• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of the study was to develop a reliable measurement tool for the evaluation of TQM application in Greek education settings and to examine the factors that determine quality of education. Research design, data, and methodology - A questionnaire commencing from the questions included in the Application Guide of Common Assessment Framework was used for research purposes. Each item was scored on a 5point Likert scale - to a sample of 112 educators (55 men, 57 women), all teachers working in public primary education schools. Factor analysis resulted in a questionnaire of 43 items consisting of five factors, teacher satisfaction, school management and operation, motivation, effectiveness of public school leadership and finance management. Results - Results revealed a positive correlation among all factors. Reliability results using Cronbach's α was high (a=.961) for all factors of the questionnaire ranging from α=.930 (for motivation) to α=.797 (for financial management). Additionally, ICC procedure revealed high values for the above mentioned factors. Conclusions - The study resulted in the construction of a reliable questionnaire focused exclusively on TQM that can be used in future studies using larger samples in different areas so as to draw useful conclusions regarding TQM application in Greek education settings and further identify the factors determining quality in education.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.73-91
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• 2007

We investigate factors that influence the choice of high-share brands(HSBs) vs. low-share brands(LSBs) among various product and consumer characteristics related to brand-share perceptions. Specifically, using 8 product categories varying in terms of purchase decision involvement, we show how the influencing factors vary across the categories. At the general level that cover all the 8 categories, our hierarchical Bayesian regressions analysis shows that factors that favor high-share brands are purchase decision involvement, search goods, experience goods, price-quality relationship, positive network externalities, and price-prestige beliefs. Conversely, consumers who value variety seeking and need for uniqueness favor low-share brands. The effects of these factors, however, vary across product categories. The identification of these characteristics can help brand managers establish a more effective brand-share strategy in such areas as setting an optimal market share goal, extending a brand, and developing ad copy. Furthermore, our consumer segmentation analysis demonstrates the general market has two distinct segments - (1) a segment composed of HSB buyers(86%) and (2) a segment composed of LSB buyers(14%). The two segments are also shown to have different significant factors that explain their brand choice. Our segmentation analysis can help marketers establish a marketing strategy that targets a specific segment of interest.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.885-896
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• 2013

2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BDO) has immense industrial applications. Recently, microbial fermentation has emerged as an alternative way to produce this industrially important chemical. Although 2,3-BDO is produced by several microorganisms, the Klebsiella genera has an excellent production compared with other 2,3-BDO-producing microorganisms. In order to produce 2,3-BDO on a large scale, the challenges of removing pathogenic factors from Klebsiella pneumoniae need to be addressed. K. pneumoniae produces a number of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenesis, including lipopolysaccharides, capsules, fimbrial adhesins, etc. Removal of these pathogenic factors from 2,3-BDO-producing Klebsiella strains will result in avirulent strains for the safe, economic, and efficient production of 2,3-BDO. In this review, we summarize the current trends in 2,3-BDO production using K. pneumoniae and insights into the removal of its virulence factors for industrial applications.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.465-475
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of workload on musculoskeletal degeneration. Background: It is important that workers maintain a health body for a long time as a measure of aging workers. In order do so, it is necessary to find out if workload can effect on musculoskeletal degeneration. Method: Epidemiological studies on workload or occupation and disc degeneration, osteoarthritis of knee were identified through database and bibliography searches. Results: Epidemiological studies showed that workload certainly effect on musculoskeletal degeneration. But we couldn't know which of individual factors and occupational factors further contribute to the musculoskeletal degeneration. And we could find that studies on workload and genetic factors were very few. In addition, there was also very few studies that it was possible interaction between individual factors as obesity and occupational factors as heavy manual lifting. Conclusion: Our reviews suggest that it need to conduct study between workload and genetic factors for musculoskeletal degeneration. This further study can identify attributable risk of workload for musculoskeletal degeneration, and contribute to the measure of aging workers. Application: This paper can help to establish research plan for the measure of aging workers.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.504-510
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• 2016

In general, a fault locator is installed in Sub-Station of AT(Auto-transformer) feeding system to estimate the fault location and to protect the Korean AT feeding system. Since the line impedance characteristic is different to normal 3-phase transmission line, we need particular modification factors, which can be calculated using fault location recording data, to estimate the accurate fault location. Up to recently, forcible ground test has been used to calculate the modification factors of the fault locator. However, large amount of current is occurred when the forcible ground test is performed, and this current affects to adjacent equipments. Therefore, we proposed a novel calculation method of modification factors, arbitrary trip test, using boosting current of the operating electric train. Through several field test, we confirmed that modification factors for fault locator can be easily calculated by using proposed method. Moreover, we verified the accuracy and stability of the proposed calculation method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 2020

Tunnel excavation in shallow soft ground conditions of urban areas experiences inevitable surface settlements that threaten the stability of nearby infrastructures. Surface settlements during shield TBM tunneling are related to a number of factors including geotechnical conditions, tunnel geometry and excavation methods. In this paper, a database collected from a construction section of Hong Kong subway was used to analyze the correlation of settlement-inducing factors and surface settlements monitored at different locations of a transverse trough. The Pearson correlation analysis result revealed a correlation between the factors in consideration. Factors such as the face pressure, advance speed, thrust force, cutter torque, twin tunnel distance and ground water level presented a modest correlation with the surface settlement, while no significant trends between the other factors and the surface settlements were observed. It can be concluded that an integrated effect of the settlement-inducing factors should be related to the magnitude of surface settlements.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.126-132
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• 2010

Purpose: Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) has a dismal prognosis and is occasionally encountered during initial exploration in patients with gastric cancer. The clinicopathological characteristics and survival were analyzed in patients with gastric cancer and PC. Materials and Methods: Among 2,083 gastric cancer patients who received surgery at the department of surgery, Hanyang University Hospital from 1992 to 2009, 130 patients revealed PC. Ten patients who were lost during follow-up were excluded. The remaining 120 patients were divided into three groups according to the type of surgery. The degree of PC was classified into P1(to the adjacent peritoneum) and P2 (to the distant peritoneum). Various other clinicopathological factors were analyzed using univariate and multivariatec survival analyses. Results: Systemic chemotherapy (SC), type of surgery, lymph node dissection, degree of PC, and presence of ascites were significant prognostic factors. However, age, gender, resection of PC, and Borrmann type were not significant prognostic factors. In a multivariate analysis, SC and the degree of PC were independent prognostic factors. The survival benefit of SC was significant without reference to the type of surgery or degree of PC. Conclusions: A gastrectomy should be considered feasible in patients with gastric cancer and PC. The independent favorable prognostic factors were SC and a low degree of PC. SC improved the prognosis regardless of operation type and degree of PC.

• Kosin Medical Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.289-296
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• 2018

Objectives: In these days, patients with stage I breast cancer have increased by regular health examination and diagnostic tool development. The aim of this retrospective study is to identify systemic recurrence related factors after breast conserving surgery (BCS) for stage I breast cancer. Methods: In this study, we analyzed the correlation between systemic recurrence and pathologic factors. We reviewed 223 patients who underwent BCS for stage I breast cancer. Postoperative pathologic factors, recurrent rates and sites were studied. In addition, preoperative patients'data were also collected. Statistical analysis was done by using PASW 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Systemic recurrence was found in 16 patients (7.17%) within 5 years after primary surgery. 5 patients had lymphatic invasion and 6 patients had vascular invasion. Lymphatic and vascular invasion had statistical correlation with systemic recurrence (P = 0.004, P = 0.001). Conclusions: In this retrospective study, we can conclude that vascular invasion and lymphatic invasion are related systemic recurrence after BCS for stage I patients. Further studies with large cohort will be required to fully understand the risk factors of systemic recurrence for stage I breast cancer patients.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.948-958
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• 2022

Since reliability and security of man-machine system increasingly depend on reliability of human, human reliability analysis (HRA) has attracted a lot of attention in many fields especially in nuclear engineering. Dependence assessment among human tasks is a important part in HRA which contributes to an appropriate evaluation result. Most of methods in HRA are based on experts' opinions which are subjective and uncertain. Also, the dependence influencing factors are usually considered to be constant, which is unrealistic. In this paper, a new model based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory (DSET) and fuzzy number is proposed to handle the dependence between two tasks in HRA under uncertain and dynamic situations. First, the dependence influencing factors are identified and the judgments on the factors are represented as basic belief assignments (BBAs). Second, the BBAs of the factors that varying with time are reconstructed based on the correction BBA derived from time value. Then, BBAs of all factors are combined to gain the fused BBA. Finally, conditional human error probability (CHEP) is derived based on the fused BBA. The proposed method can deal with uncertainties in the judgments and dynamics of the dependence influencing factors. A case study is illustrated to show the effectiveness and the flexibility of the proposed method.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.65-78
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• 2023

Investigations on information security factors re- main elusive at small and medium enterprises (SMEs), es- specially for custom-made software solutions. This article aims to investigate, classify, adopt factors from recent literature addressing information security resources. SMEs al- ready have information security in place, but they are not easy to adopt through the negotiation processes between the in-house software development companies and custom-made software clients at SMEs. This article proposes a strategic framework for implementing the process of adoption of the information security factors at SMEs after conducting a systematic snapshot approach for investigating and classifying the resources. The systematic snapshot was conducted using a search strategy with inclusion and exclusion criteria to retain 128 final reviewed papers from a large number of papers within the period of 2001-2022. These papers were analyzed based on a classification schema including management, organizational, development, and environmental categories in software development lifecycle (SDLC) phases in order to define new security factors. The reviewed articles addressed research gaps, trends, and common covered evidence-based decisions based on the findings of the systematic mapping. Hence, this paper boosts the broader cooperation between in-house software development companies and their clients to elicit, customize, and adopt the factors based on clients' demands.