• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.32-45
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• 2000

Background : Critical pathway is an optional sequencing and timing of interventions by physicians, nurses, and other staff for a particular diagnosis or procedure, designed to minimize delays and resource utilization, and to maximize quality of care; abbreviated versions of case management plans that show critical outcome and key incidents that occur in a predictable and timely fashion to achieve an appropriate length of stay. This study is to develop a critical pathway for vaginal delivery and cesarean section to assess the degree of contentment of the patients and medical personnel and to implement clinical application to see how we could meet the need to guide patients to achieve continuum of care. Method : Critical pathways were developed for normal vaginal delivery and casarean section. LOS(length of stay) target for vaginal delivery was 1 day after delivery & 5 days after C-section. It was distributed to the mother at the OPD and explained thoroughly. It was applied when patients got into the Labor & Delivery Floor. We applied total of 42 patients (30 normal deliveries & 12 C-sections) from February to March, 2000. We performed patient satisfaction survey to all 42 patients, 24 nurses, and 7 residents for internal customer satisfaction. Results : Twenty six patients out of 42 responded to the survey. Twenty one patients out of 26 answered satisfactory. Eighty four percent of 21 respondents replied Critical pathway worked very well. Treatment column got the most compliance. Eleven out of 31 employees thought critical pathway is very helpful for the patient care. Eighteen people didn't see any difference. In their opinion, treatment got the least compliance, which is the contrary to patients opinion. Fifty eight percent of respondents thought that critical pathway can expedite early discharge. Conclusion : Patient satisfaction was higher than we expected but we still need to revise the form. It is recommended to analyze the cost and variance check in the future.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.64-76
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• 2009

Adaptive Random Testing through Iterative Partitioning(IP-ART) is one of Adaptive Random Testing(ART) techniques. IP-ART uses an iterative partitioning method for input domain to improve the performances of early-versions of ART that have significant drawbacks in computation time. Another version of IP-ART, named with EIP-ART(IP-ART with Enlarged Input Domain), uses virtually enlarged input domain to remove the unevenly distributed parts near the boundary of the domain. EIP-ART could mitigate non-uniform test case distribution of IP-ART and achieve relatively high performances in a variety of input domain environments. The EIP-ART algorithm, however, have the drawback of higher computation time to generate test cases mainly due to the additional workload from enlarged input domain. For this reason, a revised version of IP-ART without input domain enlargement needs to improve the distribution of test cases to remove the additional time cost. We explore three smoothing algorithms which influence the distribution of test cases, and analyze to check if any performance improvements take place by them. The simulation results show that the algorithm of a restriction area management achieves better performance than other ones.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.451-461
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• 2009

The Adaptive Random Testing(ART) aims to improve the performance of traditional Random Testing(RT) by reducing the number of test cases to find the failure region which is located in the input domain. Such enhancement can be obtained by efficient selection algorithms of test cases. The ART through Iterative Partitioning(IP-ART) is one of ART techniques and it uses an iterative input domain partitioning method to improve the performance of early-versions of ART which have significant drawbacks in computation time. And the IP-ART with Enlarged Input Domain(EIP-ART), an improved version of IP-ART, is known to make additional performance improvement with scalability by expanding to virtual test space beyond real input domain of IP-ART. The EIP-ART algorithm, however, have the drawback of heavy cost of computation time to generate test cases mainly due to the virtual input domain enlargement. For this reason, two algorithms are proposed in this paper to mitigate the computation overhead of the EIP-ART. In the experiments by simulations, the tiling technique of input domain, one of two proposed algorithms, showed significant improvements in terms of computation time and testing performance.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.15A no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2008

Streaming media has contributed to a significant amount of today's Internet Traffic. Like traditional web objects, rich media objects can benefit from proxy caching, but caching streaming media is more of challenging than caching simple web objects, because the streaming media have features such as huge size and high bandwidth. And to support various bandwidth requirements for the heterogeneous ubiquitous devices, a transcoding proxy is usually necessary to provide not only adapting multimedia streams to the client by transcoding, but also caching them for later use. The traditional proxy considers only a single version of the objects, whether they are to be cached or not. However the transcoding proxy has to evaluate the aggregate effect from caching multiple versions of the same object to determine an optimal set of cache objects. And recent researches about multimedia caching frequently store initial parts of videos on the proxy to reduce playback latency and archive better performance. Also lots of researches manage the contents with segments for efficient storage management. In this paper, we define the 9-events of transcoding proxy using 4-atomic events. According to these events, the transcoding proxy can define the next actions. Then, we also propose the segment-based caching policy for the transcoding proxy system. The performance results show that the proposing policy have a low delayed start time, high byte-hit ratio and less transcoding data.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.129-138
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• 2017

Faced with the era of the IoT (Internet of Things) and smart homes, this study aims to explore the type of information loaded on smart devices that can lead to consumer's efficient energy use. 105 Americans participated in the survey with eight different versions according to two energy consumption levels (Above or Below condition) by four information frames (Finance, security, environment, or health). It was found that frames can make significant differences in consumers' attitudes; (1) Those in the Below condition worried about environments more than those in the Above condition; (2) Finance-framed information in the Above condition was the least effective to increase consumers' energy saving motivation; (3) In the Below condition, those receiving finance and security framed information revealed more environmental concerns than those receiving other types of informations. This study can contribute to the field by providing with basic research findings that smart device developers can refer to in the future. Also, follow-up studies need to be conducted to examine effective messages for Korean energy consumers.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.41-83
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• 2019

Recently, the establishment of the Special Act on National Research and Development(tentatively named) has been discussed with the aim of providing a legal basis for the comprehensive management of national research and development programs, which have thus far been independently implemented by government ministries. This paper analyzes the legislative process of the Framework Act on Science and Technology(hereafter, the "Framework Act") introduced for a similar purpose in 2001. By examining who had proposed various versions of the legislation prior to the enactment of the Framework Act, and which draft bill was derived ultimately through controversies, this paper will present the following two arguments: First, the obsession with a single regulation that can be applicable to all national research and development programs may lead to unintended consequences, given that the history of national research and development programs, each of which has been implemented by different government ministries, is quite long. Second, the Framework Act has an impact to date while it consistently internalizes the very unique orientations, as the concepts of "national competitiveness" and "national innovation system" postulate, even though it failed to establish an integrated rule. The case of the Framework Act will be a window through which one can glimpse how the present debate on the enactment of the Special Act on National Research and Development shall proceed, and further, reflect on the issues that were overlooked.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.513-523
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• 2022

The purpose of settlement management when treating soft ground through preloading is to determine the amount of settlement, check the progression of consolidation, and compare the settlement with the target settlement amount. Of the various methods available for predicting settlement based on measured data, the hyperbolic method was used in this study to analyze the settlement behavior of soft ground considering the creep behavior resulting from staged fill. Two versions of the method were used: the existing hyperbolic method, and a modified hyperbolic method. The existing hyperbolic method predicts the settlement amount using data for the final settlement section only during soft ground treatment through staged fill, for which the coefficient of consolidation behavior (k) was computed to give a predicted final consolidation settlement amount of S_r = 1.05 cm. In comparison, using the modified method, a predicted final consolidation settlement of S_r = 0.50 cm is obtained by considering the data for each staged fill section. These results show that the modified method considering data from the staged settlement was more accurate than the existing method considering data only from the final settlement section. This modification to the hyperbolic method therefore represents an improvement in performance over the existing method.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.265-274
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• 2011

The objective of this case study is to analyze how effectively KIA K5, which is a leading mid-size car brand, has positioned itself into the mid-size car market. Before KIA launched the K5, Sonata and SM5 were the leading brands in the mid-size car market. They had loyal customers who like their similar images. As many competitors keep launching new brands or new designs into the car industry, Sonata and SM5 were pressured to introduce new versions. But, the YF Sonata and the New SM5 failed to catch up with the new trends in the market. Whilst YF Sonata was perceived as too innovative, the New SM5 was treated as an old car by the target customers of the mid-size car. While the two leading brands struggled to attract customers, KIA K5 found a new market space by identifying and focusing on the lucrative replace and up-grade demand segment and filling the gap between the current product category values and the emerging mid-size car category values. The K5 found the right values that customers need and successfully articulated the values to the customers. This case study illustrates that a successful positioning strategy can be effectively employed to attract customers in the saturated car manufacturing industry. This case can be summarized as the successful positioning strategy of KIA K5 is comprised of four primary pillars: design innovation, market analysis, STP (segmentation, targeting, and positioning), and launch strategy. The KIA K5 case study provides valuable insights and implications for many other companies that are planning to find a proper positioning strategy for their own business.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.441-477
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• 2020

There have been raised other environmental issues related to remediated soils piled up in numerous carry-out processing facilities because a considerable quantity of them have been produced every year, but most of them have not been relevantly reused or recycled. Thus, this article reports the trend of researches on the development of techniques to restore the quality of remediated soils to activate their reuse and recycling. Firstly, the tendency of change in soil properties through remediation processes was looked over, and then the degradation of soil quality was characterized according to the type of remediation processes. Besides, the direction of policy to promote the reuse and recycling of remediated soils was introduced, and finally, the future works needed were suggested. This article was prepared based on the results of the survey of domestic and foreign literature. A number of literature were reviewed to scrutinize the change of soil properties due to remediation processes and diverse techniques for the amendment and restoration of remediated soils. Furthermore, the policies related to the reuse and recycling of remediated soils were arranged with the reference of the first and second versions of the Soil Conservation Master Plan of Korea. The literature survey focused on three kinds of remediation technologies, such as land farming, soil washing, and thermal desorption, which were most frequently used so far in Korea. The results indicate that the tendency of change in soil properties was significantly different depending on the type of remediation processes applied, and the degradation characteristics of soil quality were also totally different between them. The soil amendment and restoration can be categorized as three techniques depending on the type of substances used, such as inorganic, organic, and biological ones. Diverse individual materials have been used, and the soil properties improved or enhanced were dependent on the type of specific materials utilized. However, few studies on the restoration of soil qualities degraded during the remediation processes have not been carried out so far. The second Soil Conservation Master Plan states the quality certification and target management system of remediated soils, and it is expected that their reuse and recycling will be facilitated hereafter. With the consideration of the type of remediation processes implemented and public utility, the restoration technologies of remediated soils should be developed for the vitalization of their reuse and recycling. Besides, practical and specific measures should be taken to support the policy specified in the second Soil Conservation Master Plan and to promote reuse/recycling of remediated soils.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.