• Title/Summary/Keyword: Systems Performance

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Physiological Ecology of parasitic Dinoflagellate Amoebophrya and Harmful Algal Blooms (기생성 와편모류 Amoebophrya의 생리 생태적 특성과 적조)

  • 박명길
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.7 no.3
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    • pp.181-194
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    • 2002
  • Parasitism is a one-sided relationship between two organisms in which one benefits at the expense of the other. Parasitic dinoflagellates, particularly species of Amoebophrya, have long been thought to be a potential biological agent for controlling harmful algal bloom(HAB). Amoebophrya infections have been reported for over 40 species representing more than 24 dinoflagellate genera including a few toxic species. Parasitic dinoflagellates Amoebophrya spp. have a relatively simple life cycle consisting of an infective dispersal stage (dinospore), an intracellular growth stage(trophont), and an extracellular reproductive stage(vermiform). Biology of dinospores such as infectivity, survival, and ability to successfully infect host cells differs among dinoflagellate host-parasite systems. There are growing reports that Amoebophrya spp.(previously, collectively known as Amoebophrya ceratii) exhibit the strong host specificity and would be a species complex composed of several host-specific taxa, based on the marked differences in host-parasite biology, cross infection, and molecular genetic data. Dinoflagellates become reproductively incompetent and are eventually killed by the parasite once infected. During the infection cycle of the parasite, the infected host exhibits ecophysiologically different patterns from those of uninfected host in various ways. Photosynthetic performance in autotrophic dinoflagellates can be significantly altered following infection by parasitic dinoflagellate Amoebophrya, with the magnitude of the effects over the infection cycle of the parasite depending on the site of infection. Parasitism by the parasitic dinoflagellate Amoebophrya could have significant impacts on host behavior such as diel vertical migration. Parasitic dinoflagellates may not only stimulate rapid cycling of dissolved organic materials and/or trace metals but also would repackage the relatively large sized host biomass into a number of smaller dinospores, thereby leading to better retention of host's material and energy within the microbial loop. To better understand the roles of parasites in plankton ecology and harmful algal dynamics, further research on a variety of dinoflagellate host-parasite systems is needed.

The Gains To Bidding Firms' Stock Returns From Merger (기업합병의 성과에 영향을 주는 요인에 대한 실증적 연구)

  • Kim, Yong-Kap
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.23
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    • pp.41-74
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    • 2007
  • In Korea, corporate merger activities were activated since 1980, and nowadays(particuarly since 1986) the changes in domestic and international economic circumstances have made corporate managers have strong interests in merger. Korea and America have different business environments and it is easily conceivable that there exists many differences in motives, methods, and effects of mergers between the two countries. According to recent studies on takeover bids in America, takeover bids have information effects, tax implications, and co-insurance effects, and the form of payment(cash versus securities), the relative size of target and bidder, the leverage effect, Tobin's q, number of bidders(single versus multiple bidder), the time period (before 1968, 1968-1980, 1981 and later), and the target firm reaction (hostile versus friendly) are important determinants of the magnitude of takeover gains and their distribution between targets and bidders at the announcement of takeover bids. This study examines the theory of takeover bids, the status quo and problems of merger in Korea, and then investigates how the announcement of merger are reflected in common stock returns of bidding firms, finally explores empirically the factors influencing abnormal returns of bidding firms' stock price. The hypotheses of this study are as follows ; Shareholders of bidding firms benefit from mergers. And common stock returns of bidding firms at the announcement of takeover bids, shows significant differences according to the condition of the ratio of target size relative to bidding firm, whether the target being a member of the conglomerate to which bidding firm belongs, whether the target being a listed company, the time period(before 1986, 1986, and later), the number of bidding firm's stock in exchange for a stock of the target, whether the merger being a horizontal and vertical merger or a conglomerate merger, and the ratios of debt to equity capital of target and bidding firm. The data analyzed in this study were drawn from public announcements of proposals to acquire a target firm by means of merger. The sample contains all bidding firms which were listed in the stock market and also engaged in successful mergers in the period 1980 through 1992 for which there are daily stock returns. A merger bid was considered successful if it resulted in a completed merger and the target firm disappeared as a separate entity. The final sample contains 113 acquiring firms. The research hypotheses examined in this study are tested by applying an event-type methodology similar to that described in Dodd and Warner. The ordinary-least-squares coefficients of the market-model regression were estimated over the period t=-135 to t=-16 relative to the date of the proposal's initial announcement, t=0. Daily abnormal common stock returns were calculated for each firm i over the interval t=-15 to t=+15. A daily average abnormal return(AR) for each day t was computed. Average cumulative abnormal returns($CART_{T_1,T_2}$) were also derived by summing the $AR_t's$ over various intervals. The expected values of $AR_t$ and $CART_{T_1,T_2}$ are zero in the absence of abnormal performance. The test statistics of $AR_t$ and $CAR_{T_1,T_2}$ are based on the average standardized abnormal return($ASAR_t$) and the average standardized cumulative abnormal return ($ASCAR_{T_1,T_2}$), respectively. Assuming that the individual abnormal returns are normal and independent across t and across securities, the statistics $Z_t$ and $Z_{T_1,T_2}$ which follow a unit-normal distribution(Dodd and Warner), are used to test the hypotheses that the average standardized abnormal returns and the average cumulative standardized abnormal returns equal zero.

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Design of a Crowd-Sourced Fingerprint Mapping and Localization System (군중-제공 신호지도 작성 및 위치 추적 시스템의 설계)

  • Choi, Eun-Mi;Kim, In-Cheol
    • KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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    • v.2 no.9
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    • pp.595-602
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    • 2013
  • WiFi fingerprinting is well known as an effective localization technique used for indoor environments. However, this technique requires a large amount of pre-built fingerprint maps over the entire space. Moreover, due to environmental changes, these maps have to be newly built or updated periodically by experts. As a way to avoid this problem, crowd-sourced fingerprint mapping attracts many interests from researchers. This approach supports many volunteer users to share their WiFi fingerprints collected at a specific environment. Therefore, crowd-sourced fingerprinting can automatically update fingerprint maps up-to-date. In most previous systems, however, individual users were asked to enter their positions manually to build their local fingerprint maps. Moreover, the systems do not have any principled mechanism to keep fingerprint maps clean by detecting and filtering out erroneous fingerprints collected from multiple users. In this paper, we present the design of a crowd-sourced fingerprint mapping and localization(CMAL) system. The proposed system can not only automatically build and/or update WiFi fingerprint maps from fingerprint collections provided by multiple smartphone users, but also simultaneously track their positions using the up-to-date maps. The CMAL system consists of multiple clients to work on individual smartphones to collect fingerprints and a central server to maintain a database of fingerprint maps. Each client contains a particle filter-based WiFi SLAM engine, tracking the smartphone user's position and building each local fingerprint map. The server of our system adopts a Gaussian interpolation-based error filtering algorithm to maintain the integrity of fingerprint maps. Through various experiments, we show the high performance of our system.

Nuclear Terrorism and Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism(GICNT): Threats, Responses and Implications for Korea (핵테러리즘과 세계핵테러방지구상(GICNT): 위협, 대응 및 한국에 대한 함의)

  • Yoon, Tae-Young
    • Korean Security Journal
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    • no.26
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    • pp.29-58
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    • 2011
  • Since 11 September 2001, warnings of risk in the nexus of terrorism and nuclear weapons and materials which poses one of the gravest threats to the international community have continued. The purpose of this study is to analyze the aim, principles, characteristics, activities, impediments to progress and developmental recommendation of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism(GICNT). In addition, it suggests implications of the GICNT for the ROK policy. International community will need a comprehensive strategy with four key elements to accomplish the GICNT: (1) securing and reducing nuclear stockpiles around the world, (2) countering terrorist nuclear plots, (3) preventing and deterring state transfers of nuclear weapons or materials to terrorists, (4) interdicting nuclear smuggling. Moreover, other steps should be taken to build the needed sense of urgency, including: (1) analysis and assessment through joint threat briefing for real nuclear threat possibility, (2) nuclear terrorism exercises, (3) fast-paced nuclear security reviews, (4) realistic testing of nuclear security performance to defeat insider or outsider threats, (5) preparing shared database of threats and incidents. As for the ROK, main concerns are transfer of North Korea's nuclear weapons, materials and technology to international terror groups and attacks on nuclear facilities and uses of nuclear devices. As the 5th nuclear country, the ROK has strengthened systems of physical protection and nuclear counterterrorism based on the international conventions. In order to comprehensive and effective prevention of nuclear terrorism, the ROK has to strengthen nuclear detection instruments and mobile radiation monitoring system in airports, ports, road networks, and national critical infrastructures. Furthermore, it has to draw up effective crisis management manual and prepare nuclear counterterrorism exercises and operational postures. The fundamental key to the prevention, detection and response to nuclear terrorism which leads to catastrophic impacts is to establish not only domestic law, institution and systems, but also strengthen international cooperation.

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Current Wheat Quality Criteria and Inspection Systems of Major Wheat Producing Countries (밀 품질평가 현황과 검사제도)

  • 이춘기;남중현;강문석;구본철;김재철;박광근;박문웅;김용호
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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    • v.47
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    • pp.63-94
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    • 2002
  • On the purpose to suggest an advanced scheme in assessing the domestic wheat quality, this paper reviewed the inspection systems of wheat in major wheat producing countries as well as the quality criteria which are being used in wheat grading and classification. Most wheat producing countries are adopting both classifications of class and grade to provide an objective evaluation and an official certification to their wheat. There are two main purposes in the wheat classification. The first objectives of classification is to match the wheat with market requirements to maximize market opportunities and returns to growers. The second is to ensure that payments to glowers aye made on the basis of the quality and condition of the grain delivered. Wheat classes has been assigned based on the combination of cultivation area, seed-coat color, kernel and varietal characteristics that are distinctive. Most reputable wheat marketers also employ a similar approach, whereby varieties of a particular type are grouped together, designed by seed coat colour, grain hardness, physical dough properties, and sometimes more precise specification such as starch quality, all of which are genetically inherited characteristics. This classification in simplistic terms is the categorization of a wheat variety into a commercial type or style of wheat that is recognizable for its end use capabilities. All varieties registered in a class are required to have a similar end-use performance that the shipment be consistent in processing quality, cargo to cargo and year to year, Grain inspectors have historically determined wheat classes according to visual kernel characteristics associated with traditional wheat varieties. As well, any new wheat variety must not conflict with the visual distinguishability rule that is used to separate wheats of different classes. Some varieties may possess characteristics of two or more classes. Therefore, knowledge of distinct varietal characteristics is necessary in making class determinations. The grading system sets maximum tolerance levels for a range of characteristics that ensure functionality and freedom from deleterious factors. Tests for the grading of wheat include such factors as plumpness, soundness, cleanliness, purity of type and general condition. Plumpness is measured by test weight. Soundness is indicated by the absence or presence of musty, sour or commercially objectionable foreign odors and by the percentage of damaged kernels that ave present in the wheat. Cleanliness is measured by determining the presence of foreign material after dockage has been removed. Purity of class is measured by classification of wheats in the test sample and by limitation for admixtures of different classes of wheat. Moisture does not influence the numerical grade. However, it is determined on all shipments and reported on the official certificate. U.S. wheat is divided into eight classes based on color, kernel Hardness and varietal characteristics. The classes are Durum, Hard Red Spring, Hard Red Winter, Soft Red Winter, Hard White, soft White, Unclassed and Mixed. Among them, Hard Red Spring wheat, Durum wheat, and Soft White wheat are further divided into three subclasses, respectively. Each class or subclass is divided into five U.S. numerical grades and U.S. Sample grade. Special grades are provided to emphasize special qualities or conditions affecting the value of wheat and are added to and made a part of the grade designation. Canadian wheat is also divided into fourteen classes based on cultivation area, color, kernel hardness and varietal characteristics. The classes have 2-5 numerical grades, a feed grade and sample grades depending on class and grading tolerance. The Canadian grading system is based mainly on visual evaluation, and it works based on the kernel visual distinguishability concept. The Australian wheat is classified based on geographical and quality differentiation. The wheat grown in Australia is predominantly white grained. There are commonly up to 20 different segregations of wheat in a given season. Each variety grown is assigned a category and a growing areas. The state governments in Australia, in cooperation with the Australian Wheat Board(AWB), issue receival standards and dockage schedules annually that list grade specifications and tolerances for Australian wheat. AWB is managing "Golden Rewards" which is designed to provide pricing accuracy and market signals for Australia's grain growers. Continuous payment scales for protein content from 6 to 16% and screenings levels from 0 to 10% based on varietal classification are presented by the Golden Rewards, and the active payment scales and prices can change with market movements.movements.

Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity (TERRECO): Evaluating Ecosystem Services in Production Versus water Quantity/quality in Mountainous Landscapes (산지복잡지형과 생태적 비균질성: 산지경관의 생산성과 수자원/수질에 관한 생태계 서비스 평가)

  • Kang, Sin-Kyu;Tenhunen, John
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.307-316
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    • 2010
  • Complex terrain refers to irregular surface properties of the earth that influence gradients in climate, lateral transfer of materials, landscape distribution in soils properties, habitat selection of organisms, and via human preferences, the patterning in development of land use. Complex terrain of mountainous areas represents ca. 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface; and such regions provide fresh water to at least half of humankind. Most major river systems originate in such terrain, and their resources are often associated with socio-economic competition and political disputes. The goals of the TERRECO-IRTG focus on building a bridge between ecosystem understanding in complex terrain and spatial assessments of ecosystem performance with respect to derived ecosystem services. More specifically, a coordinated assessment framework will be developed from landscape to regional scale applications to quantify trade-offs and will be applied to determine how shifts in climate and land use in complex terrain influence naturally derived ecosystem services. Within the scope of TERRECO, the abiotic and biotic studies of water yield and quality, production and biodiversity, soil processing of materials and trace gas emissions in complex terrain are merged. There is a need to quantitatively understand 1) the ecosystem services derived in regions of complex terrain, 2) the process regulation occurred to maintain those services, and 3) the sensitivities defining thresholds critical in stability of these systems. The TERRECO-IRTG is dedicated to joint study of ecosystems in complex terrain from landscape to regional scales. Our objectives are to reveal the spatial patterns in driving variables of essential ecosystem processes involved in ecosystem services of complex terrain region and hence, to evaluate the resulting ecosystem services, and further to provide new tools for understanding and managing such areas.

A Study on the Hydraulic Characteristics of Rashig Super-Ring Random Packing in a Counter-Current Packed Tower (역류식 충전탑에서 Raschig Super-ring Random Packing의 수력학적 특성에 대한 연구)

  • Kang, Sung Jin;Lim, Dong-Ha
    • Clean Technology
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.102-108
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    • 2020
  • In recent years, packed column has been widely used in separation processes, such as absorption, desorption, distillation, and extraction, in the petrochemical, fine chemistry, and environmental industries. Packed column is used as a contacting facility for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid systems filled with random packed materials in the column. Packed column has various advantages such as low pressure drop, economical efficiency, thermally sensitive liquids, easy repairing restoration, and noxious gas treatment. The performance of a packed column is highly dependent on the maintenance of good gas and liquid distribution throughout a packed bed; thus, this is an important consideration in a design of packed column. In this study, hydraulic pressure drop, hold-up as a function of liquid load, and mass transfer in the air, air/water, and air-NH3/water systems were studied to find the geometrical characteristic for raschig super-ring experiment dry pressure drop. Based on the results, design factors and operating conditions to handle noxious gases were obtained. The dry pressure drop of the random packing raschig super-ring was linearly increased as a function of gas capacity factor with various liquid loads in the Air/Water system. This result is lower than that of 35 mm Pall-ring, which is most commonly used in the industrial field. Also, it can be found that the hydraulic pressure drop of raschig super-ring is consistently increased by gas capacity factor with various liquid loads. When gas capacity factor with various liquid loads is increased from 1.855 to 2.323 kg-1/2 m-1/2 S-1, hydraulic pressure drop increases around 17%. Finally, the liquid hold-up related to packing volume, which is a parameter of specific liquid load depending on gas capacity factor, shows consistent increase by around 3.84 kg-1/2 m-1/2 S-1 of the gas capacity factor. However, liquid hold-up significantly increases above it.

Study of the Transition of a Skateboarding Space in an Urban Park (도시공원에서 스케이트보드 활동 공간 발달에 관한 연구)

  • Cho, Han-sol;Son, Young-hoon
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.26-39
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    • 2016
  • This research paper explores the process of developing skateboarding spaces in urban parks. Skateboarding is one of the most popular sport activities representative of urban parks. This research paper will analyze the process of introducing skateboarding activities into park spaces and their acceptance by the general public as well as derive meaningful general implications for park space development planning. The research method is a discourse analysis of newspaper articles regarding skateboarding issued between the 1960s and 2010s. These articles are the main resources to show the creation of a skateboarding culture, generation of skate park spaces, and the extinction of these spaces during the research period. The result of this research is as follows. There are reasons that allowed for the creation of skate park spaces in urban parks. First of all, positive associations that people have regarding skateboarding have influenced the park's users and operators' decisions that a park is proper space for skateboarding activities, and the agreement to remodel the park space. Secondly, skate parks became a space for multiple-uses that can be shared with other emerging sports, which resulted in a building boom of skateboarding spaces in urban parks. Thirdly, urban parks and their new culture of active sports became a marketing tool used by local governments to attract new inhabitants to their new towns. On the contrary, there are three main reasons for the deterioration of skate parks. First of all, within parks in which skateboarding activities collided with other park usage, the skate parks disappeared. Secondly, skate parks built specifically for competitive skateboarding events and without consideration of casual skaters disappeared, as these facilities were not sustainable for use in the long term. Thirdly, the golden age of skate park skateboarding did not last long, as skateboarding trends shifted from trick performance to street skating, where skate parks are no longer needed. For this reasons, the exclusive use of park space for skateboarding activities has faded from public interest. The findings of this research suggest how sport activities should be introduced to urban parks. At first, each park's management needs to identify a sport suitable for long-term development, and not only plan for temporal events or follow fleeting trends. Secondly, the park's management systems should reflect a type of sport activity that would not only be popular at the beginning of the spaces development, but also take into consideration how these activities will change over time. Lastly, in cases where there are conflicts between sport activities and other activities in urban parks, attempts should be made to suggest feasible solutions other than the liquidation of sport spaces. This study explains the development process of sport spaces offered in urban parks, by thorough research of the process of acceptance of skateboarding activities in current urban park systems. This conclusion also indicates further areas for research with the purpose of understanding general best practices in urban parks sport space planning.

An Implementation Method of the Character Recognizer for the Sorting Rate Improvement of an Automatic Postal Envelope Sorting Machine (우편물 자동구분기의 구분율 향상을 위한 문자인식기의 구현 방법)

  • Lim, Kil-Taek;Jeong, Seon-Hwa;Jang, Seung-Ick;Kim, Ho-Yon
    • Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.15-24
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    • 2007
  • The recognition of postal address images is indispensable for the automatic sorting of postal envelopes. The process of the address image recognition is composed of three steps-address image preprocessing, character recognition, address interpretation. The extracted character images from the preprocessing step are forwarded to the character recognition step, in which multiple candidate characters with reliability scores are obtained for each character image extracted. aracters with reliability scores are obtained for each character image extracted. Utilizing those character candidates with scores, we obtain the final valid address for the input envelope image through the address interpretation step. The envelope sorting rate depends on the performance of all three steps, among which character recognition step could be said to be very important. The good character recognizer would be the one which could produce valid candidates with very reliable scores to help the address interpretation step go easy. In this paper, we propose the method of generating character candidates with reliable recognition scores. We utilize the existing MLP(multilayered perceptrons) neural network of the address recognition system in the current automatic postal envelope sorters, as the classifier for the each image from the preprocessing step. The MLP is well known to be one of the best classifiers in terms of processing speed and recognition rate. The false alarm problem, however, might be occurred in recognition results, which made the address interpretation hard. To make address interpretation easy and improve the envelope sorting rate, we propose promising methods to reestimate the recognition score (confidence) of the existing MLP classifier: the generation method of the statistical recognition properties of the classifier and the method of the combination of the MLP and the subspace classifier which roles as a reestimator of the confidence. To confirm the superiority of the proposed method, we have used the character images of the real postal envelopes from the sorters in the post office. The experimental results show that the proposed method produces high reliability in terms of error and rejection for individual characters and non-characters.

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Preliminary Study on Actuated Signal Control at Rural Area of Cheon-an City (천안시 외곽지역의 감응식 신호운영을 위한 기초연구)

  • Park, Soon-Yong;Kim, Dong-Nyong
    • The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.52-63
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    • 2009
  • Recently in Korea, in the case of metropolis, the urban signalized intersections are controlled by traffic information center or ITS center. Cheon-an City also established traffic information center through the 1st.-$\sim$3rd. ITS public construction and has managed this center that includes bus information service, traffic information collection and providing service, parking information service, and traffic responsive control system. In the Cheon-an metropolitan traffic signal operation, traffic signal controllers were grouped by the each main traffic flow axes and performed with coordinated signal timing for the signalized arterials, and also cycle and split changed by realtime traffic demands. Cheon-an urban traffic responsive control system was evaluated by intersection delay and speed, then it was verified that the delay decreased and vehicle speed improved. However, the rural signal control system to connect adjacency town was evaluated to have lower status than urban area due to the unimproved TOD (Time of day) plan. Therefore actuated signal control was examined for substitutive control system in isolated signal intersection. The aim of this article is to compare actuated signal control with TOD mode in the rural intersection of Cheon-an and to fine superiority of these two control mode, with evaluation of vehicle delay by using HCM(2000) method and by micro-simulation CORSlM. The result of field test show that actuated signal control gave better performance in delay comparison than the existing TOD signal control. And simulation outcome verified that non-optimized TOD has higher delay than optimized TOD mode, non-optimal actuated mode, and optimal actuated signal control mode. Particularly, these three modes delays had not different values according to the paired sample t-test. This is because small traffic demands were loaded in each links. This suggested actuated signal control is expected to be more effective than TOD mode in some rural isolated intersections which frequently need to survey for traffic volume.

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