• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.67-90
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• 2008

Prior to making choices among online products and services, consumers often search online product reviews written by other consumers. Online product reviews have great influences on consumer behavior because they are believed to be more reliable than information provided by sellers. However, ever-increasing lists of product reviews make it difficult for consumers to find the right information efficiently. A customized search mechanism is a method to provide personalized information which fits the user's requirements. This study examines effects of a customized search mechanism and perceived similarity between consumers and product reviewers on consumer behaviors. More specifically, we address the following research questions: (1) Can a customized search mechanism increase perceived similarity between product review authors and readers? (2) Are product reviews perceived as more credible when product reviews were written by the authors perceived similar to them? (3) Does credibility of product reviews have a positive impact on acceptance of product reviews? (4) Does acceptance of product reviews have an influence on purchase intention of the readers? To examine these research questions, a lab experiment with a between-subject factor (whether a customized search mechanism is provided or not) design was employed. In order to enhance mundane realism and increase generalizability of the findings, the experiment sites were built based on a real online store, cherrya.com (http://www.cherrya.com/). Sixty participants were drawn from a pool that consisted of undergraduate and graduate students in a large university. Participation was voluntary; all the participants received 5,000 won to encourage their motivation and involvement in the experiment tasks. In addition, 15 participants, who selected by a random draw, received 30,000 won to actually purchase the product that he or she decided to buy during the experiment. Of the 60 participants, 25 were male and 35 were female. In examining the homogeneity between the two groups, the results of t-tests revealed no significant difference in gender, age, academic years, online shopping experience, and Internet usage. To test our research model, we completed tests of the measurement models and the structural models using PLS Graph version 3.00. The analysis confirmed individual item reliability, internal consistency, and discriminant validity of measurements. The results show that participants feel more credible when product reviews were written by the authors perceived similar to them, credibility of product reviews have a positive impact on acceptance of product reviews, and acceptance of product reviews have an influence on purchase intention of the readers. However, a customized search mechanism did not increase perceived similarity between product review authors and readers. The results imply that there is an urgent need to develop a better customized search tool in order to increase perceived similarity between product review authors and readers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.514-522
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• 2020

To understand the ecotoxicological differences between representative Skeletonema sp. and Dunaliella tertiolecta, both producers as international standard test species for marine ecotoxicity testing, we compared each standard test method, and comparatively analyzed the suitability of the species for environmental assessment and their sensitivity to various test substances. Although most of the test conditions were the same in each method, there were differences in limitation of pH changing and the initial inoculation density in the validation criteria, which is supposed to originate from the low growth rate of D. tertiolecta. In terms of suitability, both species showed consistency in test performance by repeatedly meeting the validation criteria required by the standard test methods. The salinity ranges available for testing were 20 and 10 psu for Skeletonema sp. and D. tertioelecta, respectively. Finally, regarding sensitivity, the toxicity sensitivity of Skeletonema sp. was relatively higher than that of D. tertiolecta for the reference toxicant, actual polluted water discharged (ballast water), and other chemicals. This implies that using at least two species of microalgae from different classification groups could help increase the reliability and objectivity of test results in the performance of marine ecotoxicity tests using producers.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2019

In this study, the in situ deformation moduli, which were measured by borehole loading tests at basaltic rock masses located in the northeastern onshore and offshore and the northwestern onshore of Jeju Island, were examined in relation to RQD and RMR. The measured deformation moduli were also compared with the estimated deformation moduli from conventional empirical formulas using RQD and RMR. In addition, the measured deformation moduli were analyzed with respect to both the velocity ratio ($V_P/V_S$) and dynamic Poisson's ratio, which were obtained from the elastic wave velocities measured by velocity logging tests. As results, with only RQD, it was inappropriate to evaluate the quality of the Jeju island basaltic rock masses, which are characterized by vesicular structures, to select a measurement method of in situ deformation moduli, and to estimate the deformation moduli. On the other hand, it was desirable to evaluate the quality of the Jeju Island basaltic rock masses, and to estimate the deformation moduli by using RMR. The conventional empirical formulas using RMR overestimated the deformation moduli of the Jeju Island basaltic rock masses. There was qualitative consistency in the relation between velocity ratio and deformation moduli. To estimate appropriately the deformation moduli of the Jeju Island basaltic rock masses, empirical formulas were proposed as the function of RMR and velocity ratio, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2024

This study aimed to find genetic markers for breed-independent identification of early- and late-feathering chickens. We explored the novel sequences of the ev21-K locus associated with late-feathering and investigated its characterization. Additionally, the genetic transmission pattern of the identified sequences were investigated to understand its potential application in auto-sexing lines. A total of 707 chickens from 5 chicken breeds were employed for the study. The ev21-K locus was identified through a comparative analysis of the ev21 gene and the K gene related to feather development. For analysis of identified loci, specific primers for the target sequences were prepared and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to obtain the products, and then their nucleotide sequences were analyzed. Crossbreeding tests of early-feathering and late-feathering chickens were conducted to examine the genetic transmission patterns of the identified sequences. The results showed that the identified 230 bp ev21-K locus, which named as ev21-related K specific sequences were 99% homology with the ev21 gene. PCR analysis confirmed its presence exclusively in late-feathering chickens. Comparative analyses across tissues, breeds, and ages demonstrated the sequences consistency in identifying late-feathering chickens. Genetic transmission patterns were investigated through crossbreeding tests, revealing sex-linked inheritance and consistent segregation with feathering phenotypes. The inheritance patterns of the ev21-related K specific sequences demonstrated that this locus follows the typical Mendelian inheritance pattern as a dominant gene. In conclusion, the novel sequences of ev21-K locus were a reliable molecular marker for identifying early- and late-feathering chickens across breeds.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.772-777
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• 2009

Purpose : We aimed to compare the effectiveness of 2 developmental tests-Korean Infant and Child Development Test (KICDT) and Korean Bayley Scale of Infant Development-II (K-BSID-II)-in the assessment of children with developmental delay. Methods : Twenty-eight children with suspected developmental delay, who visited the Department of Pediatrics in Asan Medical Center from February 2007 to June 2008 were enrolled. They were examined using both KICDT and K-BSID-II. The results of the tests were compared on the basis of 2 parameters: age group of the children and detection of organic brain lesion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The correlation between the results of the 2 tests was analyzed using SPSS. Further, intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated using SAS to examine consistency between the results of the 2 tests. Results : The mental developmental index of K-BSID-II showed significant correlation with every KICDT score (P<0.01). The psychomotor developmental index of K-BSID-II was also significantly correlated with every KICDT score except the fine motor score (P<0.01). The mental developmental index of K-BSID-II showed significant correlation [Editor20] with the KICDT gross motor, fine motor, and language scores (P<0.05). Further, there was significant correlation between the psychomotor developmental index of K-BSID-II and the KICDT gross motor score (P<0.05). Conclusion : There was significant [Editor21]correlation between the results of KICDT and K-BSID-II for infants and children with developmental delay. Although our results suggest that KICDT is useful in assessing developmental delay, further research would be needed to standardize this test.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.23-33
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• 2012

Dynamic response measurements from natural excitation were carried out for three 18-story office buildings to determine their inherent properties. The beam-column frame system was adopted as a typical structural form, but a core wall was added to resist the lateral force more effectively, resulting in a mixed configuration. To extract modal parameters such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios from a series of vibration records at each floor, the most advanced operational system identification methods based on frequency- and time-domain like FDD, pLSCF and SSI were applied. Extracted frequencies and mode shapes from the different identification methods showed a greater consistency for three buildings, however the three lower frequencies extracted were 1.2 to 1.7 times as stiff as those obtained using the initial FE models. Comparing the extracted fundamental periods with those estimated from the code equations and FE analysis, the FE analysis results showed the most flexible behavior, and the most simple equation that considers the building height as the only parameter correlated fairly well with test results. It is recognized that such a discrepancy arises from the fact that the present tests exclude the stiffness decreasing factors like concrete cracking, while the FE models ignore the stiffness increasing factors, such as the contribution of non-structural elements and the actual material properties used.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.65-76
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• 2014

For soil improvement, sand mats or sand compaction piles are often constructed on soft marine clays. In such cases, some amounts of sand and clay are inevitably mixed. Sand or gravel often exists in the weathered soils near the slope surface. This research investigates the effect of mixing sand content on consistency limits and shear strength of clays. Firstly, sand was mixed with kaolinite or bentonite at 0, 9, 17, 23, 29, 33, 50% and then liquid and plastic limits were measured. Both plastic and liquid limits decreased as a sand content increased. The water content of clay-sand mixtures with different sand content increased by 10% or 20% step by step and then their undrained shear strength was measured using a portable vane shear device called Torvane. For all cases, undrained shear strength of clay-sand mixtures decreased rapidly until reaching a certain value. Their state changed from undrained to drained state gradually as the sand content increased, which caused their undrained shear strength to decrease. On the other hand, a series of direct shear tests were also conducted on such clay-sand mixtures to investigate the effect of sand content on cohesion and angle of internal friction. It was found from clay-sand mixtures that their cohesion decreased but angle of internal friction increased as the sand content increased.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.253-269
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• 2020

This study aims to develop items to diagnose pre-service physics teachers' understanding of the conceptual knowledge of modern physics, based on the achievement criteria presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum, and to identify the validity and reliability of the newly developed items. Data were collected from 467 pre-service physics teachers in the Physical Education Department or Science Education Department (Physics Education Major) of 15 universities across the nation. In this study the content validity, substantive validity, the internal structure validity, generalization validity, and the external validity proposed by Messick (1995) were examined by various statistical tests. The results of the MNSQ analysis showed that there was no nonconformity in the 23 items. The internal structure validity was confirmed by the standardized residual variance analysis, which shows that the 22 items was unidimensional. The generalization validity was confirmed by differential item functioning (DIF) analysis about groups lectured or not modern physics/quantum mechanics. In addition, item analysis and test analysis based on classical test theory were performed. The mean item difficulty is 0.66, mean item discrimination is 0.47 and mean point biserial coefficient obtained was 0.41. These results for item parameters satisfied the criteria respectively. The reliability of the internal consistency of the KR-20 is 0.77 and the Ferguson's delta obtained was δ = 0.972. By Rasch model analysis, the item difficulty (item measures) was discussed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.195-210
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• 2020

The observed time series from the Korea Ocean Research Stations (KORS) in the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS) have various sources of noise, including bio-fouling on the underwater sensors, intermittent depletion of power, cable leakage, and interference between the sensors' signals. Besides these technical issues, intricate waves associated with background tidal currents tend to result in substantial oscillations in oceanic time series. Such technical and environmental issues require a regionally optimized automatic quality control (QC) procedure. Before the achievement of this ultimate goal, we examined the approach of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)'s standard QC to investigate whether this procedure is pertinent to the KORS. The OOI QC consists of three categorized tests of global/local range of data, temporal variation including spike and gradient, and sensor-related issues associated with its stuck and drift. These OOI QC algorithms have been applied to the water temperature time series from the Ieodo station, one of the KORS. Obvious outliers are flagged successfully by the global/local range checks and the spike check. Both stuck and drift checks barely detected sensor-related errors, owing to frequent sensor cleaning and maintenance. The gradient check, however, fails to flag the remained outliers that tend to stick together closely, as well as often tend to mark probably good data as wrong data, especially data characterized by considerable fluctuations near the thermocline. These results suggest that the gradient check might not be relevant to observations involving considerable natural fluctuations as well as technical issues. Our study highlights the necessity of a new algorithm such as a standard deviation-based outlier check using multiple moving windows to replace the gradient check and an additional algorithm of an inter-consistency check with a related variable to build a standard QC procedure for the KORS.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2017

In this study, the reliability and validity of the retrospective pre-post test were analyzed in order to solve the problem of traditional pre-post test including response shift bias. Samples of the study were 162 elementary school students who are studying at the S university gifted education center in Seoul. Before completion of the field trip, we conducted pre test of science-related attitudes. After completion of the field trip, respondents were asked to compare their responses of pre and post science-related attitudes to quantitatively analyze the commonalities and differences of the two tests. To find out more characteristics, qualitative data such as daily records and interview were also gathered and analyzed. The major results of the study are as follows. First, for the paired t-test, there was no statistically significant difference between separate pre-test scores and retrospective pre-test. There was a very high correlation between the separate pre-test scores and the retrospective pre-test. Second, there were significant differences in all seven sub-factors of science-related attitudes between the retrospective pre-test and the post-test. Third, the separate pre-test scores showed a slightly higher tendency than the retrospective pre-test scores. This suggests that the response shift bias appears when it is performed the separate pre-test in affective domain. As a result of the interview, it was found that the evaluation standards of separate pre-test did not match with those of post-test. Forth, internal consistency reliability of the retrospective pre-test was higher than that of the separate pre-test. However, there were significant differences in six factors of science-related attitudes excluding the 'social implications of science' between the separate pre-test and the post-test. Based on these results, the retrospective pre-post test design provides simplicity and convenience to both respondents and investigators, as it is done with one test. The retrospective pre-post test design can be regarded as a valid design for the self-report measurement of affective domain on a single experimental group.