• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.198-208
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• 2002

Background : This research, as a part of improving management process of college hospital in this rapidly changing circumstances, is searching for the actual state of private clinics referring patients to referral center including college hospitals. Methods : This research examined the sense of satisfaction and requesting degree in using referral center and by analyzing the correlation and differences among factors such as primary factors regarded as selecting ones in referring patients to a referral center in college hospital and expecting factors expected to be supported to patients and cooperative hospitals. Results : The main researched results are as follows. First, as for the primary factors, the differences between cooperative and uncooperative hospitals revealed the fact that choosing target hospital in accordance with cooperative relation and convenient process in referring patients are important. Second, satisfaction rates, analyzed from the paired t-test revealed kindness and convenience as the top priorities, while sending patients back again and benefit of supporting such as the use of facilities were revealed as the least satisfactory aspects, despite the fact that they should be fulfilled through actual service. Conclusion : The recognition of the practitioner is examined and analyzed in this research by examining primary factors in selecting college hospitals, expecting factors expected to be supported to patients and satisfaction degree, which are expected to be used as basic materials for the development of referral center of college hospitals.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.163-169
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• 2009

Many biological systems are regulated by an intricate set of feedback loops that oscillate with a circadian rhythm of roughly 24 h. This circadian clock mediates an increase in body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol secretion early in the day. Recent studies have shown changes in the amplitude of the circadian clock in the hearts and livers of streptozotocin (STZ)-treated rats. It is therefore important to examine the relationships between circadian clock genes and growth factors and their effects on diabetic phenomena in animal models as well as in human patients. In this study, we sought to determine whether diurnal variation in organ development and the regulation of metabolism, including growth and development during the juvenile period in rats, exists as a mechanism for anticipating and responding to the environment. Also, we examined the relationship between changes in growth factor expression in the liver and clock-controlled protein synthesis and turnover, which are important in cellular growth. Specifically, we assessed the expression patterns of several clock genes, including Per1, Per2, Clock, Bmal1, Cry1 and Cry2 and growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and -2 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-${\beta}1$ in rats with STZ-induced diabetes. Growth factor and clock gene expression in the liver at 1 week post-induction was clearly increased compared to the level in control rats. In contrast, the expression patterns of the genes were similar to those observed after 5 weeks in the STZ-treated rats. The increase in gene expression is likely a compensatory change in response to the obstruction of insulin function during the initial phase of induction. However, as the period of induction was extended, the expression of the compensatory genes decreased to the control level. This is likely the result of decreased insulin secretion due to the destruction of beta cells in the pancreas by STZ.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.577-582
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• 2022

Credit transactions are used as a means of price discrimination from competitors in order for suppliers to increase customer demand. In particular, in the case of a two-stage supply chain consisting of a supplier, a retailer, and a customer, the deferral of payment for goods allowed by the supplier is a means of reducing the inventory investment cost of the retailer. Retailers have the opportunity to discount the selling price while anticipating an increase in end-customer demand through the reduction of the inventory investment cost. In view of the fact that such trade credit is provided for the purpose of increasing demand as a means of discrimination from competitors, it may be more general that the credit transaction period is allowed flexibly according to the transaction volume. In particular, in the case of deteriorating products, the credit transaction period given according to the order volume is a factor that increases the order volume of the retailer, but product deterioration can be a limiting factor in the increase in the order volume. The deterioration rate actually plays an important role in determining the inventory policy of the retailer. Therefore, in this paper, the effect of such deterioration rate on the inventory policy of retailer is analyzed.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.69-102
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• 2012

Owing to increased number of luxury brand users, both genuine and counterfeit luxury product consumption continues to increase every year. Luxury brand is defined as use or display of a particular branded products which brings the ownership prestige apart from its functional utility(Grossmand and Shapiro 1988). Some luxury brands have imitations sold in marketplace due to their popularity. These imitations or counterfeits have been jumping on the bandwagon of the upturn in sales of their originals. The purpose of our study is to understand consumer's underlying motives to consume luxury brands, genuine and or counterfeits. To do this, we propose functional theories of attitudes, decision-making styles, and life attitudes to form the determining causes for different consumption choices of luxury brands: genuine brands, counterfeit brands, both genuine and counterfeit brands, and no consumption on luxury brands types. In proposed causal pathways, we examine moderated effects of socio-psychological factors to further investigate if consumer profiles would exert influences in causal relationships. From the existing theories of functional attitudes: value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes, we developed and introduced a new measure of rationality-consumptive attitude. From the existing eight decision-making characteristics of consumer styles inventory(CSI), three measures of high-quality, hedonic-shopping, and price-shopping styles were primarily applied in the study along with newly introduced measure of 'high-price' being added, which makes four total. Seven life attitude measures of life purpose, life control, will to meaning, goal seeking, future mean to fulfill, life satisfaction, and religiosity were applied. Finally, such socio-psychological measures as age, gender, marital status, income, and age-gap between couples were assumed to function as moderators. With 430 valid study samples, ages from 20s to 50s, with more females(316) than males(114), with average personal possessions of 5 genuine and 9 counterfeit luxury brands, we conducted questionnaire survey. Results indicated that social-adjustive function is totally disappeared in the relationship due to current social trend of widespread consumptions on both genuine and counterfeit brands which in turn, make consumers feel less special on wearing or carrying them unlike in the past. Self-expressive function and rationality-consumptive functions act as strong catalysts for genuine brand consumption and counterfeit brand consumption, respectively. On consumers' decision-making styles, high-price sublation is the most powerful indicator anticipating counterfeit consumption, even more powerful than personal incomes. In life attitude, the overall model fit was not validated, and only life control and life satisfaction are proven to be significant on both genuine and counterfeit product consumptions. Employment of socio-psychological factors in the model improved understanding of users further. Young consumers tend to go for genuine products over counterfeits. Consumers in different income groups; low, medium and high, all significantly consume genuine products for reasons of different decision-making styles. The results indicated that consumers whose personal disposition is predisposed to consume products in the form of reflection of his or her personality, go only for genuine brands for quality reason, while consumers who rationally consume products for its function or usability, go only for counterfeits for high-price sublation reason. Meanwhile, both product users support for high-price orientation who are not well off.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-69
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• 2014

The impact of competition on pricing has been studied in the context of counterfactual merger analyses where expected optimal prices in a hypothetical monopoly are compared with observed prices in an oligopolistic market. Such analyses would typically assume static decision making by consumers and firms and thus have been applied mostly to data obtained from consumer packed goods such as cereal and soft drinks. However such static modeling approach is not suitable when decision makers are forward looking. When it comes to the markets for durable products with indirect network effects, consumer purchase decisions and firm pricing decisions are inherently dynamic as they take into account future states when making purchase and pricing decisions. Researchers need to take into account the dynamic aspects of decision making both in the consumer side and in the supplier side for such markets. Firms in a two-sided market typically subsidize one side of the market to exploit the indirect network effect. Such pricing behaviors would be more prevalent in competitive markets where firms would try to win over the battle for standard. While such qualitative expectation on the relationship between pricing behaviors and competitive structures could be easily formed, little empirical studies have measured the extent to which the distinct pricing structure in two-sided markets depends on the competitive structure of the market. This paper develops an empirical model to measure the impact of competition on optimal pricing of durable products under indirect network effects. In order to measure the impact of exogenously determined competition among firms on pricing, we compare the equilibrium prices in the observed oligopoly market to those in a hypothetical monopoly market. In computing the equilibrium prices, we account for the forward looking behaviors of consumers and supplier. We first estimate a demand function that accounts for consumers' forward-looking behaviors and indirect network effects. And then, for the supply side, the pricing equation is obtained as an outcome of the Markov Perfect Nash Equilibrium in pricing. In doing so, we utilize numerical dynamic programming techniques. We apply our model to a data set obtained from the U.S. video game console market. The video game console market is considered a prototypical case of two-sided markets in which the platform typically subsidizes one side of market to expand the installed base anticipating larger revenues in the other side of market resulting from the expanded installed base. The data consist of monthly observations of price, hardware unit sales and the number of compatible software titles for Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 from September 1996 to August 2002. Sony PlayStation was released to the market a year before Nintendo 64 was launched. We compute the expected equilibrium price path for Nintendo 64 and Playstation for both oligopoly and for monopoly. Our analysis reveals that the price level differs significantly between two competition structures. The merged monopoly is expected to set prices higher by 14.8% for Sony PlayStation and 21.8% for Nintendo 64 on average than the independent firms in an oligopoly would do. And such removal of competition would result in a reduction in consumer value by 43.1%. Higher prices are expected for the hypothetical monopoly because the merged firm does not need to engage in the battle for industry standard. This result is attributed to the distinct property of a two-sided market that competing firms tend to set low prices particularly at the initial period to attract consumers at the introductory stage and to reinforce their own networks and eventually finally to dominate the market.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.171-180
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• 2023

Hydrogen energy technology is gaining importance in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, offering military advantages when applied to military vehicles due to its characteristics such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and low vibration. Korea's military has initiated the Army Tiger 4.0 plan, focusing on hydrogen application, downsizing, and AI-based smart features. The Ministry of National Defense plans to collaborate with the Ministry of Environment to expand hydrogen charging stations nationwide, anticipating increased deployment of military hydrogen vehicles. However, considering the Jet Fire and VCE(Vapor Cloud Explosion) nature of hydrogen, ensuring safety during installation is crucial. Current military guidelines specify a minimum safety distance of 2m from adjacent buildings for charging stations. Scientific methods have been employed to quantitatively assess the accident damage range of hydrogen, proposing a minimum safety distance beyond the affected area.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.19-24
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• 2024

The future military combat environment is rapidly expanding the role and importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in defense, aligning with the current trends of declining military populations and evolving dynamics. Particularly, in the civilian sector, AI development has surged into new domains based on foundation models, such as OpenAI's Chat-GPT, categorized as Super-Giant AI or Hyperscale AI. The U.S. Department of Defense has organized Task Force Lima under the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) to conduct research on the application of Large Language Models (LLM) and generative AI. Advanced military nations like China and Israel are also actively researching the integration of Super-Giant AI into their military capabilities. Consequently, there is a growing need for research within our military regarding the potential applications and fields of application for Super-Giant AI in weapon systems. In this paper, we compare the characteristics and pros and cons of specialized AI and Super-Giant AI (Foundation Models) and explore new application areas for Super-Giant AI in weapon systems. Anticipating future application areas and potential challenges, this research aims to provide insights into effectively integrating Super-Giant Artificial Intelligence into defense operations. It is expected to contribute to the development of military capabilities, policy formulation, and international security strategies in the era of advanced artificial intelligence.

• CONCEPT AND COMMUNICATION
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• no.24
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• pp.83-112
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• 2019

This study aims to examine the basic ideas, utility, background, and methodological development of the semantic map model, and to validate some theoretical issues. The semantic map is a useful tool for visually representing cross-linguistic regularity or universality in the semantic structure of linguistic forms (e.g., morpheme, word, construction, etc.). To compare and contrast the meanings of different linguistic forms employing a semantic map, an internal structure (conceptual map) of a conceptual space is first constructed to characterize the interrelationship among etic concepts, then a semantic range (semantic map) of linguistic forms can be built upon this conceptual map to show the results of emic categorization. This methodology seeks to render outcomes concisely, and there are often questions about the quantitative sufficiency or qualitative reliability of data, as well as about configurational methods and the universal relevance of conceptual maps. Nevertheless, it is hard to deny the power and utility of the semantic map model in contrastive linguistics or in typological studies, since it originates from a long tradition of research into meaning, and it has an intuitive visual clarity. This study also considers the future use of semantic map models and network visualizations which will be based on vast linguistic resources, anticipating how valuable such tools will be for conceptual history research which explores the complex dynamic relationship between language and reality.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.163-190
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• 2023

Recently, a framework crystallizing as Environmental, Social, and Governance(ESG) has been exerting significant influence not only on corporate investment and management philosophies but also on national policies. This ESG framework is becoming an essential requirement for all organizations. It has become an obligation at the corporate and national levels, particularly in the maritime, port, and logistics sectors. Anticipating that the adoption and utilization of the ESG framework will reach higher levels when it becomes a necessity, this study utilized data from international organizations such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD), the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum to analyze the impact of the ESG framework on national economic performance through the maritime, port, and logistics sectors using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling(PLS-SEM). The analysis revealed that while the ESG framework did not have a direct impact on the national economy, it manifested substantial indirect effects through maritime, port, and logistics sectors. Therefore, in these sectors, the establishment of the ESG framework should be recognized not only as an expenditure and obligation but also as a crucial investment that positively influences the national economic performance. The study's findings are limited by the absence of data beyond 2019 due to the impact of COVID-19. Therefore, it is anticipated that more accurate current effects can be ascertained when newer data becomes available.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of light intensity and electrical conductivity (EC) of nutrient solution during short day treatment in an ebb and flow systems on the growth and nutrient uptake of potted Kalanchoe blossfeldiana 'Rako' and the nutrient accumulation of growing medium. Nutrient concentrations in the growing medium were also analyzed to investigate the accumulation rates of macro-nutrients such as T-N, P, K, Ca, and Mg, respectively. To achieve the objectives, plants were fed with a nutrient solution with 1.2, 1.8, or $2.4dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ under three daily photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) of 4.26, 5.51, or $9.75mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}d^{-1}$. Both light intensity and EC of nutrient solution significantly influenced the crop growth. The elevation of PPFs resulted in the increase of plant growth. For each light condition, plant growth, such as dry and fresh weight and leaf area, was the highest when the electrical conductivity of nutrient solution was controlled to $2.4dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$. However, growth was acceptable in the EC ranges from 1.8 to $2.4dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$. Both light intensity and EC of nutrient solution significantly influenced the uptake of nutrients in the solution tanks and the accumulation of nutrients in the growing medium. As the EC of nutrient solution was elevated, the absorption rates of $NO_3^-$, $PO_4^{-3}$, $K^+$, and $Mg^{2+}$ by crops and accumulation of those in growing medium increased, but the light intensity did not significantly influence the absorption rates. Based on the above results, the regression models were suggested for anticipating the macro-nutrient accumulations in growing medium.