• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.157-175
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• 2012

It is difficult to evaluate the performance of process innovation of e-procurement which has large scale and complex processes. The existing evaluation methods for measuring the effects of process innovation have been mainly done with statistically quantitative methods by analyzing operational data or with qualitative methods by conducting surveys and interviews. However, these methods have some limitations to evaluate the effects because the performance evaluation of e-procurement process innovation should consider the interactions among participants who are active either directly or indirectly through the processes. This study considers the e-procurement process as a complex system and develops a simulation model based on MAS(Multi-Agent System) to evaluate the effects of e-procurement process innovation. Multi-agent based simulation allows observing interaction patterns of objects in virtual world through relationship among objects and their behavioral mechanism. Agent-based simulation is suitable especially for complex business problems. In this study, we used Netlogo Version 4.1.3 as a MAS simulation tool which was developed in Northwestern University. To do this, we developed a interaction model of agents in MAS environment. We defined process agents and task agents, and assigned their behavioral characteristics. The developed simulation model was applied to G2B system (KONEPS: Korea ON-line E-Procurement System) of Public Procurement Service (PPS) in Korea and used to evaluate the innovation effects of the G2B system. KONEPS is a successfully established e-procurement system started in the year 2002. KONEPS is a representative e-Procurement system which integrates characteristics of e-commerce into government for business procurement activities. KONEPS deserves the international recognition considering the annual transaction volume of 56 billion dollars, daily exchanges of electronic documents, users consisted of 121,000 suppliers and 37,000 public organizations, and the 4.5 billion dollars of cost saving. For the simulation, we analyzed the e-procurement of process of KONEPS into eight sub processes such as 'process 1: search products and acquisition of proposal', 'process 2 : review the methods of contracts and item features', 'process 3 : a notice of bid', 'process 4 : registration and confirmation of qualification', 'process 5 : bidding', 'process 6 : a screening test', 'process 7 : contracts', and 'process 8 : invoice and payment'. For the parameter settings of the agents behavior, we collected some data from the transactional database of PPS and some information by conducting a survey. The used data for the simulation are 'participants (government organizations, local government organizations and public institutions)', 'the number of bidding per year', 'the number of total contracts', 'the number of shopping mall transactions', 'the rate of contracts between bidding and shopping mall', 'the successful bidding ratio', and the estimated time for each process. The comparison was done for the difference of time consumption between 'before the innovation (As-was)' and 'after the innovation (As-is).' The results showed that there were productivity improvements in every eight sub processes. The decrease ratio of 'average number of task processing' was 92.7% and the decrease ratio of 'average time of task processing' was 95.4% in entire processes when we use G2B system comparing to the conventional method. Also, this study found that the process innovation effect will be enhanced if the task process related to the 'contract' can be improved. This study shows the usability and possibility of using MAS in process innovation evaluation and its modeling.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.173-188
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• 2014

This research aims to analyze empirically the effects of learners' knowledge sourcing behavior on the knowledge utilization outcomes in a social learning community. This kind of virtual community is of service to users who not only produce but also share a variety of valuable knowledge which is created based on relationships and interactions among learners. In order to conduct the study, a group of learners was made of 55 undergraduate students who were majoring in social science. The data was collected by online survey at the end of the term and multiple regression methods have been used for empirical analysis. The study shows that dyadic knowledge sourcing and published knowledge sourcing both have significant effects on knowledge reuse and knowledge adaptation. In addition, knowledge adaptation and knowledge innovation were affected by group knowledge sourcing. The research results help to select appropriate knowledge sourcing behavior depending on one's purpose of knowledge use.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2023

Objectives: The budget gap in the health sector of local governments affects the supply of health services, which can cause the health gap. This study classified local governments according to their financial characteristics, such as local financial independence and health budget level. It analyzed the health behaviors and disease prevalence of local residents to examine the effect of local government financial investment on the health of local residents. Methods: To classify types according to the financial characteristics of local governments, financial independence and the health budget data for 17 local governments were collected from the local fiscal yearbook of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The prevalence of chronic diseases and healthy behavior was compared using the 16,333 data of adults between the ages of 30 and 65 years among the original data of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2020). Results: Cluster analysis was used to classify local governments into five clusters according to the health financial capacity type. A comparison of the prevalence of local residents by cluster revealed a similar prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia. On the other hand, the obesity rate (P < 0.01), high-risk drinking rate (P < 0.01), aerobic physical activity rate (P < 0.001), and healthy eating practice rate (P < 0.001) were significantly different. In addition, an analysis of the odds ratio based on the Seoul area revealed a higher risk of health behavior of non-Seoul residents. Conclusions: It is necessary to review the universal health promotion project budget considering the degree of regional financial vulnerability from the viewpoint of health equity to narrow the health gap among regions.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

Ground anchor has been widely used specially for maintaining stability on reinforced cut slope in expressway. While the durability of the ground anchors should be ensured over the service life. However, the long-term loss of tensile force has occurred in most of field-installed anchors. Main causes are not clearly identified and very few studies have been made for analyzing long-term behavior of ground anchor in slopes. In this study, full-scale model tests and long-term measurements were made to obtain the load-displacement data and identified the causes of the long-term behaviors of ground anchor. As a result, the bond strength decreases exponentially with increasing water-binder ratio. Especially, groundwater is the most influencing factor to the bond strength. In the long-term behavior, the load decreases sharply until the initial settlement stabilized, and thereafter the tension force decreases constantly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.80-91
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of the study quantitatively investigates the experience of unmet healthcare service utilization by rural populations in vulnerable areas during the COVID-19 pandemic based on Andersen's behavior model. At the same time, this study attempts to describe the experiences of unmet healthcare service utilization among participants in vulnerable rural areas by analyzing qualitative contents through open-ended question. Methods: Data were collected from October to November 2022 using Qualtrix, a web-based survey platform. A total of 863 participants completed an online survey. Quantitative data were analyzed using 𝑥² test and logistic regression analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: The factors affecting participants' unmet healthcare service utilization were type of residential area and underlying disease. The qualitative analysis identified; four categories and nine sub-categories. Conclusion: Based on these findings, it is necessary to develop a disaster nursing response model according to the type of residential areas and the number of people.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.25-36
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• 2014

Objectives: The self-management of chronic diseases is currently receiving much attention. This study applied an extended technology acceptance model (ETAM) to analyze the factors influencing acceptance of a healthcare smartphone application. Methods: Three hundred people living in Seoul and Gyeonggi who used smartphones were quota sampled. A telephone survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire based on ETAM. A path analysis was carried out using the AMOS 17.0 program, and the model was verified. Results: The analysis revealed significant factors of perceived usefulness (.374, p < .001), enjoyment (.210, p < .001), subjective norms (.168, p < .001), perceived costs (.146, p < .001), and innovativeness (.138, p < .001). Cost directly influenced intention to use health applications; self-efficacy and perceived ease of use indirectly affected intention through innovation and perceived usefulness. Conclusions: This study helped to identify the main factors that influence usage intention of smartphone applications. These findings could contribute to promoting the self-management of chronic disease through future health applications using smartphones.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.236-256
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• 2021

Online financial technology products are an important consumer finance innovation. While a large body of previous research has focused on initial adoption and consumer willingness to use these products, little research explores the continued use of these products beyond the initial adoption phase. In particular, special attention should be paid to how users' trust and perceptions of privacy and security affect continued use behavior. This paper integrates the expectation confirmation model of information system continuance (ECM-ISC), the information system success model (ISSM) and the security and trust literatures to investigate continued use of online financial technology. To test the research model, we collected 398 valid questionnaires from Ant Credit Pay users. The research results show that system and service quality positively impact users' expectation confirmation, while information quality has no significant impact. Expectation confirmation and perceived usefulness positively affect user satisfaction. Moreover, the user's perception of privacy and security plays a vital role in user satisfaction. Satisfaction and perceived trust jointly promote users' continuance behaviors. Findings of this study indicates the importance of the information system success factors and security factors due to their influence on the continued use of Fintech products. This conclusion has implications for enterprises in improving the product qualities and enhancing the degree of security to meet user needs.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.9-21
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• 2023

The parameters of civil engineering structures have time-variant characteristics during their service. When extremely large external excitations, such as earthquake excitation to buildings or overweight vehicles to bridges, apply to structures, sudden or gradual damage may be caused. It is crucially necessary to detect the occurrence time and severity of the damage. The unscented Kalman filter (UKF), as one efficient estimator, is usually used to conduct the recursive identification of parameters. However, the conventional UKF algorithm has a weak tracking ability for time-variant structural parameters. To improve the identification ability of time-variant parameters, an adaptive UKF with forgetting factor (AUKF-FF) algorithm, in which the state covariance, innovation covariance and cross covariance are updated simultaneously with the help of the forgetting factor, is proposed. To verify the effectiveness of the method, this paper conducted two case studies as follows: the identification of time-variant parameters of a simply supported bridge when the vehicle passing, and the model updating of a six-story concrete frame structure with field test during the Yangbi earthquake excitation in Yunnan Province, China. The comparison results of the numerical studies show that the proposed method is superior to the conventional UKF algorithm for the time-variant parameter identification in convergence speed, accuracy and adaptability to the sampling frequency. The field test studies demonstrate that the proposed method can provide suggestions for solving practical problems.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-36
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• 2021

Purpose - This empirical study, aims to identify the determinants of adoption and acceptance of mobile payment as to understand why it is successful in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa but failing in others. A comparative study of a successful mobile payment service and a purported failed one was done as to have some insights to the factors affecting acceptance of the technology. Design/methodology/approach - The strength of three notable theories: theory of diffusion of innovation (DOI), the extended unified theory of user acceptance of information technology (UTAUT2) and self-efficacy theory were use. The self-efficacy of government support inclusion as, a moderating variable in the form of infrastructure, securing transaction and price value revealed the relevance of government in the success of mobile payment service. By means of a field survey of 705 subjects in two separate regions of Africa (East and West), the data was collected and use to test the research model. Findings - The study result shows the importance of the moderating factor of government support to the success of mobile payment of any nation. The result also shows the importance of the perception of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, social influence as already revealed by other studies. Research implications or Originality - Mobile payment success in some part of Sub-Saharan Africa is well known but also suggested to fail in some Sub-Saharan African countries. Buttressing the need for understanding of the factors affecting mobile payment acceptance. This article empirically examined the factors influencing the success of mobile payment, and we implicated that if the implementation of mobile payment is to be successful for mobile commerce in any nation, adoption, acceptance and use by its citizen is imperative.