention from millions of users, numerous researches have made to analyze their user relationships and messages. There are typical representative SNA methods: degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality. In the degree of centrality analysis, the shortest path between nodes is not considered. However, it is used as a crucial factor in betweenness centrality, closeness centrality and other SNA methods. In previous researches in SNA, the computation time was not too expensive since the size of social network was small. Unfortunately, most SNA methods require significant time to process relevant data, and it makes difficult to apply the ever increasing SNS data in social network studies. For instance, if the number of nodes in online social network is n, the maximum number of link in social network is n(n-1)/2. It means that it is too expensive to analyze the social network, for example, if the number of nodes is 10,000 the number of links is 49,995,000. Therefore, we propose a heuristic-based method for finding the shortest path among users in the SNS user graph. Through the shortest path finding method, we will show how efficient our proposed approach may be by conducting betweenness centrality analysis and closeness centrality analysis, both of which are widely used in social network studies. Moreover, we devised an enhanced method with addition of best-first-search method and preprocessing step for the reduction of computation time and rapid search of the shortest paths in a huge size of online social network. Best-first-search method finds the shortest path heuristically, which generalizes human experiences. As large number of links is shared by only a few nodes in online social networks, most nods have relatively few connections. As a result, a node with multiple connections functions as a hub node. When searching for a particular node, looking for users with numerous links instead of searching all users indiscriminately has a better chance of finding the desired node more quickly. In this paper, we employ the degree of user node vn as heuristic evaluation function in a graph G = (N, E), where N is a set of vertices, and E is a set of links between two different nodes. As the heuristic evaluation function is used, the worst case could happen when the target node is situated in the bottom of skewed tree. In order to remove such a target node, the preprocessing step is conducted. Next, we find the shortest path between two nodes in social network efficiently and then analyze the social network. For the verification of the proposed method, we crawled 160,000 people from online and then constructed social network. Then we compared with previous methods, which are best-first-search and breath-first-search, in time for searching and analyzing. The suggested method takes 240 seconds to search nodes where breath-first-search based method takes 1,781 seconds (7.4 times faster). Moreover, for social network analysis, the suggested method is 6.8 times and 1.8 times faster than betweenness centrality analysis and closeness centrality analysis, respectively. The proposed method in this paper shows the possibility to analyze a large size of social network with the better performance in time. As a result, our method would improve the efficiency of social network analysis, making it particularly useful in studying social trends or phenomena.

Studies on the growth of Korea Lawn Grass (Zoysia japonica Steud.)in Reponse to Nitrogen Application, Clipping Treatment and Plant Density (질소시용, 예초 및 재식밀도가 한국잔디(Zoysia Japonica Steud)의 생육에 미치는 영향)

  • Sim, Jae-Seong
    • The Journal of Natural Sciences
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    • v.1
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    • pp.61-113
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    • 1987
  • The increasing emphasis placed on the production of fine turf for lawns, golf courses, parks, and other recreational sites has led to many unsolved problems as to how such turf could be best established and mainteined. For this purpose, a series of experiments were conducted under con ditions of pot and field. The results obtained were as follows EXPERIMENT I. The effect of nitrogen fertilizer and clipping interval on Zoysia japonica. 1. Increasing the rate of nitrogen and frequent clipping increased tiller number of Zoysis japonica and the maximum number of tillers were obtained from 700 kg N application and freqnent clippings (10 days interval ) in October. Treatment of 350kg N with 10 days clipping interval increased tillers much more than those of 700 kgN with 20 and 30 days clipping intervals. 2. The average number of green leaves occurred during the growth period maximized by applying 700 kg N and clipping 10 days interval. 3. Increasing tiller numbers significantly decreased tops DM weight per tiller by clipping plants at interval of 10 and 20 days, irrespective of nitrogen applied, and with nil N, at the interval of 30 days. By applying 700 kg N, however, top DM weight per tiller increased as the number of tillers increased consistently. 4. The highest top DM weight was achieved from late August to early September by applying 350 and 700kgN. 5. During the growth period, differences in unders ( stolon + root ) DM weight occurred bynitrogen application were found between nil N and two applied nitrogen levels, whereas, at the same level of nitrogen applied, the increase in stolon DM weight enhanced by lengthening the clipping interval to 30 days. 6. Nitrogen efficiency to green leaves, stolon nodes and DM weight of root with high nitrogen was achieved as clipping interval was shortened. 7. By increasing fertilizer nitrogen rate applied, N content n the leaves and stems of Zoysiajaponica was increased. On the other hand, N content in root and stolon had little effect onfertilizer nitrogen, resulting in the lowest content among plant fractions. The largest content of N was recorded in leaves. Lengthening the clipping interval from 10 or 20 to 30 days tends to decrease the N content in the leaves and stems, whereas this trend did not appeared in stolon androot. 8. A positive correlations between N and K contents in tops and stolon were established andthus K content increased as N content in tops and stolon increased. Meanwhile, P content was not affected by N and clipping treatments. 9. Total soluble carbohydrate content in Zoysia japonica was largest in stolon and stem, and was reduced by increasing fertilizer nitrogen rate. Reduction in total soluble carbohydrate due to increased nitrogen rate was severer in the stolons and stems than in the leaves. 10. Increasing the rate of nitrogen applied increased the number of small and large vascular bundles in leaf blade, but shortened distance among the large vascular bundles. Shortening the clipping interval resulted in increase of the number of large vascular bundles but decrease ofdistance between large vascular bundles.EXPERIMENT II. Growth response of Zoysia japonica imposed by different plant densities. 1. Tiller numbers per unit area increased as plant density heightened. Differences in num ber between densities at higher densities than 120 D were of no significance. 2. Tiller numbers per clone attained by 110 days after transplanting were 126 at 40D,77 at 80D, 67 at 120D, 54 at 160D, and 41 at 200D. A decreasing trend of tiller numbers per clone with increasing density was noticable from 100 days after transplanting onwards. 3. During the growth period, the greatest number of green leaves per unit area were attainedin 90days after transplanting at 160D and 200D, and 100 days after transplanting at 40D, 80Dand 120D. Thus the period to reach the maximum green leaf number with the high plantdensity was likely to be earlier that with the low plant density. 4. Stolon growth up to 80 days after transplaning was relatively slow, but from 80 daysonwards, the growth quickened to range from 1.9 m/clone at 40D to 0.6m/clone at 200Din 200 days after transplanting, these followed by the stolon node produced. 5. Plant density did not affect stolon weight/clone and root weight/clone until 80 daysafter transplanting. 6. DM weight of root was heavier in the early period of growth than that of stolon, butthis trend was reversed in the late period of growth : DM weight of stolon was much higherthan that of root.EXPERIMENT Ill. Vegetative growth of Zoysia japonica and Zoysia matrella as affected by nitrogen and clipping height. 1. When no nitrogen was applied to Zoysia japonica, leaf blade which appeared during theAugust-early September period remained green for a perid of about 10 weeks and even leavesemerged in rate September lived for 42 days. However, leaf longevity did not exceed 8 weeks asnitrogen was applied. In contrast the leaf longevity of Zoysia matrella which emerged during the mid August-earlySeptember period was 11 weeks and, under the nitrogen applied, 9 weeks, indicating that thelife-spen of individual leaf of Zoysia matrella may be longer than that of Zoysia japorica. Clipping height had no effect on the leaf longevity in both grasses. 2. During the July-August period, tiller number, green leaf number and DM weightof Zoysia japonica were increased significantly with fertilizer nitrogen, but were not with twolevel of clipping height. This trend was reversed after late September ; no effect of nitrogen wasappeared. Instead, lax clipping increased tiller number, green leaf number and DM weight. Greenleaves stimulated by lax clipping resulted in the occurrance of more dead leaves in late October. 3. Among the stolons outgrown until early September, the primary stolon was not influencedby nitrogen and clipping treatments to produce only 2-3 stolons. However, 1st branch stoIon asaffected by nitrogen increased significantly, so most of stolons which occurred consisted of 1st branch stolons. 4. Until early September, stolon length obtained at nil nitrogen level was chiefly caused bythe primary stolons. By applying nitrogen, the primary stolons of Zoysia japonica waslonger than 1st branch stolons when severe clipping was involved and in turn, shorter than 1stbranch stolons when lax clipping was concerned. In Zoysia matrella, 1st branch stolons were muchlonger than the primary stolon when turf was clipped severely but in conditions of lax clippingthere was little difference in length between primary and 1st branch stolons. 5. Stolon nodes of both Zoysia japonica and Z. matrella were positively influenced by nit rogen, but no particular increase by imposing clipping height treatment was marked in Zoysiamatrella. Although the stolon of Zoysia japonica grew until late October, the growthstimulated by nitrogen was not so remarkable as to exceed that by nil N.

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The Effect of Mutual Trust on Relational Performance in Supplier-Buyer Relationships for Business Services Transactions (재상업복무교역중적매매관계중상호신임대관계적효적영향(在商业服务交易中的买卖关系中相互信任对关系绩效的影响))

  • Noh, Jeon-Pyo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.32-43
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    • 2009
  • Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.

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