• Title/Summary/Keyword: administrative systems

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Evolution of Aviation Safety Regulations to cope with the concept of data-driven rulemaking - Safety Management System & Fatigue Risk Management System

  • Lee, Gun-Young
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.345-366
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    • 2018
  • Article 37 of the International Convention on Civil Aviation requires that rules should be adopted to keep in compliance with international standards and recommended practices established by ICAO. As SARPs are revised annually, each ICAO Member State needs to reflect the new content in its national aviation Acts in a timely manner. In recent years, data-driven international standards have been developed because of the important roles of aviation safety data and information-based legislation in accident prevention based on human factors. The Safety Management System and crew Fatigue Risk Management Systems were reviewed as examples of the result of data-driven rulemaking. The safety management system was adopted in 2013 with the introduction of Annex 19 and Chapter 5 of the relevant manual describes safety data collection and analysis systems. Through analysis of safety data and information, decision makers can make informed data-driven decisions. The Republic of Korea introduced Safety Management System in accordance with Article 58 of the Aviation Safety Act for all airlines, maintenance companies, and airport corporations. To support the SMS, both mandatory reporting and voluntary safety reporting systems need to be in place. Up until now, the standard of administrative penal dispensation for violations of the safety management system has been very weak. Various regulations have been developed and implemented in the United States and Europe for the proper legislation of the safety management system. In the wake of the crash of the Colgan aircraft, the US Aviation Safety Committee recommended the US Federal Aviation Administration to establish a system that can identify and manage pilot fatigue hazards. In 2010, a notice of proposed rulemaking was issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and in 2011, the final rule was passed. The legislation was applied to help differentiate risk based on flight according to factors such as the pilot's duty starting time, the availability of the auxiliary crew, and the class of the rest facility. Numerous amounts data and information were analyzed during the rulemaking process, and reflected in the resultant regulations. A cost-benefit analysis, based on the data of the previous 10 year period, was conducted before the final legislation was reached and it was concluded that the cost benefits are positive. The Republic of Korea also currently has a clause on aviation safety legislation related to crew fatigue risk, where an airline can choose either to conform to the traditional flight time limitation standard or fatigue risk management system. In the United States, specifically for the purpose of data-driven rulemaking, the Airline Rulemaking Committee was formed, and operates in this capacity. Considering the advantageous results of the ARC in the US, and the D4S in Europe, this is a system that should definitely be introduced in Korea as well. A cost-benefit analysis is necessary, and can serve to strengthen the resulting legislation. In order to improve the effectiveness of data-based legislation, it is necessary to have reinforcement of experts and through them prepare a more detailed checklist of relevant variables.

Changes in Agricultural Extension Services in Korea (한국농촌지도사업(韓國農村指導事業)의 변동(變動))

  • Fujita, Yasuki;Lee, Yong-Hwan;Kim, Sung-Soo
    • Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.155-166
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    • 2000
  • When the marcher visited Korea in fall 1994, he was shocked to see high rise apartment buildings around the capitol region including Seoul and Suwon, resulting from rising demand of housing because of urban migration followed by second and third industrial development. After 6 years in March 2000, the researcher witnessed more apartment buildings and vinyl house complexes, one of the evidences of continued economic progress in Korea. Korea had to receive the rescue finance from International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of financial crisis in 1997. However, the sign of recovery was seen in a year, and the growth rate of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in 1999 recorded as high as 10.7 percent. During this period, the Korean government has been working on restructuring of banks, enterprises, labour and public sectors. The major directions of government were; localization, reducing administrative manpower, limiting agricultural budgets, privatization of public enterprises, integration of agricultural organization, and easing of various regulations. Thus, the power of central government shifted to local government resulting in a power increase for city mayors and county chiefs. Agricultural extension services was one of targets of government restructuring, transferred to local governments from central government. At the same time, the number of extension offices was reduced by 64 percent, extension personnel reduced by 24 percent, and extension budgets reduced. During the process of restructuring, the basic direction of extension services was set by central Rural Development Administration Personnel management, technology development and supports were transferred to provincial Rural Development Administrations, and operational responsibilities transferred to city/county governments. Agricultural extension services at the local levels changed the name to Agricultural Technology Extension Center, established under jurisdiction of city mayor or county chief. The function of technology development works were added, at the same time reducing the number of educators for agriculture and rural life. As a result of observations of rural areas and agricultural extension services at various levels, functional responsibilities of extension were not well recognized throughout the central, provincial, and local levels. Central agricultural extension services should be more concerned about effective rural development by monitoring provincial and local level extension activities more throughly. At county level extension services, it may be desirable to add a research function to reflect local agricultural technological needs. Sometimes, adding administrative tasks for extension educators may be helpful far farmers. However, tasks such as inspection and investigation should be avoided, since it may hinder the effectiveness of extension educational activities. It appeared that major contents of the agricultural extension service in Korea were focused on saving agricultural materials, developing new agricultural technology, enhancing agricultural export, increasing production and establishing market oriented farming. However these kinds of efforts may lead to non-sustainable agriculture. It would be better to put more emphasis on sustainable agriculture in the future. Agricultural extension methods in Korea may be better classified into two approaches or functions; consultation function for advanced farmers and technology transfer or educational function for small farmers. Advanced farmers were more interested in technology and management information, while small farmers were more concerned about information for farm management directions and timely diffusion of agricultural technology information. Agricultural extension service should put more emphasis on small farmer groups and active participation of farmers in these groups. Providing information and moderate advice in selecting alternatives should be the major activities for consultation for advanced farmers, while problem solving processes may be the major educational function for small farmers. Systems such as internet and e-mail should be utilized for functions of information exchange. These activities may not be an easy task for decreased numbers of extension educators along with increased administrative tasks. It may be difficult to practice a one-to-one approach However group guidance may improve the task to a certain degree.

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A Study on the Access in the Government Archives & Records Service of Korea (한국 정부기록보존소의 역사기록물 공개에 관한 검토)

  • Lee, Jin-Young
    • Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.129-140
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    • 2003
  • The ultimate goal of preserving and maintaining the records is to use them practically. The effective use of records should be supported by the reasonable recordskeeping systems and access standards. In this report, I examined the Korean laws and administrative systems related to the public records access issues. After I pointed out major problems of the access laws, the Government Information Opening Act (GOIA), and the problems in practices, I suggested some alternatives for the betterment of the access system. The GIOA established "eight standards of exemption to access" not to open some information to protect national interests and privacy. The Public Records Management Act (PRMA) applies to the archives transferred to "professional archives." The two laws show fundamental differences in the ways to open the public records to public. First, the GIOA deals with the whole information (the records) that public institutions keep and maintain, while the PRMA deals with the records that were transferred to the Government Archives. Second, the GIOA provides with a legal procedure to open public records and the standards to open or not to open them, while the PRMA allows the Government Archives to decide whether the transferred records should be opened or not. Third, the GIOA applies to record producing agencies, while the PRMA applies to public archival institutions. One of the most critical inadequacies of the PRMA is that there are no standards to judge to open the archives through reclassification procedure. The GIOA also suggests only the type of information that is not accessible. It does not specify how long the records can be closed. The GARS does not include the records less than 30 years old as its objects of the reclassification. To facilitate the opening of the archives, we need to revise the GIOA and the PRMA. It is necessary to clearly divide the realms between the GIOA and the PRMA on the access of the archives. The PRMA should clarify the principles of the reclassification as well as reclassifying method and exceptions. The exemption standards of the GIOA should be revised to restrict the abuse of the exemption clauses, and they should not be applied to the archives in the GARS indiscreetly and unconditionally.

The Effects of e-Business on Business Performance - In the home-shopping industry - (e-비즈니스가 경영성과에 미치는 영향 -홈쇼핑을 중심으로-)

  • Kim, Sae-Jung;Ahn, Seon-Sook
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.22
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    • pp.137-165
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    • 2007
  • It seems high time to increase productivity by adopting e-business to overcome challenges posed by both external factors including the appreciation of Korean won, oil hikes and fierce global competition and domestic issues represented by disparities between large corporations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Seoul metropolitan and local cities, and export and domestic demand all of which weaken future growth engines in the Korean economy. The demands of the globalization era are for innovative changes in businessprocess and industrial structure aiming for creating new values. To this end, e-business is expected to play a core role in the sophistication of the Korean economy through new values and innovation. In order to examine business performance in e-business-adopting industries, this study analyzed the home shopping industry by closely looking into the financial ratios including the ratio of net profit to sales, the ratio of operation income to sales, the ratio of gross cost to sales cost, the ratio of gross cost to selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense, and return of investment (ROI). This study, for best outcome, referred to corporate financial statements as a main resource to calculate financial ratios by utilizing Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) of the Financial Supervisory Service, one of the Korea's financial supervisory authorities. First of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of net profit to sales is as following. CJ Home Shopping has registered a remarkable increase in its ratio of net profit rate to sales since 2002 while its competitors find it hard to catch up with CJ's stunning performances. This is partly due to the efficient management compared to CJ's value of capital. Such significance, if the current trend continues, will make the front-runner assume the largest market share. On the other hand, GS Home Shopping, despite its best organized system and largest value of capital among others, lacks efficiency in management. Second of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of operation income to sales is as following. Both CJ Home Shopping and GS Home Shopping have, until 2004, recorded similar growth trend. However, while CJ Home Shopping's operating income continued to increase in 2005, GS Home Shopping observed its operating income declining which resulted in the increasing income gap with CJ Home Shopping. While CJ Home Shopping with the largest market share in home shopping industryis engaged in aggressive marketing, GS Home Shopping due to its stability-driven management strategies falls behind CJ again in the ratio of operation income to sales in spite of its favorable management environment including its large capital. Companies in the Group B were established in the same year of 2001. NS Home Shopping was the first in the Group B to shift its loss to profit. Woori Home Shopping has continued to post operating loss for three consecutive years and finally was sold to Lotte Group in 2007, but since then, has registered a continuing increase in net income on sales. Third of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to sales cost is as following. Since home shopping falls into sales business, its cost of sales is much lower than that of other types of business such as manufacturing industry. Since 2002 in gross costs including cost of sales, SG&A expense, and non-operating expense, cost of sales turned out to have remarkably decreased. Group B has also posted a notable decline in the same sector since 2002. Fourth of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to SG&A expense is as following. Due to its unique characteristics, the home shopping industry usually posts ahigh ratio of SG&A expense. However, more than 80% of SG&A expense means the result of lax management and at the same time, a sharp lower net income on sales than other industries. Last but not least, the result of the trend analysis on ROI is as following. As for CJ Home Shopping, the curve of ROI looks similar to that of its investment on fixed assets. As it turned out, the company's ratio of fixed assets to operating income skyrocketed in 2004 and 2005. As far as GS Home Shopping is concerned, its fixed assets are not as much as that of CJ Home Shopping. Consequently, competition in the home shopping industry, at the moment, is among CJ, GS, Hyundai, NS and Woori Home Shoppings, and all of them need to more thoroughly manage their costs. In order for the late-comers of Group B and other home shopping companies to advance further, the current lax management should be reformed particularly on their SG&A expense sector. Provided that the total sales volume in the Internet shopping sector is projected to grow over 20 trillion won by the year 2010, it is concluded that all the participants in the home shopping industry should put strategies on efficient management on costs and expenses as their top priority rather than increase revenues, if they hope to grow even further after 2007.

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A Study on Major Safety Problems and Improvement Measures of Personal Mobility (개인형 이동장치의 안전 주요 문제점 및 개선방안 연구)

  • Kang, Seung Shik;Kang, Seong Kyung
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.202-217
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: The recent increased use of Personal Mobility (PM) has been accompanied by a rise in the annual number of accidents. Accordingly, the safety requirements for PM use are being strengthened, but the laws/systems, infrastructure, and management systems remain insufficient for fostering a safe environment. Therefore, this study comprehensively searches the main problems and improvement methods through a review of previous studies that are related to PM. Then the priorities according to the importance of the improvement methods are presented through the Delphi survey. Method: The research method is mainly composed of a literature study and an expert survey (Delphi survey). Prior research and improvement cases (local governments, government departments, companies, etc.) are reviewed to derive problems and improvements, and a problem/improvement classification table is created based on keywords. Based on the classification contents, an expert survey is conducted to derive a priority improvement plan. Result: The PM-related problems were in 'non-compliance with traffic laws, lack of knowledge, inexperienced operation, and lack of safety awareness' in relation to human factors, and 'device characteristics, road-drivable space, road facilities, parking facilities' in relation to physical factors. 'Management/supervision, product management, user management, education/training' as administrative factors and legal factors are divided into 'absence/sufficiency of law, confusion/duplication, reduced effectiveness'. Improvement tasks related to this include 'PM education/public relations, parking/return, road improvement, PM registration/management, insurance, safety standards, traffic standards, PM device safety, PM supplementary facilities, enforcement/management, dedicated organization, service providers, management system, and related laws/institutional improvement', and 42 detailed tasks are derived for these 14 core tasks. The results for the importance evaluation of detailed tasks show that the tasks with a high overall average for the evaluation items of cost, time, effect, urgency, and feasibility were 'strengthening crackdown/instruction activities, education publicity/campaign, truancy PM management, and clarification of traffic rules'. Conclusion: The PM market is experiencing gradual growth based on shared services and a safe environment for PM use must be ensured along with industrial revitalization. In this respect, this study seeks out the major problems and improvement plans related to PM from a comprehensive point of view and prioritizes the necessary improvement measures. Therefore, it can serve as a basis of data for future policy establishment. In the future, in-depth data supplementation will be required for each key improvement area for practical policy application.

The Evaluation of Midwifery Program Through the Midwifery Leadership Training Program (조산수습과정 지도자 강습회를 통한 조산교육 평가조사연구)

  • 이경혜
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.23-32
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    • 1981
  • The purpose of the study was to evaluate the educational content which had been given by midwifery training program. It was hoped that this result would help. It was sponsored by com-munity health worker plan effective health education. College of Nursing Ewha Womans University and The Korean Nurses Academic Society during the November 19 thru 24, 1979. It was carried out on July through on September 1980, and involved 22 community health workers. The results were as follows: 1. Most of the community health workers came from Seoul & Pusan areas and have been working at the hospitals. There were 31.82% of Head Nurses, 27.2% of Staff Nurses, 22.73% Nurse Supervisons, 13.6% of Nurse Directors and 4.5% of educational coordinator for Nurses. These participant had nurse-midwifery lincences by 63.64%. None of there had just midwifery lincences. 2, Age structures of the study population shows 31.82% of whom are.26-30 years and 22.73% of whom are 36. 40 years of age. This shown that seniority proportion is higher than the younger. There are 31.82% of 1-5 years, 27.27% of 6-10 year and 11-15 years, respectively by work career. 3. There are 54.55% of the institutions have opened their own midwifery training course for their nursing staff members. Because of lack of the facilities, shortage of instructors, and problems of administrative process. 4. According to the institution which opened for midwifery training courses, the participant was responsible for “midwifery”“Infant care”“MCH”“practice of midwifery”“Nursing adjustment”and“F. P.”5. During the midwifery couse, there were 8 institution who used the textbook and 4 institution who did not. Least of there referned to content matinals which was given by the sponsored. 6. There are 7 insititues who kept their training courses with other professional helps such as physicians., professiors and nurses. Some problems are pointed out by respondents such as“conflict with residents”“poor suportive administration”and“lake of manpower”. 8. The participant showed that they learned new knowledge as trends during this programs for there quality work so it need (one or twice times) a year. But they suggested that it needed more emphasis on the“maternal health care”and“role of the nurse-midwifery”. 9. The analysis of the results are as follows within the 6 areas which are given by the sponsored: There are highest ranks between“basic theory & family planning”“role of midwifery & nursing practice”. In the prenatal care the highest rank ware related to“health risk”on“idenify of risk symtoms”. In the health care areas which related to delivery, the responsers were related to“general conditions”or“high risk criteria”. In the health care area which related to high risk maternity care. In the neonatal health care, the highest rank was related to”health assessment of normal infant”. In the infant health care the responses was related to“abnormal symptoms”and“risk symptoms”. Actually, the participants show that they are more interested in“role of midwifery”“health assessment”and “high risk maternity care”are which emphasised on health promotion, health maintenance & disease preventive. 1) The midwifery training program need higher education for midwifery on a regular basis. 2) Within the open institution of midwifery training program, the nurses must be supported by their own institution and administry of social welfare must give systematic support. Also non-open institution must be open very soon. 3) All health workers including the residents & other workers, must cooperate for their phased common good of impovement of the maternity health. 4) Administration agonies & education institutions must provide the curriculum facilitis and administration systems which are needed for training of nurse-midwifery.

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A Case Study on the Preservation Strategies of 'Historic Urban Parks' in the UK, the USA, and Japan (영국, 미국, 일본의 '역사적 도시공원' 보존 전략 사례 연구)

  • Gil, Ji-Hye;Park, Hee-Soung
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.48 no.2
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    • pp.20-33
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    • 2020
  • This study aims to examine the trends in the preservation of urban public parks with a focus on the international movement to acknowledge and preserve the heritage value of urban parks. First, the background in which the concept of "historic urban park" first appeared internationally, as well as the current situation were investigated. Then, the cases of the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), and Japan, all of which are already preserving and managing urban public parks, were analyzed. In the ICOMOS-IFLA Document on Historic Urban Public Parks, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which is a group of specialists dedicated to the conservation and management of cultural heritage, mentions that it is necessary to maintain the social, intangible, aesthetic, ecological, and civic values of historic urban public parks. In addition, according to ICOMOS, it is necessary to preserve elements of parks, such as space composition, topography, light, and environment. The UK, the USA, and Japan have their own unique characteristics for the background of preserving urban parks, the preservation system, the selection of parks to be preserved, and the elements to be preserved within the park. The UK has categorized parks into certain types from each period and has tried to preserve the common elements in each type. The US has selected the parks to preserve by determining the meaning of the parks itself considering multiple aspects, embracing not only the physical form of the parks, but also the culture, monumentality, and social values. Recently, Japan began the preservation of historic urban parks as a matter of policy and started to implement a preservation policy by investigating modern parks that are believed to be worth preserving. Specialists in cultural heritage preservation have argued that the method of preservation of historic urban parks must differ from that of other parks or gardens. Nonetheless, observing cases in these three countries showed that, regardless of their administrative and legal systems regarding cultural heritage and urban public parks, their policies were still limited to preserving only the physical elements of parks. The direction and methodology for the preservation of historic urban parks must be developed further and elaborated upon in terms of the evolving concept and definition of heritage. Urban parks are where various historic values are accumulated, connoting historical meanings dealing with the memories of the parks and the urban dwellers. This study found that, worldwide, park management has been carried out in a way that the historic values of parks are respected and preserved. This global trend in preserving the historic values of urban public parks has significant implications for the management of urban public parks in Korea that are being formed and renewed repeatedly.

Prediction of Forest Fire Danger Rating over the Korean Peninsula with the Digital Forecast Data and Daily Weather Index (DWI) Model (디지털예보자료와 Daily Weather Index (DWI) 모델을 적용한 한반도의 산불발생위험 예측)

  • Won, Myoung-Soo;Lee, Myung-Bo;Lee, Woo-Kyun;Yoon, Suk-Hee
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.1-10
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    • 2012
  • Digital Forecast of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) represents 5 km gridded weather forecast over the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding oceanic regions in Korean territory. Digital Forecast provides 12 weather forecast elements such as three-hour interval temperature, sky condition, wind direction, wind speed, relative humidity, wave height, probability of precipitation, 12 hour accumulated rain and snow, as well as daily minimum and maximum temperatures. These forecast elements are updated every three-hour for the next 48 hours regularly. The objective of this study was to construct Forest Fire Danger Rating Systems on the Korean Peninsula (FFDRS_KORP) based on the daily weather index (DWI) and to improve the accuracy using the digital forecast data. We produced the thematic maps of temperature, humidity, and wind speed over the Korean Peninsula to analyze DWI. To calculate DWI of the Korean Peninsula it was applied forest fire occurrence probability model by logistic regression analysis, i.e. $[1+{\exp}\{-(2.494+(0.004{\times}T_{max})-(0.008{\times}EF))\}]^{-1}$. The result of verification test among the real-time observatory data, digital forecast and RDAPS data showed that predicting values of the digital forecast advanced more than those of RDAPS data. The results of the comparison with the average forest fire danger rating index (sampled at 233 administrative districts) and those with the digital weather showed higher relative accuracy than those with the RDAPS data. The coefficient of determination of forest fire danger rating was shown as $R^2$=0.854. There was a difference of 0.5 between the national mean fire danger rating index (70) with the application of the real-time observatory data and that with the digital forecast (70.5).

A Study on the Design of Case-based Reasoning Office Knowledge Recommender System for Office Professionals (사례기반추론을 이용한 사무지식 추천시스템)

  • Kim, Myong-Ok;Na, Jung-Ah
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.131-146
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    • 2011
  • It is becoming more essential than ever for office professionals to become competent in information collection/gathering and problem solving in today's global business society. In particular, office professionals do not only assist simple chores but are also forced to make decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible in problematic situations that can end in either profit or loss to their company. Since office professionals rely heavily on their tacit knowledge to solve problems that arise in everyday business situations, it is truly helpful and efficient to refer to similar business cases from the past and share or reuse such previous business knowledge for better performance results. Case-based reasoning(CBR) is a problem-solving method which utilizes previous similar cases to solve problems. Through CBR, the closest case to the current business situation can be searched and retrieved from the case or knowledge base and can be referred to for a new solution. This reduces the time and resources needed and increase success probability. The main purpose of this study is to design a system called COKRS(Case-based reasoning Office Knowledge Recommender System) and develop a prototype for it. COKRS manages cases and their meta data, accepts key words from the user and searches the casebase for the most similar past case to the input keyword, and communicates with users to collect information about the quality of the case provided and continuously apply the information to update values on the similarity table. Core concepts like system architecture, definition of a case, meta database, similarity table have been introduced, and also an algorithm to retrieve all similar cases from past work history has also been proposed. In this research, a case is best defined as a work experience in office administration. However, defining a case in office administration was not an easy task in reality. We surveyed 10 office professionals in order to get an idea of how to define a case in office administration and found out that in most cases any type of office work is to be recorded digitally and/or non-digitally. Therefore, we have defined a record or document case as for COKRS. Similarity table was composed of items of the result of job analysis for office professionals conducted in a previous research. Values between items of the similarity table were initially set to those from researchers' experiences and literature review. The results of this study could also be utilized in other areas of business for knowledge sharing wherever it is necessary and beneficial to share and learn from past experiences. We expect this research to be a reference for researchers and developers who are in this area or interested in office knowledge recommendation system based on CBR. Focus group interview(FGI) was conducted with ten administrative assistants carefully selected from various areas of business. They were given a chance to try out COKRS in an actual work setting and make some suggestions for future improvement. FGI has identified the user-interface for saving and searching cases for keywords as the most positive aspect of COKRS, and has identified the most urgently needed improvement as transforming tacit knowledge and knowhow into recorded documents more efficiently. Also, the focus group has mentioned that it is essential to secure enough support, encouragement, and reward from the company and promote positive attitude and atmosphere for knowledge sharing for everybody's benefit in the company.

A Survey on the Actual State of Laboratory Facilities and Equipments at Nursing Schools (간호교육기관의 실험실습설비 보유실태 조사)

  • Lim, N.Y.;Lee, S.O.;Suh, M.J.;Kim, H.S.;Kim, M.S.;Oh, K.O.
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.108-117
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    • 1997
  • This study was carried out to examine the standards for evaluation of laboratory facilities and equipment. These constitute the most important yet vulnerable area of our system of higher education among the six school evaluation categories provided by the Korean Council for University Education. To obtain data on the present situation of holdings and management of laboratory facilities and equipment at nursing schools in Korea, questionnaires were prepared by members of a special committee of the Korea Nursing Education Society on the basis of the Standards for University Laboratory Facilities and Equipment issued by the Ministry of Education. The questionnaires were sent to nursing schools across the nation by mail on October 4, 1995. 39 institutions completed and returned the questionnaires by mail by December 31 of the same year. The results of the analysis of the survey were as follows: 1. The Physical Environment of Laboratories According to the results of investigation of 14 nursing departments at four-year colleges, laboratories vary in size ranging from 24 to 274.91 pyeong ($1{\;}pyeong{\;}={\;}3.3m^2).$. The average number of students in a laboratory class was 46.93 at four-year colleges, while the number ranged from 40 to 240 in junior colleges. The average floor space of laboratories at junior colleges, however, was almost the same as those, of laboratories at four-year colleges. 2. The Actual State of Laboratory Facilities and Equipment Laboratory equipment possessed by nursing schools at colleges and universities showed a very wide distribution by type, but most of it does not meet government standards according to applicable regulations while some types of equipment are in excess supply. The same is true of junior colleges. where laboratory equipment should meet a different set of government standards specifically established for junior colleges. Closer investigation is called for with regard to those types of equipment which are in short supply in more than 80 percent of colleges and universities. As for the types of equipment in excess supply, investigation should be carried out to determine whether they are really needed in large quantities or should be installed. In many cases, it would appear that unnecessary equipment is procured, even if it is already obsolete, merely for the sake of holding a seemingly impressive armamentarium. 3. Basic Science Laboratory Equipment Among the 39 institutions, five four-year colleges were found to possess equipment for basic science. Only one type of essential equipment, tele-thermometers, and only two types of recommended equipment, rotators and dip chambers, were installed in sufficient numbers to meet the standards. All junior colleges failed to meet the standards in all of equipment categories. Overall, nursing schools at all of the various institutions were found to be below per in terms of laboratory equipment. 4. Required Equipment In response to the question concerning which type of equipment was most needed and not currently in possession, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) machines and electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors topped the list with four respondents each, followed by measuring equipment. 5. Management of Laboratory Equipment According to the survey, the professors in charge of clinical training and teaching assistants are responsible for management of the laboratory at nursing schools at all colleges and universities, whereas the chief of the general affairs section or chairman of the nursing department manages the laboratory at junior colleges. This suggests that the administrative systems are more or less different. According to the above results, laboratory training could be defined as a process by which nursing students pick up many of the nursing skills necessary to become fully qualified nurses. Laboratory training should therefore be carefully planned to provide students with high levels of hands-on experience so that they can effectively handle problems and emergencies in actual situations. All nursing students should therefore be thoroughly drilled and given as much on-the-job experience as possible. In this regard, there is clearly a need to update the equipment criteria as demanded by society's present situation rather than just filling laboratory equipment quotas according to the current criteria.

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