• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2023

A semiconductor fabrication facility(FAB) is one of the most capital-intensive and large-scale manufacturing systems which operate under complex and uncertain constraints through hundreds of fabrication steps. To improve fab performance with intuitive scheduling, practitioners have used weighted-sum scheduling. Since the determination of weights in the scheduling significantly affects fab performance, they often rely on simulation-based decision making for obtaining optimal weights. However, a large-scale and high-fidelity simulation generally is time-intensive to evaluate with an exhaustive search. In this study, we investigated three sampling methods (i.e., Optimal latin hypercube sampling(OLHS), Genetic algorithm(GA), and Decision tree based sequential search(DSS)) for the optimization. Our simulation experiments demonstrate that: (1) three methods outperform greedy heuristics in performance metrics; (2) GA and DSS can be promising tools to accelerate the decision-making process.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2010

Conventional path-finding has focused on finding short collision-free paths. However, as computer games become more sophisticated, it is required to take tactical information like ambush points or lines of enemy sight into account. One way to make this information have an effect on path-finding is to represent a heuristic function of a search algorithm as a weighted sum of tactics. In this paper we consider the problem of learning heuristic to optimize path-finding based on given tactical information. What is meant by learning is to produce a good weight vector for a heuristic function. Training examples for learning are given by a game level-designer and will be compared with search results in every search level to update weights. This paper proposes a learning algorithm integrated with search for tactical path-finding. The perceptron-like method for updating weights is described and a simulation tool for implementing these is presented. A level-designer can mark desired paths according to characters' properties in the heuristic learning tool and then it uses them as training examples to learn weights and shows traces of paths changing along with weight learning.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2007

Thermal discharges from the nuclear power plants into neighboring Korean coastal waters have raised serious disputable arguments from the two parties of local fishermen and scientists involved since late 1970's. To meet the social demands and provide scientific and reasonable solutions, new set of standards have been established which will guide through measuring and processing the various variables and parameters in environmental and fishery impact assessment procedures for the thermal discharge from the nuclear power plants. These are made possible for the first time by the combined efforts by Korean Oceanography Society and Fishery Society. In this paper, Thermal Disharge Impact Index(TI) is proposed by the probability of the local temperatures exceeding critically to local fishery multiplied by the weighted sum of diverse environmental and ecological factors. The TI is essentially conceived to overcome the long-exising bad practices based on the particular excess temperature such as 1. The proposed TI based on the guideline principle proposed by the UNEP(2002) is expected to be practical, economic and self-adaptive. To prove the usefulness of the TI, it is highly recommended to conduct prototype experiments and exercises in a particular nuclear power plant site in the near future.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.23.1-23.14
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• 2023

Background: Exposure to heavy metals is a public health concern worldwide. Previous studies on the association between heavy metal exposure and neurobehavioral functions in children have focused on single exposures and clinical manifestations. However, the present study evaluated the effects of heavy metal complex exposure on subclinical neurobehavioral function using a Korean Computerized Neurobehavior Test (KCNT). Methods: Urinary mercury, lead, cadmium analyses as well as symbol digit substitution (SDS) and choice reaction time (CRT) tests of the KCNT were conducted in children aged between 10 and 12 years. Reaction time and urinary heavy metal levels were analyzed using partial correlation, linear regression, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), the weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression and quantile G-computation analysis. Results: Participants of 203 SDS tests and 198 CRT tests were analyzed, excluding poor cooperation and inappropriate urine sample. Partial correlation analysis revealed no association between neurobehavioral function and exposure to individual heavy metals. The result of multiple linear regression shows significant positive association between urinary lead, mercury, and CRT. BMKR, WQS regression and quantile G-computation analysis showed a statistically significant positive association between complex urinary heavy metal concentrations, especially lead and mercury, and reaction time. Conclusions: Assuming complex exposures, urinary heavy metal concentrations showed a statistically significant positive association with CRT. These results suggest that heavy metal complex exposure during childhood should be evaluated and managed strictly.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.476-482
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• 2023

Introduction: There is a growing global interest in the issue of precarious employment. We aimed to analyze the characteristics and socio-demographic distribution of precarious employment using a summative score approach. Methods: To operationalize precarious employment, we utilized data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey and focused on three distinct dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protections. By constructing a summative scale ranging from -16 to 2, with lower scores indicating higher precariousness, we measured employment precariousness among Korean wage workers. To compare employment precariousness according to survey participant characteristics, we employed the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test. Results: We analyzed a weighted number of 38,432 workers. The overall sample showed a median (Q1, Q3) summative scale score of -3 (-6, -1). The median summative score was lower for women compared to men (men: -2; women: -5; p < 0.001), as well as for young or older workers compared to middle-aged workers (young: -4; middle-aged: -2; older: -5; p < 0.001). Similarly, workers with lower educational levels (middle school or below: -8; high school: -5; college or above: -2; p < 0.001) and non-white collar workers (blue collar: -5; service/sales worker: -6; white collar: -2; p < 0.001) experienced higher levels of employment precariousness. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that certain vulnerable groups, such as women, young or older adults, workers with low educational attainment, and caregiving or low-skilled elementary workers, are disproportionately exposed to high employment precariousness. Active policy interventions are needed to improve the employment quality of vulnerable groups.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2003

Objective : To quantify the economic value of the Sirolimus fluting Stent ($CYPHER^{TM}$) in treating acute coronary heart disease (CMD), and to assist in determining an adequate level of reimbursement for $CYPHER^{TM}$ in Korea. Methods : A decision-analytical model, developed by the Belgium Health Economics Disease Management group, was used to investigate the incremental cost-effectiveness of $CYPHER^{TM}$ versus conventional stenting. The time horizon was five years. The probabilities for clinical events at each node of the decision model were obtained from the results of large, randomized, controlled clinical trials. The initial care and follow-up direct medical costs were analyzed. The initial costs consisted of those for the initial procedure and hospitalization, The follow-vp costs included those for routine follow-up treatments, adverse reactions, revascularization and death. Defending on the perspective of the analysis, the costs were defined as insurance covered or total medical costs (=sum of insurance covered and uncovered medical costs). The cost data were obtained from the administrative data of 449 patients that received conventional stenting from five participating Korean hospitals during June 2002. Sensitivity analyses were peformed for discount rates of 3, 5 and 7%. Since the major clinical advantage of $CYPHER^{TM}$ over conventional stenting was the reduction in the revascularization rates, the economic value of $CYPHER^{TM}$, in relation to the direct medical costs of revascularization, were evaluated. If the incremental cost of $CYPHER^{TM}$ per revascularization avoided, compared to conventional stenting, was no higher than that of a revascularization itself, $CYPHER^{TM}$ would be considered as being cost-effective. Therefore, the maximum acceptable level for the reimbursement price of $CYPHER^{TM}$ making the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio equal to the cost of a revascularization was identified. Results : The average weighted initial insurance covered and total medical costs of conventional stenting were about 6,275,000 and 8,058,000 Won, respectively. The average weighted sum of the initial and 5-year follow-up insurance covered and total medical costs of conventional stenting were about 13,659,000 and 17,353,000 Won, respectively. The estimated maximum level of reimbursement price of $CYPHER^{TM}$ from the perspectives of the insurer and society were $4,126,897{\sim}4,325,161$ and $4,939,939{\sim}5,078,181$ Won, respectively. Conclusion : By evaluating the economic value of $CYPHER^{TM}$, as an alternative to conventional stenting, the results of this study are expected to provide a scientific basis for determining the acceptable level of reimbursement for $CYPHER^{TM}$.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2003

Objectives: Many researches have been done to compare psychopathology of functional gastrointestinal disorder and inflammatory bowel disease which involves structural change. Recently, many studies focused on the topic of alexithymia. The results from these studies were questionable for lack of valid measures of alexithymia and valid diagnostic criteria of functional gastrointestinal disorders. Therefore, we tried to overcome these two problems and to assess alexithymia, personality characteristics, and other psychopathology. Methods: The subjects consisted of ulcerative colitis group(N=28) who were diagnosed by colonoscopy and biopsy, irritable bowel syndrome group(N=27) who were diagnosed by Rome II criteria and normal control group(N=22). All patients were diagnosed at outpatient department of Kyungpook National University Hospital. All these groups completed three psychological tests, including MMPI, Rorschach test, and well validated TAS-20K(The Korean Version of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale). Results: Twenty-five percent of the ulcerative colitis group and 22% of the irritable bowel syndrome group scored in the alexithymia range, compared with 0% of the normal group. In Rorschach test, irritable bowel syndrome group showed high levels of weighted Sum C and EA. Most of clinical scales of MMPI were higher in two gastrointestinal groups than the normal control group. And two gastrointestinal groups showed low ego strength level, but there was no statistical significant difference between them. Conclusion: Two gastrointestinal groups showed high rate of alexithymia, other psychopathological profiles, and low ego strength but there was no significant difference between two groups.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2001

Matching pursuit algorithm was successfully demonstrated useful in low bit-rate video coding, However, one of the practical concerns related to applying the matching pursuit algorithm to application is its massive computation required for finding bases whose weighted sum best approximates the given input image. The main contribution of this paper is that we provide a new method that can drastically reduce the computational load without any degradation of image quality. Its main idea is based on reducing the number of inner product calculation required for finding best bases because the complexity of matching pursuit algorithm is due to the exhaustive local inner product calculation. As the first step, we compute a matrix which is the 1-D inner product of the given motion-compensated error input image with the 1-D vertical Gabor functions using the separable property of Gabor bases. In the second step, we calculate length of each vector in the matrix that corresponds to 1-D horizontal Gabor function, and compare the length with the current maximum absolute inner product value so far. According to the result of this comparison, one can decide whether or not to calculate the inner product. Since most of them do not need to calculate the inner product value, one can significantly reduce the computational load. Experimental results show that proposed method reduces about 70% of inner product calculation compared to the Neff's fast algorithm without any degradation of image quality.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.160-174
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose new coding techniques for photometry data of three-dimensional(3-D) mesh models. We make a good use of geometry and connectivity information to improve coding efficiency of color, normal vector, and texture data. First of all, we determine the coding order of photometry data exploiting connectivity information. Then, we exploit the obtained geometry information of neighboring vortices through the previous process to predict the photometry data. For color coding, the predicted color of the current vertex is computed by a weighted sum of colors for adjacent vortices considering geometrical characteristics between the current vortex and the adjacent vortices at the geometry predictor. For normal vector coding, the normal vector of the current vertex is equal to one of the optimal plane produced by the optimal plane generator with distance equalizer owing to the property of an isosceles triangle. For texture coding, our proposed method removes discontinuity in the texture coordinates and reallocates texture image segments according to the coding order. Simulation results show that the proposed compression schemes provide improved performance over previous works for various 3-D mesh models.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2007

The runoff characteristics of organic matter in turbid water were investigated in eleven tributary streams of the Han River system, Korea. The flow-weighted event mean concentrations of organic matter ranged from 1.5 to 3.2 mg $L^{-1}$ of DOM and 2.2 of 29.1 mg $L^{-1}$ of POM, respectively. The SUVA value which reflects the proportion of humic substance in organic matters was higher during the rainfall season, meaning that the runoff of refractory form increase in this period. Stable carbon isotope ratios of both POM and DOM were different among streams, which reflect the sources of organic matter. DOM isotope ratios were less depleted of $^{13}C$ than that of POM by approximately 1 to $2%_{\circ}$ ${\delta}^{13}C$ of the several turbid streams (the Mandae Stream, the Jawoon Stream, and the Daegi stream) were heavier than those of clear streams. ${\delta}^{13}C$ values in the turbid upstream tributaries were similar to those of downstream reaches (such as the Soyang River, the Sum River, and the Seo River). From the ${\delta}^{13}C$ analysis of POM it could be calculated that $C_4$ pathway contributed approximately 15.9 to 23.6% of organic matter in several turbid upstream sites, and over 20% in the three sites of large downstream reaches. On the contrary it contributed only 9.1 to 12.8% in clear streams of forest watersheds. In the Soyang River, $C_4$ pathway organic matter contributed 8.8% of the DOM pool.