• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.30-57
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• 2019

Purpose - This study analyzes the effect of internationalization represented as exporting on firm performance on the subject of SMEs operating in Masan Free Trade Zone which has shown poor performance recently despite its status as the oldest and largest free trade zone in Korea. We also analyze the effect of firm size on firm performance, and the moderating role of firm size in relation to internationalization and firm performance. Design/methodology - This study uses multiple regression models for unbalanced panel data as the empirical tools for the estimation of the effect that internationalization has on firm performance (ROA or ROS). Our sample consists of 91 manufacturing SMEs among all 110 companies located in Masan Free Trade Zone as of 2017. Findings - The degree of internationalization has a negative impact on firm performance. However, firm size turns out to have a positive effect and play a positive moderating role in the relation to internationalization and firm performance. This seems to be because most tenant companies operating in Masan Free Trade Zone are small firms whose costs of internationalization may exceed the benefits. Empirical results also show that longer CEO tenure has a greater negative effect on firm performance. Originality/value - The originality/value of this paper can be found in 3 aspects. First, we conducted an empirical analysis on the relationship between the internationalization and firm performance of SMEs in a specific region, namely, Masan Free Trade Zone. Second, while most previous studies focused on listed medium companies, most of the sample of this study are small and medium non-listed enterprises. Third, it is witnessed that firm size has a positive moderating effect on the relation between internationalization and firm performance.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.261-284
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• 2018

Global changeover to renewable energy is an inaugurate initiatives as one of the UN sustainable development goals. But the State alone can not achieve its goal, in particular, countries classified as bad governance. However, when the combination of innovative public-private partnerships including technology and operational innovation can be made, it can provide with rural remote villages of developing countries with more sustainable environment. In other words, we tried to show examples of success in energy supply by reducing costs and increasing marketability through various partnerships(technological innovation benefits). Base on the question, this paper examines the cases of Steama.Co, Ewang'an in Kenya, and Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh, and analyzes the developmental effects of differences in partnership types.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of Acanthopanax sieboldianum (Makino) Koidz (ACS) as a potent antioxidant and antidiabetic agent. The antioxidative and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities were examined using the methanol extracts and solvent fractions from ACS-leaf and ACS-stem. Antioxidative activities were measured by in vitro methods such as DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. When the chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of ACS-leaf and ethyl acetate fractions of ACS-stem were compared with the control, the SOD-like activity was impaired even at the low treatment concentrations. In addition, the ethyl acetate fractions of ACS-leaf and ACS-stem showed alpha-glucosidase inhibition activities at low treatment concentrations. Analysis of the major components in the fractions of ACS-leaf and ACS-stem was also performed using HPLC. Finally, astragalin, isoqurecetin, chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid contents were measured. Based on this work, we propose that ACS-leaf and ACS-stem have great potential as natural antioxidant and antidiabetic materials related to health benefits.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2019

Ecosystem services are contributing to human welfare by enabling us to maintain our survival and quality of life. A metod of quantifying ecological functions is needed. We discussed the introduction and applications of ecosystem services to applied ecological engineering. The concept and assessment system of ecosystem services were applied to the economic valuation of river, the construction of blue-green-white network in urban area, ecological restoration, and integrated water management in Korea. The conceptual framework and assessment of ecosystem services can be used to promote value of ecological protection and restoration, helping stakeholders understand the benefits of ecosystems and increasing applications of the applied ecological engineering.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1548-1557
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• 2019

Objective: To investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with different levels and molecular weights of fungal ${\beta}$-glucan on productive performances, health, carcass traits and meat quality in broilers. Methods: Two hundred and ten of one-day-old chicks with equal sex were assigned to seven experimental groups in $2{\times}4$ factorial arrangement. These groups were supplemented with (0, 10, 30, and 60 ppm) of molecular weight 1-3, 1-6 ${\beta}$-glucan (low or high). High molecular weight ${\beta}$-glucan (H: 943 kDa) was obtained from Ophiocordyceps dipterigena BCC 2073, whereas H with ${\gamma}$-Irradiation treatment was performed to achieve low molecular weight ${\beta}$-glucan (L: 8 kDa). Results: There was no statistical significance in productive performances, apparent digestibility and interaction between fixed factors along 42 days of experiment (p>0.05). A higher caecal amylase activity was present in the group that received L, while there was a dramatic decrease in H and the control groups, respectively (p<0.05). The increase of supplemental dose increased caecal amylase activity (p<0.05). Immunomodulatory effects from L was revealed by the marked increase of phagocytic activity, relative weight of thymus and bursa of fabricius (p<0.05). Similarly, the additive dose at 30 ppm provided the same results, whereas the only significant difference with supplementation at 60 ppm was an increase in phagocytic activity (p<0.05). Interestingly, villi height of broilers fed L was higher than other groups (p<0.05). The treatments did not influence haematology, blood chemistry, antibody production level against vaccination, carcass traits and meat quality (p>0.05). Conclusion: The supplementation of L at 30 ppm was suggested to achieve benefits of immune modulation without adverse effects on other parameters.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2019

The main goal of this paper is to understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms of collaborative learning and how it can be supported by technology. The paper first overviews changes in conceptions of learning and distinguishes different types of joint works including collaborative learning. Cognitive mechanisms of collaborative learning are examined in terms of resource pooling, facilitation of constructive activities, knowledge co-construction, and supports for monitoring and regulation. Socio-emotional mechanisms of collaborative learning moderate the directions and strengths of these cognitive mechanisms. Technology supports these mechanisms in a number of different ways. Seven major supports technology provides for collaborative learning are discussed. A deeper understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of collaborative learning can help us to harness the benefits of collaborative learning better and also to develop more sophisticated tools supporting collaborative learning.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.327-335
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• 2021

We aimed to find new space types and characteristics for creating gardens in the city through the type of idle space in the city, present guidelines that can be used in creating gardens in the future, and establish basic data for expanding green infrastructure. As a result, we found that the idle space in the city was classified into four types, and it was determined that differentiation should be given to the creation of each type. The achievements of this study can be a potential source of urban ecosystem services that can provide community benefits and opportunities for urban regeneration through the redevelopment of the community and support the health and well-being of local residents. In addition, urban idle space can be a valuable resource as a green infrastructure that can be used to support the health of urban ecosystems and improve the quality of life of urban residents.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.850-858
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• 2022

To deploy Gate Recurrent Units (GRU) on resource-constrained embedded devices, this paper presents a reconfigurable FPGA-based GRU accelerator that enables structured compression. Firstly, a dense GRU model is significantly reduced in size by hybrid quantization and structured top-k pruning. Secondly, the energy consumption on external memory access is greatly reduced by the proposed reuse computing pattern. Finally, the accelerator can handle a structured sparse model that benefits from the algorithm-hardware co-design workflows. Moreover, inference tasks can be flexibly performed using all functional dimensions, sequence length, and number of layers. Implemented on the Intel DE1-SoC FPGA, the proposed accelerator achieves 45.01 GOPs in a structured sparse GRU network without batching. Compared to the implementation of CPU and GPU, low-cost FPGA accelerator achieves 57 and 30x improvements in latency, 300 and 23.44x improvements in energy efficiency, respectively. Thus, the proposed accelerator is utilized as an early study of real-time embedded applications, demonstrating the potential for further development in the future.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.306-309
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• 2022

Probiotics are live microorganisms that confer health benefits onto the host when administered at adequate doses. Most widely used probiotics, such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, are known to be elements of healthy gut microflora and hence are not considered a threat to the host. However, probiotics may pose a risk in certain populations with compromised immune systems or defects in gut barrier functions. Herein, we evaluated the safety of Bifidobacterium breve BB077, according to the safety evaluation guidelines for probiotics produced by the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation (NIFDS). The results show that B. breve BB077 is both non-hemolytic and non-cytolytic. In contrast, B. breve BB077 exhibited higher streptomycin and tetracycline resistance than the suggested NIFDS standard cut-off values. Hence, a genetic analysis of the streptomycin and tetracycline resistance genes was performed to determine the origin of antimicrobial resistance. Streptomycin and tetracycline resistance was shown have arisen from chromosomal mutations and considered intrinsic to the taxonomic group. In conclusion, the B. breve BB077 strain might be safe for human consumption.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.589-599
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to quantitatively identify the environmental contribution generated by urban rail users in the metropolitan area. Method: As for the analysis method, the mode choice and assignment of the traffic demand analysis were repeatedly performed on the assumption that each line was not opened for the metropolitan urban railway lines 1 to 9. After that, the environmental contribution according to changes in demand for the road was analyzed. Result: The total amount of carbon dioxide emissions and benefits were found to be the largest for subway line 1. However, when considering the number of stations and length, it was analyzed that the environmental contribution was the greatest in Metro Line 4. Conclusion: Measures to promote the use of public transportation are representative of environmental improvement policies, but there is a limit in that it is difficult for actual users/non-users to feel it. Therefore, it is judged that it is necessary to quantitatively present the effect in order to improve and spread awareness of the environment.