• Title/Summary/Keyword: Work Environment Measurement

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Predictive Factors of Health promotion behaviors of Industrial Shift Workers (산업장 교대근무 근로자의 건강증진행위 예측요인)

  • Kim, Young-Mi
    • Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.13-30
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    • 2002
  • Industrial shift workers feels suffer mental stresses which are caused by unfamiliar day sleep, noisy environment, sleeping disorder by bright light, unusual contacts with family, difficulty in meeting with friends or having formal social meetings and other social limitations such as the use of transportation. Such stresses influence health of the workers negatively. Thus the health promotion policy for shift workers should be made considering the workers' ways of living and shift work specially. This study attempted to provide basic information for development of the health promotion program for industrial shift workers by examining predictive factors influencing health promotion behaviors of those workers. In designing the study, three power generation plants located in Pusan and south Kyungsang province were randomly selected and therefrom 280 workers at central control, boiler and turbine rooms and environmental chemistry parts whose processes require shift works were sampled as subjects of the study. Data were collected two times from September 17 to October 8, 1999 using questionnaires with helps of safety and health managers of the plants. The questionnaires were distributed through mails or direct visits. Means for the study included the measurement tool of health promotion behavior provided by Park(1995), the tool of self-efficacy measurement by Suh(1995), the tool of internal locus of control measurement by Oh(1987), the measurement tool of perceived health state by Park(1995) and the tool of social support measurement by Paek(1995). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS program. Controlling factors of the subjects were evaluated in terms of frequency and percentage ratio Perceived factors and health promotion behaviors of the subjects were done so in terms of mean and standard deviation, and average mark and standard deviation, respectively. Relations between controlling and perceived factors were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA and those between perceived factors and the performance of health promotion behaviors, using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The performance of health promotion behaviors was tested using t-test, ANOVA and post multi-comparison (Scheffe test). Predictive factors of health promotion behavior were examined through the Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. Results of the study are summarized as follows. 1. The performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was evaluated as having the value of mean, $161.27{\pm}26.73$ points(min.:60, max.:240) and average mark, $2.68{\pm}0.44$ points(min.:1, max.:4). When the performance was analyzed according to related aspects, it showed the highest level in harmonious relation with average mark, $3.15{\pm}.56$ points, followed by hygienic life($3.03{\pm}.55$), self-realization ($2.84{\pm}.55$), emotional support($2.73{\pm}.61$), regular meals($2.71{\pm}.76$), self-control($2.62{\pm}.63$), health diet($2.62{\pm}.56$), rest and sleep($2.60{\pm}.59$), exercise and activity($2.53{\pm}.57$), diet control($2.52{\pm}.56$) and special health management($2.06{\pm}.65$). 2. In relations between perceived factors of the subjects(self-efficacy, internal locus of control, perceived health state) and the performance of health promotion behaviors, the performance was found having significantly pure relations with self-efficacy (r=.524, P=.000), internal locus of control (r=.225, P=.000) and perceived health state(r=.244, P=.000). The higher each evaluated point of the three factors was, the higher the performance was in level. 3. When relations between the controlling factors(demography-based social, health-related, job-related and human relations characteristics) and the performance of health promotion behaviors were analyzed, the performance showed significant differences according to marital status (t=2.09, P= .03), religion(F=3.93, P= .00) and participation in religious activities (F=8.10, P= .00) out of demography-based characteristics, medical examination results (F=7.20, P= .00) and methods of the collection of health knowledge and information(F=3.41, P= .01) and methods of desired health education(F=3.41, P= .01) out of health-related characteristics, detrimental factors perception(F=4.49, P= .01) and job satisfaction(F=8.41, P= .00) out of job-related characteristics and social support(F=14.69, P= .00) out of human relations characteristics. 4. The factor which is a variable predicting best the performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was the self-efficacy accounting for 27.4% of the prediction, followed by participation in religious activities, social support, job satisfaction, received health state and internal locus of control in order all of which totally account for 41.0%. In conclusion, the predictive factor which most influence the performance of health promotion behaviors by shift workers was self-efficacy. To promote the sense, therefore, it is necessary to develop the nursing intervention program considering predictive factors as variables identified in this study. Further industrial nurses should play their roles actively to help shift workers increase their capability of self-management of health.

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Compensation of Light Scattering Method for Real-Time Monitoring of Particulate Matters in Subway Stations (지하역사 내 미세먼지 실시간 모니터링을 위한 광산란법 보정)

  • Kim, Seo-Jin;Kang, Ho-Seong;Son, Youn-Suk;Yoon, Sang-Lyeor;Kim, Jo-Chun;Kim, Gyu-Sik;Kim, In-Won
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.533-542
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    • 2010
  • The $PM_{10}$ concentrations in the underground should be monitored for the health of commuters on the underground subway system. Seoul Metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation are measuring several air pollutants regularly. As for the measurement of $PM_{10}$ concentrations, instruments based on $\beta$-ray absorption method and gravimetric methods are being used. But the instruments using gravimetric method give us 20-hour-average data and the $\beta$-ray instruments can measure the $PM_{10}$ concentration every one hour. In order to keep the $PM_{10}$ concentrations under a healthy condition, the air quality of the underground platform and tunnels should be monitored and controlled continuously. The $PM_{10}$ instruments using light scattering method can measure the $PM_{10}$ concentrations every less than one minute. However, the reliability of the instruments using light scattering method is still not proved. The purpose of this work is to study the reliability of the instruments using light scattering method to measure the $PM_{10}$ concentrations continuously in the underground platforms. One instrument using $\beta$-ray absorption method and two different instruments using light scattering method (LSM1, LSM2) were placed at the platform of the Jegi station of Seoul metro line Number 1 for 10 days. The correlation between the $\beta$-ray instrument and the LSM2 ($r^2$=0.732) was higher than that between the $\beta$-ray instrument and the LSM1 ($r^2$=0.393). Thus the LSM2 was chosen for further analysis. Three different regression analysis methods were tested: Linear regression analysis, Nonlinear regression analysis and Orthogonal regression analysis. When the instruments using light scattering method were used, the data measured these instruments have to be converted to actual $PM_{10}$ concentrations using some factors. With these analyses, the factors could be calculated successfully as linear and nonlinear forms with respect to the data. And the orthogonal regression analysis was performed better than the ordinary least squares method by 28.45% reduction of RMSE. These findings propose that the instruments using light scattering method light scattering method can be used to measure and control the $PM_{10}$ concentrations of the underground subway stations.

Evaluation of the Usability of Micro-Sensors for the Portable Fine Particle Measurement (생활 속 미세먼지 영향평가를 위한 소형센서의 신뢰성 및 활용성 평가)

  • Kim, Jinsu;Jang, Youjung;Kim, Jinseok;Park, Minwoo;Bu, Chanjong;Lee, Yungu;Kim, Younha;Woo, Jung-Hun
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.27 no.4
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    • pp.378-393
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    • 2018
  • As atmospheric fine dust problems in Korea become more serious, there are growing needs to find the concentration of fine particles in indoor and outdoor areas and there are increasing demands for sensor-based portable monitoring devices capable of measuring fine dust concentrations instantly. The low-cost portable monitoring devices have been widely manufactured and used without the prescribed certification standards which would cause unnecessary confusion to the concerned public. To evaluate the reliability those devices and to improve their usability, following studies were conducted in this work; 1) The comparisons between sensor-based devices and comparison with more accurate devices were performed. 2) Several experiments were conducted to understand usefulness of the portable monitoring devices. As results, the absolute concentration levels need to be adjusted due to insensitivity of the tiny light scattering sensors in the portable devices, but their linearity and reproducibility seem to be acceptable. By using those monitoring devices, users are expected to have benefits of recognizing the changes of concentration more quickly and could help preventing themselves from the adverse health impacts.

Physical Properties and Cleaning Ability of New Cleaning Agents Based on 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFEA) (2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFEA)를 기초로한 세정제의 물성 및 세정성 영향 연구)

  • Cha, An Jung;Park, Ji Na;Kim, Honggon;Bae, Jae Heum
    • Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.533-541
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    • 2005
  • Non-aqueous cleaning agents were formulated with 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFEA) and hydrofluoroether (HFE), and their physical properties and cleaning abilities were examined. TFEA-based aqueous cleaning agents were also formulated with nonionic surfactants, hydrotropes and builders, and their cleaning abilities were compared. Possibilities of these cleaning agents as substitutes for CFC-113 and 1,1,1-TCE were finally evaluated. In this work, fluxes, cutting oils, greases, and fluoric oils were selected as model contaminants for cleaning experiments. These contaminants have different properties of water-solubility or hydrophilicity, and fat-solubility or lypophilicity. Cleaning abilities of TFEA-based cleaning agents were analyzed and compared through the measurement of contaminant weight changes as a function of cleaning time, and their possibilities as alternative cleaning agents were evaluated. As a result, it was shown that TFEA and HFE-based non-aqueous cleaning agents have quite a good cleaning power for fluxes and fluorine soils but low one for greases. And TFEA-based agueous cleaning agents which consisted of nonionic surfactants, hydrotrope, and builders were very effective for cleaning fluxes and greases under certain formulation conditions. Thus, it was revealed that the TFEA-based cleaning agents were very effective for cleaning specific contaminants and can be used as substitutes for CFC-113 and 1,1,1-TCE in some industrial applications.

Determination of Thermal Radiation Emissivity and Absorptivity of Thermal Screens for Greenhouse (온실 스크린의 장파복사 방사율 및 흡수율 결정)

  • Rafiq, Adeel;Na, Wook Ho;Rasheed, Adnan;Kim, Hyeon Tae;Lee, Hyun Woo
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.311-321
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    • 2019
  • Greenhouse farmers often use thermal screens to reduce greenhouse heating expenses during the winter, and for shade during hot, sunny days in the summer, as it is an inexpensive solution to temperature control relative to other available options. However, accurate measurements of their emitted and absorbed radiations are important for the selection of suitable screens that offer maximum performance. Material's ability to save energy is highly dependent on these properties. Limited studies have investigated the measurement of these properties under natural conditions, but they are only applicable to materials having partial porosities. In this work, we describe a new radiation balance method for determining emissive power and absorptive capacity, as well as reflectivity, transmissivity and emissivity of materials having complete and partial transparency by using pyrgeometer and net radiometer. In this study, four materials with zero porosity, were tested. The emissivity value of PE, LD-13, LD-15 and PH-20 was $0.439{\pm}0.020$, $0.460{\pm}0.010$, $0.454{\pm}0.004$, and $0.499{\pm}0.006$, respectively. All tested samples showed high emitted radiation as compared to absorbed radiation.

The Effect of the Context Awareness Value on the Smartphone Adopter' Advertising Attitude (스마트폰광고 이용자의 광고태도에 영향을 미치는 상황인지가치에 관한 연구)

  • Yang, Chang-Gyu;Lee, Eui-Bang;Huang, Yunchu
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.73-91
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    • 2013
  • Advertising market has been facing new challenges due to dramatic change in advertising channels and the advent of innovative media such as mobile devices. Recent research related to mobile devices is mainly focused on the fact that mobile devices could identify users'physical location in real-time, and this sheds light on how location-based technology is utilized to achieve competitive advantage in advertising market. With the introduction of smartphone, the functionality of smartphone has become much more diverse and context awareness is one of the areas that require further study. This work analyses the influence of context awareness value resulted from the transformation of advertising channel in mobile communication market, and our research result reflects recent trend in advertising market environment which is not considered in previous studies. Many constructs has intensively been studied in the context of advertising channel in traditional marketing environment, and entertainment, irritation and information are considered to be the most widely accepted variables that has positive relationship with advertising value. Also, in smartphone advertisement, four main dimensions of context awareness value are recognized: identification, activity, timing and location. In this study, we assume that these four constructs has positive relationship with context awareness value. Finally, we propose that advertising value and context awareness value positively influence smartphone advertising attitude. Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural model is used in our theoretical research model to test proposed hypotheses. A well designed survey is conducted for college students in Korea, and reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of constructs and measurement indicators are carefully evaluated and the results show that reliability and validity are confirmed according to predefined statistical criteria. Goodness-of-fit of our research model is also supported. In summary, the results collectively suggest good measurement properties for the proposed research model. The research outcomes are as follows. First, information has positive impact on advertising value while entertainment and irritation have no significant impact. Information, entertainment and irritation together account for 38.8% of advertising value. Second, along with the change in advertising market due to the advent of smartphone, activity, timing and location have positive impact on context awareness value while identification has no significant impact. In addition, identification, activity, location and time together account for 46.3% of context awareness value. Third, advertising value and context awareness value both positively influence smartphone advertising attitude, and these two constructs explain 31.7% of the variability of smartphone advertising attitude. The theoretical implication of our research is as follows. First, the influence of entertainment and irritation is reduced which are known to be crucial factors according to previous studies related to advertising value, while the influence of information is increased. It indicates that smartphone users are not likely interested in entertaining effect of smartphone advertisement, and are insensitive to the inconvenience due to smartphone advertisement. Second, in today' ubiquitous computing environment, it is effective to provide differentiated advertising service by utilizing smartphone users'context awareness values such as identification, activity, timing and location in order to achieve competitive business advantage in advertising market. For practical implications, enterprises should provide valuable and useful information that might attract smartphone users by adopting differentiation strategy as smartphone users are sensitive to the information provided via smartphone. Also enterprises not only provide useful information but also recognize and utilize smarphone users' unique characteristics and behaviors by increasing context awareness values. In summary, our result implies that smartphone advertisement should be optimized by considering the needed information of smartphone users in order to maximize advertisement effect.

Retail Product Development and Brand Management Collaboration between Industry and University Student Teams (산업여대학학생단대지간적령수산품개발화품패관리협작(产业与大学学生团队之间的零售产品开发和品牌管理协作))

  • Carroll, Katherine Emma
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.239-248
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    • 2010
  • This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.

Cesium Radioisotope Measurement Method for Environmental Soil by Ammonium Molybdophosphate (환경토양에서 몰리브도인산 암모늄을 이용한 세슘 동위원소 평가방법)

  • Choe, Yeong-hun;Seo, Yang Gon
    • Clean Technology
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.122-131
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    • 2016
  • Caesium radioisotopes, 134Cs and 137Cs which come from the atmospheric nuclear tests and discharges from nuclear power plants, are very important to study artificial radioactivity. In this work, in order to lower the minimum detection activity (MDA) we investigated environmental radioactivity according to the Environment Measurement Laboratory procedure by 137Cs and 134Cs which is similar to chemical and environmental behaviors of 137Cs. The environmental soils in high mountain areas near nuclear power plant were collected, and an Ammonium Molybdophosphate (AMP) precipitation method, which showed high selectivity toward Cs+ ions, was applied to chemically extract and concentrate Caesium radioisotopes. Radioactivity was estimated by a gamma-ray spectrometry. In gamma energy spectrum, with an increasing of 40K radioactivity, it increased the MDA of 134Cs and 137Cs. Therefore, if the natural radionuclides were removed from the soil samples, the MDA of Caesium may be reduced, and the contents of 137Cs of in the environmental soils can effectively be estimated. In the standard soil sample of Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, radioactivity of 40K was removed more than 84% on average, and the MDA of 134Cs was reduced 2 times. The content of 137Cs was recovered over 84%. On the other hand, in environmental soils, AMP precipitation method showed removal ratio of 40K up to 180 times, which reduced the MDA about 5 times smaller than those of Direct method. 137Cs recovery ratio showed from 54.54% to 70.06%. When considering the MDA and recovery ratio, AMP precipitation method is effective for detection of Caesium radioisotopes in low concentration.

Recent Progress in Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Research: A Review of Papers Published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2014 (설비공학 분야의 최근 연구 동향: 2014년 학회지 논문에 대한 종합적 고찰)

  • Lee, Dae-Young;Kim, Sa Ryang;Kim, Hyun-Jung;Kim, Dong-Seon;Park, Jun-Seok;Ihm, Pyeong Chan
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.27 no.7
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    • pp.380-394
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    • 2015
  • This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2014. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) The research works on the thermal and fluid engineering have been reviewed as groups of heat and mass transfer, cooling and heating, and air-conditioning, the flow inside building rooms, and smoke control on fire. Research issues dealing with duct and pipe were reduced, but flows inside building rooms, and smoke controls were newly added in thermal and fluid engineering research area. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics, pool boiling and condensing heat transfer and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the results for thermal contact resistance measurement of metal interface, a fan coil with an oval-type heat exchanger, fouling characteristics of plate heat exchangers, effect of rib pitch in a two wall divergent channel, semi-empirical analysis in vertical mesoscale tubes, an integrated drying machine, microscale surface wrinkles, brazed plate heat exchangers, numerical analysis in printed circuit heat exchanger. In the area of pool boiling and condensing, non-uniform air flow, PCM applied thermal storage wall system, a new wavy cylindrical shape capsule, and HFC32/HFC152a mixtures on enhanced tubes, were actively studied. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on solar water storage tank, effective design on the inserting part of refrigerator door gasket, impact of different boundary conditions in generating g-function, various construction of SCW type ground heat exchanger and a heat pump for closed cooling water heat recovery were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, various studies were carried out in the categories of refrigeration cycle, alternative refrigeration and modelling and controls including energy recoveries from industrial boilers and vehicles, improvement of dehumidification systems, novel defrost systems, fault diagnosis and optimum controls for heat pump systems. It is particularly notable that a substantial number of studies were dedicated for the development of air-conditioning and power recovery systems for electric vehicles in this year. (4) In building mechanical system research fields, seventeen studies were reported for achieving effective design of the mechanical systems, and also for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings. The topics of the studies included energy performance, HVAC system, ventilation, and renewable energies, piping in the buildings. Proposed designs, performance performance tests using numerical methods and experiments provide useful information and key data which can improve the energy efficiency of the buildings. (5) The field of architectural environment was mostly focused on indoor environment and building energy. The main researches of indoor environment were related to the evaluation of work noise in tunnel construction and the simulation and development of a light-shelf system. The subjects of building energy were worked on the energy saving of office building applied with window blind and phase change material(PCM), a method of existing building energy simulation using energy audit data, the estimation of thermal consumption unit of apartment building and its case studies, dynamic window performance, a writing method of energy consumption report and energy estimation of apartment building using district heating system. The remained studies were related to the improvement of architectural engineering education system for plant engineering industry, estimating cooling and heating degree days for variable base temperature, a prediction method of underground temperature, the comfort control algorithm of car air conditioner, the smoke control performance evaluation of high-rise building, evaluation of thermal energy systems of bio safety laboratory and a development of measuring device of solar heat gain coefficient of fenestration system.

A Study on Forecasting Accuracy Improvement of Case Based Reasoning Approach Using Fuzzy Relation (퍼지 관계를 활용한 사례기반추론 예측 정확성 향상에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, In-Ho;Shin, Kyung-Shik
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.67-84
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    • 2010
  • In terms of business, forecasting is a work of what is expected to happen in the future to make managerial decisions and plans. Therefore, the accurate forecasting is very important for major managerial decision making and is the basis for making various strategies of business. But it is very difficult to make an unbiased and consistent estimate because of uncertainty and complexity in the future business environment. That is why we should use scientific forecasting model to support business decision making, and make an effort to minimize the model's forecasting error which is difference between observation and estimator. Nevertheless, minimizing the error is not an easy task. Case-based reasoning is a problem solving method that utilizes the past similar case to solve the current problem. To build the successful case-based reasoning models, retrieving the case not only the most similar case but also the most relevant case is very important. To retrieve the similar and relevant case from past cases, the measurement of similarities between cases is an important key factor. Especially, if the cases contain symbolic data, it is more difficult to measure the distances. The purpose of this study is to improve the forecasting accuracy of case-based reasoning approach using fuzzy relation and composition. Especially, two methods are adopted to measure the similarity between cases containing symbolic data. One is to deduct the similarity matrix following binary logic(the judgment of sameness between two symbolic data), the other is to deduct the similarity matrix following fuzzy relation and composition. This study is conducted in the following order; data gathering and preprocessing, model building and analysis, validation analysis, conclusion. First, in the progress of data gathering and preprocessing we collect data set including categorical dependent variables. Also, the data set gathered is cross-section data and independent variables of the data set include several qualitative variables expressed symbolic data. The research data consists of many financial ratios and the corresponding bond ratings of Korean companies. The ratings we employ in this study cover all bonds rated by one of the bond rating agencies in Korea. Our total sample includes 1,816 companies whose commercial papers have been rated in the period 1997~2000. Credit grades are defined as outputs and classified into 5 rating categories(A1, A2, A3, B, C) according to credit levels. Second, in the progress of model building and analysis we deduct the similarity matrix following binary logic and fuzzy composition to measure the similarity between cases containing symbolic data. In this process, the used types of fuzzy composition are max-min, max-product, max-average. And then, the analysis is carried out by case-based reasoning approach with the deducted similarity matrix. Third, in the progress of validation analysis we verify the validation of model through McNemar test based on hit ratio. Finally, we draw a conclusion from the study. As a result, the similarity measuring method using fuzzy relation and composition shows good forecasting performance compared to the similarity measuring method using binary logic for similarity measurement between two symbolic data. But the results of the analysis are not statistically significant in forecasting performance among the types of fuzzy composition. The contributions of this study are as follows. We propose another methodology that fuzzy relation and fuzzy composition could be applied for the similarity measurement between two symbolic data. That is the most important factor to build case-based reasoning model.