• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2022

The furniture industry has a high possibility to create value-added and a high potential to create new occupations due to the characteristics of the industry, which mainly consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the used furniture, which has sufficient reuse value, is also crushed and used as solid refuse fuel (SRF) recently. Besides, the number of waste treatment companies continues to decrease, and it occurs congestion of wood waste. As a way to solve the issue, a business model development of remanufacturing used furniture can be suggested as an alternative due to its high circular economic efficiency. Remanufacturing business including furniture industry creates positive effects in various aspects such as economic, environmental and job creation. In other words, remanufacturing is an effective recycling way to reduce input resources and energy in the production process. The results of economic analysis show that the expected annual revenue from the single worker furniture remanufacturing site was 104 million won which is 3.11 times more than the average income of a single-worker household in Korea and its B/C ratio was estimated about 30 which means high business feasibility. Revenue through furniture remanufacturing also showed 320 times higher than that of SRF production from the perspective of weight. In addition, it is shown that the GHGs reduction from the furniture remanufacturing is 2.2 ton CO₂-eq. per year, which is similar to the amount of GHGs absorption effect of 937 pine trees or 622 Korean oak trees annually. Thus the results of this study demonstrate that it is important to adopt an appropriate recycling method considering the economic and environmental effects at the end-of-life stage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.27 no.7
• /
• pp.943-953
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate sediment recovery after the relocation of fish cage farms, by examining the changes in sediments and the benthic polychaete community. A preliminary survey was carried out in October 2017, before the relocation of the farms, and monthly surveys were conducted from November 2017 to October 2018 after the farms were moved. Subsequently, it was conducted every 2-3 months until October 2020. The survey was carried out at three stations (Farm1-3) at the location of the removed fish farms and at three control stations (Con1-3) without farms. The overall organic carbon content of the farm stations was higher than the control stations, but it gradually decreased after the farm was demolished, and there was no statistically significant difference about one year after the relocation of the farms (p<0.05). In the benthic polychaete community, abiotic community appeared at the farm stations in the summer, and consequently, the community transitioned to a low-diversity region with the predominant species Capitella capitata, which is an indicator of pollution. Until the abiotic period in the summer of the next year, the species diversity increased and the proportion of indicator species decreased, showing a tendency of recovering the benthic polychaete community, and these changes were repeated every year. In this study, the abiotic community appeared every year owing to the topographical characteristics, but as the survey progressed, the period of abiotic occurrence became shorter and the process of community recovery progressed expeditiously. Biological recovery of sediments after the relocation of the fish farms is still in progress, and it is imperative to study recovery trends through continuous monitoring.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.197-211
• /
• 2021

In the service industry the types are diversifying and the scale of service companies is greatly improving. Such a phenomenon is caused by economic growth and technological development diversifying consumer needs creating demand for new services maturing the service industry and intensifying competition among companies in the form of global competition. It can be said that this is because it is necessary to improve competitiveness by utilizing the economy of scale. Research is needed on the impact of entrepreneurship on various outcome variables in order for service organization managers to respond quickly to diverse and rapidly changing environments and achieve organizational outcomes and corporate goals of management outcomes. The purpose of this study was to empirically analyze the relationship in which the entrepreneurial spirit of a manager influences the relationship between customer orientation, which is an organizational result, customer satisfaction, and financial result, which is a management result. In order to verify such research, the questionnaire was composed of one business owner questionnaire, two employee questionnaires, and two customer questionnaires. The questionnaire was distributed to a total of 400 companies, and the questionnaires of 340 companies were collected. Of these, 303 companies, excluding the questionnaires of 37 companies with many dishonest or missing values, were used for hypothesis testing. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, entrepreneurship had a positive (+) effect on customer orientation, supporting the hypothesis. Second, customer orientation showed a positive (+) effect on customer satisfaction, supporting the hypothesis. Third, customer satisfaction showed a positive (+) effect on financial outcomes, supporting the hypothesis. Fourth, it was found that entrepreneurship influences customer satisfaction through customer orientation, and customer satisfaction affects financial outcomes. It turns out that customer orientation between entrepreneurship and customer satisfaction is completely mediated, and customer satisfaction is completely mediated by customer orientation and financial outcomes. The relationship between entrepreneurship and management improved employee behavior and attitudes, which is an individual outcome, and this change was found to improve customer satisfaction, which is an organizational outcome. It makes frequent contact with customers in the process of servicing them. Employee roles are important at service contacts and influence service purchases. Employees facing customers through service contacts act as a decisive factor in maintaining a continuous relationship with customers. Within a beauty service company, it is necessary to create a customer-oriented environment among workers. It suggests that customer-oriented companies and employees can anticipate their desires and provide products or services of superior value to achieve greater customer satisfaction and a competitive advantage. In addition, it was clarified that customer satisfaction has an aspect relationship with financial management, which is a management result. Therefore, it is suggested that the entrepreneurial spirit is an important factor for the management of a beauty service company to secure competitiveness and improve results.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.194-205
• /
• 2022

Sandbars formed by sediment transportation and sedimentation are some of the most important habitats for specific wildlife and they provide an aesthetic landscape in streams. The purpose of this study was to understand the successional process of the colonization and development of early vegetation over time on sandbars exposed by the opening of a gate at a downstream weir. We selected the following four study sites in the Geumgang River, South Korea: three weir-upstream sites with different gate-opening times and a control site that was not affected by weir operation. Changes in the structural characteristics and spatial distribution of the riparian vegetation on the sandbars exposed after opening the gate at the weir were surveyed according to the different exposure periods of the sandbars at the study sites. The newly formed sandbars accounted for more than 33% of the area of the existing floodplain in the three weir-upstream sites of the Geumgang River after opening the gate at the weir. Nine main plant communities were distributed on the exposed sandbars. These communities were classified as annual mesophytic, perennial hydrophytic, perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree vegetation based on their species traits. As the duration of exposure of the sandbar increased, the area of the bare sandbar and the annual herbaceous and perennial hydrophytic communities decreased, and the areas occupied by perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree communities increased. Changes in vegetation on the sandbar were classified into three types of succession according to the condition of the aquatic habitat before the gate-opening and the degree of physical disturbance caused by the water flow after the gate-opening. The types of succession were: 1) succession starting from hydrophytes in the lentic aquatic zone, 2) succession starting from annual herbaceous hygrophytes in the lotic aquatic zone, and 3) willow-dominated succession in the disturbed channel side. Our results suggested that the dynamics of successional changes in vegetation should be considered during weir operation to ecologically manage the habitats and landscape of the fluvial landforms, including sandbars in streams.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.213-223
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to identify the types of essential inquiry activities presented in elementary science textbooks for grades 5-6, and to find out what difficulties teachers have in the actual teaching process. To this end, the essential research activities presented in the textbook were analyzed into six types: experimentation/observation, investigation/discussion and presentation, data interpretation, discussion/discussion, simulation activity, and expression. In addition, 108 elementary school teachers were investigated for the suitability of inquiry activity achievement standards, suitability at the student's level, student interest, and difficulty in teaching instruction. To summarize the research results, the most frequently suggested type was the experiment/observation type, followed by simulation activity type and data interpretation type. It was analyzed that there was no discussion/discussion type in the 5th grade textbooks, and the 6th graders did not present research activities that correspond to the research/discussion/presentation type and the expression type in the textbook. In the results of teachers' responses to the suitability of achievement standards for inquiry activities presented in textbooks and the suitability of the student's level, 5th graders showed lower average scores than 6th graders, and showed similar average scores in student interest and instructional difficulty. Also, it was confirmed that improvement was required for a total of 17 inquiry activities. Specifically, teachers responded that they had difficulty in guiding inquiry activities when the experimental results did not appear as intended in the textbook, when students' interest in inquiry activities was low, and when students and teachers had low understanding of related science concepts. Teachers pointed out practical problems such as difficulties in long-term observation in astronomy-related units, and students in upper elementary school not actively participating in dynamic play activities.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.13-29
• /
• 2022

According to the revision of the Convenience Act for Persons with Disabilities, parks and park facilities where the first park development plan is established after December 4, 2021 are mandatory, and parks must be equipped with convenience facilities for the disabled. Hence, this study aims to derive the improvements of the park evaluation index by analyzing the park certification evaluation index, the building certification evaluation index of park facilities, and the evaluation reports of the current certification status cases. As a research method, first, the certification of parks and park facilities were compared and reviewed with the Park Green Act, and differences in the certification process and certification performance were compared and analyzed. Second, differences and common items were derived by analyzing barrier free (BF)-certification evaluation indicators for parks and buildings. Third, improvement plans were derived after analyzing differences and problems in 4 BF-certified parks and four building certification cases of park facilities in certified parks, focusing on the self-evaluation report and examination results. As a result of analyzing the park and building evaluation indicators, the items for which the evaluation purpose, evaluation method, and evaluation items were commonly applied to 7 access roads for each facility, 5 parking areas for the disabled, 2 guide facilities for information facilities, 14 in 5 categories of sanitation facilities, and 1 for other facilities. In the case of sanitation facilities, there is no case where it was evaluated as a park. If the park does not have an attached toilet, the park is certified as a building. Hence, it would be essential to establish the concept of an attached toilet and discuss the application of the evaluation index on the park sanitation facility. The score of buildings in parks and park facilities was lower than that of the self-evaluation results, and the certification grades of buildings declined in three cases. The items with the highest standard deviation were BF walking continuity for parks and the path to the main entrance among access roads for buildings. As a result of analyzing the park and building evaluation results of 19 common evaluation items except for sanitary facilities, the difference in the grades of the evaluation items for each case site except for one item appeared. Therefore, applying common detailed calculation criteria for items evaluated in common with parks and buildings is needed. Since sanitation facilities have no cases of park certification and are not certified as buildings, it is essential to establish the concept of attached toilets and discuss the application of park sanitation evaluation indicators. It is necessary to develop an evaluation index suitable for the characteristics of the park, such as adjusting the items that are not evaluated in parks and establishing an evaluation index considering the ones of parks. It expects that this study would be used as primary data for improving park certification indicators.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.67 no.4
• /
• pp.234-241
• /
• 2022

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major staple foods and is in increasing demand in the world. The elevated temperature caused by changes in climate and environmental conditions is a major factor affecting wheat development and grain quality. The optimal temperature range for winter wheat is between 15 and 25℃, and it is necessary to study the physiological characteristic of wheat according to elevated temperatures. This study presents the effect of elevated temperature on the yield and quality of two Korean bread wheat (Baekkang and Jokyoung) in temperature gradient tunnels (TGT). Two bread wheat cultivars were grown in TGT at four different temperature conditions: T0 (control, near ambient temperature), T1 (T0+1℃), T2 (T0+2℃), (T0+2℃), T3 (T0+3℃). The period from sowing to heading stage accelerated and the number of grains per spike and grain yield reduced under T3 condition compared with those under T0 condition. Grain filling rate and grain maturity also accelerated with elevated temperature (T3). The increase in temperature led to the increase in protein contents, whereas decreased the total starch contents. These results are consistent with the decreased expression of starch synthesis genes and increased gliadin synthesis or gluten metabolism genes during the late grain filling stage. Taken together, our results suggest that the increase in temperature (T3) led to the decrease in grain yield by regulating the number of grains/spike, whereas increased the protein content by regulating the expression of starch and gliadin-related genes or gluten metabolism process genes expression. In addition, our results provide a useful physiological information on the response of wheat to heat stress.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.143-174
• /
• 2023

With the development of deep learning technologies, Artificial Intelligence powered Optical Character Recognition (AI-OCR) has evolved to read multiple languages from various forms of images accurately. For the financial industry, where a large number of diverse documents are processed through manpower, the potential for using AI-OCR is great. In this study, we present a configuration and a design of an AI-OCR modality for use in the financial industry and discuss the platform construction with application cases. Since the use of financial domain data is prohibited under the Personal Information Protection Act, we developed a deep learning-based data generation approach and used it to train the AI-OCR models. The AI-OCR models are trained for image preprocessing, text recognition, and language processing and are configured as a microservice architected platform to process a broad variety of documents. We have demonstrated the AI-OCR platform by applying it to financial domain tasks of document sorting, document verification, and typing assistance The demonstrations confirm the increasing work efficiency and conveniences.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.251-259
• /
• 2008

The plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate(DEHP) is one of the most well known endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) because of its strong anti-androgenic effects on the reproductive and developmental process in male rodents and human. The present study was performed to examine whether prepubertal exposure to DEHP can make any alteration during the maturation of accessory sex organs in male rats. As a result, there was no significant change in body weights, serum T levels and tissue weights except of seminal vesicle and ventral prostate in DEHP-treated animals compared to vehicle-treated ones. The seminal vesicle weights in high-dose group (200 mg/kg) were significantly lower than those from the control group (p<0.05), and ventral prostate weights were significantly lower than those from the control group (p<0.05) in both low-dose (20 mg/kg) and high-dose group. Histological studies revealed that the seminal vesicles from DEHP-treated groups showed reduced areas of mucosal folds. Pseudostratified columnar epithelia were observed in the ventral prostates of DEHP-treated samples while cuboidal epithelia were found in the control group. The transcriptional activities of ER-$\alpha$ in seminal vesicle from high-dose group (p<0.05) were significantly higher than those from the control group, and ER-$\beta$ expression was significantly decreased in low-dose group (p<0.05) compared to the control. In ventral prostate, ER-$\beta$ mRNA levels from low-dose group (p<0.05) were significantly lower than those from the control group, and significantly increased in high-dose group (p<0.01). AR expressions, however, were not significantly different in all experimental groups of both seminal vesicle and ventral prostate. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that (i) adverse effect (s) of DEHP on sexual maturation during prepubertal period could be limited, (ii) seminal vesicle and prostate gland were sensitive targets to DEHP in prepubertal rats and (iii) the deleterious effects of DEHP might be mediated through ER-associated mechanism.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.45 no.12
• /
• pp.896-910
• /
• 2022

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible and potentially fatal virus. So far, most comprehensive analyses encompassing clinical and transcriptional manifestation have concentrated on the lungs. Here, we confirmed evident signs of viral infection in the lungs and spleen of SARS-CoV-2-infected K18-hACE2 mice, which replicate the phenotype and infection symptoms in hospitalized humans. Seven days post viral detection in organs, infected mice showed decreased vital signs, leading to death. Bronchopneumonia due to infiltration of leukocytes in the lungs and reduction in the spleen lymphocyte region were observed. Transcriptome profiling implicated the meticulous regulation of distress and recovery from cytokine-mediated immunity by distinct immune cell types in a time-dependent manner. In lungs, the chemokine-driven response to viral invasion was highly elevated at 2 days post infection (dpi). In late infection, diseased lungs, post the innate immune process, showed recovery signs. The spleen established an even more immediate line of defense than the lungs, and the cytokine expression profile dropped at 7 dpi. At 5 dpi, spleen samples diverged into two distinct groups with different transcriptome profile and pathophysiology. Inhibition of consecutive host cell viral entry and massive immunoglobulin production and proteolysis inhibition seemed that one group endeavored to survive, while the other group struggled with developmental regeneration against consistent viral intrusion through the replication cycle. Our results may contribute to improved understanding of the longitudinal response to viral infection and development of potential therapeutics for hospitalized patients affected by SARS-CoV-2.