• Title/Summary/Keyword: influence parameter

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Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity of Grapefruit and Seed Extract on Fishery Products (수산물에 대한 Grapefruit 종자추출물의 항균 및 항산화효과)

  • CHO Sung-Hwan;SEO Il-Won;CHOI Jong-Duck;JOO In-Saeng
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.289-296
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    • 1990
  • The antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of grapefruit seed extract(GFSE), which was extracted with glycerine in the special schematic extraction apparatus, were investigated for handling and processing of fishery products. The effectivity of GFSE has been tried on sardine, mackerel and shrimp divided into six lots for each fishery product: control(no treatment) and five GFSE-treated samples. Samples were inoculated with Salmenella typhi, incubated for 24hrs at $30^{\circ}C$ in dextrose-tryptone broth medium and prepared for microbiological 8f chemical analysis and organoleptic assessment. The bacteriological analytical results with GFSE(250ppm) showed the reduction of $1.8\times10^6\to2.0\times10^4,\;1.9\times10^6\to1.8\times10^4$ and $1.6\times10^6\to2.7\times10^3$ in total bacterial count for sardine, mackerel and shrimp, respectively. The test results with GFSE(500ppm) showed a $100\%$ reduction of bacterial mackerel treated with GFSE(500ppm) was reduced to $1.1\times10^4$ and $9.0\times10^3$ respectively. Antioxidant effect of treatment with GFSE at 500ppm level for three products was significant. LSD test results on organoleptic parameter for the samples treated with various showed a significant influence on the appearance, odor and texture in which at concentration 500ppm level give the excellent scours compared to each control.

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Modern Paper Quality Control

  • Olavi Komppa
    • Proceedings of the Korea Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry Conference
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    • 2000.06a
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    • pp.16-23
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    • 2000
  • The increasing functional needs of top-quality printing papers and packaging paperboards, and especially the rapid developments in electronic printing processes and various computer printers during past few years, set new targets and requirements for modern paper quality. Most of these paper grades of today have relatively high filler content, are moderately or heavily calendered , and have many coating layers for the best appearance and performance. In practice, this means that many of the traditional quality assurance methods, mostly designed to measure papers made of pure. native pulp only, can not reliably (or at all) be used to analyze or rank the quality of modern papers. Hence, introduction of new measurement techniques is necessary to assure and further develop the paper quality today and in the future. Paper formation , i.e. small scale (millimeter scale) variation of basis weight, is the most important quality parameter of paper-making due to its influence on practically all the other quality properties of paper. The ideal paper would be completely uniform so that the basis weight of each small point (area) measured would be the same. In practice, of course, this is not possible because there always exists relatively large local variations in paper. However, these small scale basis weight variations are the major reason for many other quality problems, including calender blacking uneven coating result, uneven printing result, etc. The traditionally used visual inspection or optical measurement of the paper does not give us a reliable understanding of the material variations in the paper because in modern paper making process the optical behavior of paper is strongly affected by using e.g. fillers, dye or coating colors. Futhermore, the opacity (optical density) of the paper is changed at different process stages like wet pressing and calendering. The greatest advantage of using beta transmission method to measure paper formation is that it can be very reliably calibrated to measure true basis weight variation of all kinds of paper and board, independently on sample basis weight or paper grade. This gives us the possibility to measure, compare and judge papers made of different raw materials, different color, or even to measure heavily calendered, coated or printed papers. Scientific research of paper physics has shown that the orientation of the top layer (paper surface) fibers of the sheet paly the key role in paper curling and cockling , causing the typical practical problems (paper jam) with modern fax and copy machines, electronic printing , etc. On the other hand, the fiber orientation at the surface and middle layer of the sheet controls the bending stiffness of paperboard . Therefore, a reliable measurement of paper surface fiber orientation gives us a magnificent tool to investigate and predict paper curling and coclking tendency, and provides the necessary information to finetune, the manufacturing process for optimum quality. many papers, especially heavily calendered and coated grades, do resist liquid and gas penetration very much, bing beyond the measurement range of the traditional instruments or resulting invonveniently long measuring time per sample . The increased surface hardness and use of filler minerals and mechanical pulp make a reliable, nonleaking sample contact to the measurement head a challenge of its own. Paper surface coating causes, as expected, a layer which has completely different permeability characteristics compared to the other layer of the sheet. The latest developments in sensor technologies have made it possible to reliably measure gas flow in well controlled conditions, allowing us to investigate the gas penetration of open structures, such as cigarette paper, tissue or sack paper, and in the low permeability range analyze even fully greaseproof papers, silicon papers, heavily coated papers and boards or even detect defects in barrier coatings ! Even nitrogen or helium may be used as the gas, giving us completely new possibilities to rank the products or to find correlation to critical process or converting parameters. All the modern paper machines include many on-line measuring instruments which are used to give the necessary information for automatic process control systems. hence, the reliability of this information obtained from different sensors is vital for good optimizing and process stability. If any of these on-line sensors do not operate perfectly ass planned (having even small measurement error or malfunction ), the process control will set the machine to operate away from the optimum , resulting loss of profit or eventual problems in quality or runnability. To assure optimum operation of the paper machines, a novel quality assurance policy for the on-line measurements has been developed, including control procedures utilizing traceable, accredited standards for the best reliability and performance.

The Study on the Relationship between Personal Characteristics of Foreign Students and Motivation of Korea Employment: Focus on TOPIK, Motivation to Study in Korea, and Major Satisfaction (외국인 유학생의 개인 특성이 한국 취업 동기에 미치는 영향 분석: TOPIK과 유학동기, 전공만족도 중심으로)

  • Kim, Heungsoo;Lee, Sangjik
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.14 no.5
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    • pp.187-200
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    • 2019
  • The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of motivation of the employment in Korea with gender, nationality, motivation of studying in Korea, major satisfaction and Korean proficiency level of foreign students who are studying in Korea. The second purpose is to analyze the current factors, to leverage educational management and to make and support some policy of Minister of Education for international students in order to promote utilization of employment of the students in Korea during 4 years of studying. This paper is used by IBM SPSS Statistics 24 Version for data analysis. As a result of the analysis, the average of students in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and South and North America Africa was higher than Japan and China in terms of motivation of employment in Korea. First, the external motivation to study in Korea has affected TOPIK with positive influence. Second, in the relationship between motivation to study in Korea and the majors satisfaction, the higher the internal motivation of study, the higher the majors' satisfaction level. Third, in the relationship between motivation to study in Korea and motivation of the employment in Korea, internal motivation to study has a positive effect on motivation of the employment. As internal motivation increases, grade of the motivation of the employment increases. Fourth, the relationship between major satisfaction and employment showed positive (+) effect. In other words, the higher the major satisfaction, the higher the motivation of the employment. Fifth, TOPIK has a negative effect on motivation of the employment. It means that external motivation was the main factor that positively influenced TOPIK and internal motivation was also main factors that positively influenced both major satisfaction and motivation of the employment in Korea. Sixth, when the internal motivation has an effect on motivation of Korea employment, the higher the major satisfaction as the parameter, the higher the motivation of Korea employment. Therefore, it will be helpful to understand the meaning of studying motivation and major satisfaction of international students, and to be used as basic data on education policies of universities and governments supporting the career and employment for international students.

Influence of Microcracks in Geochang Granite on Brazilian Tensile Strength (거창화강암의 미세균열이 압열인장강도에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Deok-Won
    • Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.193-208
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    • 2021
  • The characteristics of the microcrack lengths(①), microcrack spacings(②) and Brazilian tensile strengths(③) related to the six directions of rock cleavages(H2~R1) in Geochang granite were analyzed. First, the 18 cumulative graphs for the above three major factors representing unique characteristics of the rock cleavages were made. Through the general chart for these graphs classified into three planes and three rock cleavages, the 28 parameters on the length, spacing and Brazilian tensile strength have been determined. The results of correlation analysis among these parameters are summarized as follows. Second, the above parameters were classified into six groups(I~VI) according to the sorting order on the magnitude of parameter values among three rock cleavages and three planes. The values of parameters belonging to group I and II are in order of R(rift) < G(grain) < H(hardway) and H < G < R. The values of the 8 parameters on the length of line(os2, 𝚫s, 𝚫L and oSmean), the exponent(λLmean and λSmean), the slope(amean) and the anisotropy coefficient (Anmean) are in order of R < G < H and H'(hardway plane) < G'(grain plane) < R'(rift plane). Third, the noticeable differences in distribution patterns among the six types of charts for three planes and three rock cleavages are as follows. From the chart for three planes, the values of 𝚫L, 𝚫s and 𝚫σt, corresponding to the distance between two points where the two fitting lines meet on the X-axis, increase in the order of R' < H' < G'. In particular, the two graphs of R2 and G2 related to the length and Brazilian tensile strength are almost parallel to each other and show the distribution characteristics of hardway plane. Among the graphs related to the Brazilian tensile strength, the overall shape for hardway plane is similar to that for grain. From the chart for three rock cleavages, the slopes of the graphs related to the length increase in the order of R < G < H, while those of the graphs related to the spacing and Brazilian tensile strength decrease in the order of R < G < H. Lastly, the characteristics of variation among the six rock cleavages, the three planes and the three rock cleavages were visualized through the correlation chart among the above parameters from this study.

Eco-environmental assessment in the Sembilan Archipelago, Indonesia: its relation to the abundance of humphead wrasse and coral reef fish composition

  • Amran Ronny Syam;Mujiyanto;Arip Rahman;Imam Taukhid;Masayu Rahmia Anwar Putri;Andri Warsa;Lismining Pujiyani Astuti;Sri Endah Purnamaningtyas;Didik Wahju Hendro Tjahjo;Yosmaniar;Umi Chodrijah;Dini Purbani;Adriani Sri Nastiti;Ngurah Nyoman Wiadnyana;Krismono;Sri Turni Hartati;Mahiswara;Safar Dody;Murdinah;Husnah;Ulung Jantama Wisha
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.26 no.12
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    • pp.738-751
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    • 2023
  • The Sembilan Archipelago is famous for its great biodiversity, in which the humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) (locally named Napoleon fish) is the primary commodity (economically important), and currently, the environmental degradation occurs due to anthropogenic activities. This study aimed to examine the eco-environmental parameters and assess their influence on the abundance of humphead wrasse and other coral reef fish compositions in the Sembilan Archipelago. Direct field monitoring was performed using a visual census throughout an approximately one km transect. Coral cover data collection and assessment were also carried out. A coastal water quality index (CWQI) was used to assess the water quality status. Furthermore, statistical-based analyses [hierarchical clustering, Pearson's correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA)] were performed to examine the correlation between eco-environmental parameters. The Napoleon fish was only found at stations 1 and 2, with a density of about 3.8 Ind/ha, aligning with the dominant composition of the family Serranidae (covering more than 15% of the total community) and coinciding with the higher coral mortality and lower reef fish abundance. The coral reef conditions were generally ideal for supporting marine life, with a living coral percentage of about > 50% in all stations. Based on CWQI, the study area is categorized as good and excellent water quality. Of the 60 parameter values examined, the phytoplankton abundance, Napoleon fish, and temperature are highly correlated, with a correlation coefficient value greater than 0.7, and statistically significant (F < 0.05). Although the adaptation of reef fish to water quality parameters varies greatly, the most influential parameters in shaping their composition in the study area are living corals, nitrites, ammonia, larval abundance, and temperature.

Microbial Influence on Soil Properties and Pollutant Reduction in a Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland Treating Urban Runoff (도시 강우유출수 처리 인공습지의 토양특성 및 오염물질 저감에 따른 미생물 영향 평가)

  • Chiny. C. Vispo;Miguel Enrico L. Robles;Yugyeong Oh;Haque Md Tashdedul;Lee Hyung Kim
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.168-181
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    • 2024
  • Constructed wetlands (CWs) deliver a range of ecosystem services, including the removal of contaminants, sequestration and storage of carbon, and enhancement of biodiversity. These services are facilitated through hydrological and ecological processes such as infiltration, adsorption, water retention, and evapotranspiration by plants and microorganisms. This study investigated the correlations between microbial populations, soil physicochemical properties, and treatment efficiency in a horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland (HSSF CW) treating runoff from roads and parking lots. The methods employed included storm event monitoring, water quality analysis, soil sampling, soil quality parameter analysis, and microbial analysis. The facility achieved its highest pollutant removal efficiencies during the warm season (>15℃), with rates ranging from 33% to 74% for TSS, COD, TN, TP, and specific heavy metals including Fe, Zn, and Cd. Meanwhile, the highest removal efficiency was 35% for TOC during the cold season (≤15℃). These high removal rates can be attributed to sedimentation, adsorption, precipitation, plant uptake, and microbial transformations within the CW. Soil analysis revealed that the soil from HSSF CW had a soil organic carbon content 3.3 times higher than that of soil collected from a nearby landscape. Stoichiometric ratios of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in the inflow and outflow were recorded as C:N:P of 120:1.5:1 and 135.2:0.4:1, respectively, indicating an extremely low proportion of N and P compared to C, which may challenge microbial remediation efficiency. Additionally, microbial analyses indicated that the warm season was more conducive to microorganism growth, with higher abundance, richness, diversity, homogeneity, and evenness of the microbial community, as manifested in the biodiversity indices, compared to the cold season. Pollutants in stormwater runoff entering the HSSF CW fostered microbial growth, particularly for dominant phyla such as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, which have shown moderate to strong correlations with specific soil properties and changes in influent-effluent concentrations of water quality parameters.

A Study on Startups' Dependence on Business Incubation Centers (창업보육서비스에 따른 입주기업의 창업보육센터 의존도에 관한 연구)

  • Park, JaeSung;Lee, Chul;Kim, JaeJon
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.103-120
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    • 2009
  • As business incubation centers (BICs) have been operating for more than 10 years in Korea, many early stage startups tend to use the services provided by the incubating centers. BICs in Korea have accumulated the knowledge and experience in the past ten years and their services have been considerably improved. The business incubating service has three facets : (1) business infrastructure service, (2) direct service, and (3) indirect service. The mission of BICs is to provide the early stage entrepreneurs with the incubating service in a limited period time to help them grow strong enough to survive the fierce competition after graduating from the incubation. However, the incubating services sometimes fail to foster the independence of new startup companies, and raise the dependence of many companies on BICs. Thus, the dependence on BICs is a very important factor to understand the survival of the incubated startup companies after graduation from BICs. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the firm's dependence on BICs and to characterize the relationships among the identified factors. The business incubating service is a core construct of this study. It includes various activities and resources, such as offering the physical facilities, legal service, and connecting them with outside organizations. These services are extensive and take various forms. They are provided by BICs directly or indirectly. Past studies have identified various incubating services and classify them in different ways. Based on the past studies, we classify the business incubating service into three categories as mentioned above : (1) business infrastructure support, (2) direct support, and (3) networking support. The business infrastructure support is to provide the essential resources to start the business, such as physical facilities. The direct support is to offer the business resources available in the BICs, such as human, technical, and administrational resources. Finally, the indirect service was to support the resource in the outside of business incubation center. Dependence is generally defined as the degree to which a client firm needs the resources provided by the service provider in order to achieve its goals. Dependence is generated when a firm recognizes the benefits of interacting with its counterpart. Hence, the more positive outcomes a firm derives from its relationship with the partner, the more dependent on the partner the firm must inevitably become. In business incubating, as a resident firm is incubated in longer period, we can predict that her dependence on BICs would be stronger. In order to foster the independence of the incubated firms, BICs have to be able to manipulate the provision of their services to control the firms' dependence on BICs. Based on the above discussion, the research model for relationships between dependence and its affecting factors was developed. We surveyed the companies residing in BICs to test our research model. The instrument of our study was modified, in part, on the basis of previous relevant studies. For the purposes of testing reliability and validity, preliminary testing was conducted with firms that were residing in BICs and incubated by the BICs in the region of Gwangju and Jeonnam. The questionnaire was modified in accordance with the pre-test feedback. We mailed to all of the firms that had been incubated by the BICs with the help of business incubating managers of each BIC. The survey was conducted over a three week period. Gifts (of approximately ₩10,000 value) were offered to all actively participating respondents. The incubating period was reported by the business incubating managers, and it was transformed using natural logarithms. A total of 180 firms participated in the survey. However, we excluded 4 cases due to a lack of consistency using reversed items in the answers of the companies, and 176 cases were used for the analysis. We acknowledge that 176 samples may not be sufficient to conduct regression analyses with 5 research variables in our study. Each variable was measured through multiple items. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to assess their unidimensionality. In an effort to test the construct validity of the instruments, a principal component factor analysis was conducted with Varimax rotation. The items correspond well to each singular factor, demonstrating a high degree of convergent validity. As the factor loadings for a variable (or factor) are higher than the factor loadings for the other variables, the instrument's discriminant validity is shown to be clear. Each factor was extracted as expected, which explained 70.97, 66.321, and 52.97 percent, respectively, of the total variance each with eigen values greater than 1.000. The internal consistency reliability of the variables was evaluated by computing Cronbach's alphas. The Cronbach's alpha values of the variables, which ranged from 0.717 to 0.950, were all securely over 0.700, which is satisfactory. The reliability and validity of the research variables are all, therefore, considered acceptable. The effects of dependence were assessed using a regression analysis. The Pearson correlations were calculated for the variables, measured by interval or ratio scales. Potential multicollinearity among the antecedents was evaluated prior to the multiple regression analysis, as some of the variables were significantly correlated with others (e.g., direct service and indirect service). Although several variables show the evidence of significant correlations, their tolerance values range between 0.334 and 0.613, thereby demonstrating that multicollinearity is not a likely threat to the parameter estimates. Checking some basic assumptions for the regression analyses, we decided to conduct multiple regression analyses and moderated regression analyses to test the given hypotheses. The results of the regression analyses indicate that the regression model is significant at p < 0.001 (F = 44.260), and that the predictors of the research model explain 42.6 percent of the total variance. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 address the relationships between the dependence of the incubated firms and the business incubating services. Business infrastructure service, direct service, and indirect service are all significantly related with dependence (β = 0.300, p < 0.001; β = 0.230, p < 0.001; β = 0.226, p < 0.001), thus supporting Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. When the incubating period is the moderator and dependence is the dependent variable, the addition of the interaction terms with the antecedents to the regression equation yielded a significant increase in R2 (F change = 2.789, p < 0.05). In particular, direct service and indirect service exert different effects on dependence. Hence, the results support Hypotheses 5 and 6. This study provides several strategies and specific calls to action for BICs, based on our empirical findings. Business infrastructure service has more effect on the firm's dependence than the other two services. The introduction of an additional high charge rate for a graduated but allowed to stay in the BIC is a basic and legitimate condition for the BIC to control the firm's dependence. We detected the differential effects of direct and indirect services on the firm's dependence. The firms with long incubating period are more sensitive to indirect service positively, and more sensitive to direct service negatively, when assessing their levels of dependence. This implies that BICs must develop a strategy on the basis of a firm's incubating period. Last but not least, it would be valuable to discover other important variables that influence the firm's dependence in the future studies. Moreover, future studies to explain the independence of startup companies in BICs would also be valuable.

A Model for Health Promoting Behaviors in Late-middle Aged Woman (중년후기 여성의 건강증진행위 모형구축)

  • Park, Chai-Soon
    • Women's Health Nursing
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.298-331
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    • 1996
  • Recent improvements in living standard and development in medical care led to an increased interest in life expectancy and personal health, and also led to a more demand for higher quality of life. Thus, the problem of women's health draw a fresh interest nowadays. Since late-middle aged women experience various physical and socio-psychological changes and tend to have chronic illnesses, these women have to take initiatives for their health control by realizing their own responsibility. The basic elements for a healthy life of these women are understanding of their physical and psychological changes and acceptance of these changes. Health promoting behaviors of an individual or a group are actions toward increasing the level of well-being and self-actualization, and are affected by various variables. In Pender's health promoting model, variables are categorized into cognitive factors(individual perceptions), modifying factors, and variables affecting the likelihood for actions, and the model assumes the health promoting behaviors are affected by cognitive factors which are again affected by demographic factors. Since Pender's model was proposed based on a tool broad conceptual frame, many studies done afterwards have included only a limited number of variables of Pender's model. Furthermore, Pender's model did not precisely explain the possibilities of direct and indirect paths effects. The objectives of this study are to evaluate Pender's model and thus propose a model that explains health promoting behaviors among late-middle aged women in order to facilitate nursing intervention for this group of population. The hypothetical model was developed based on the Pender's health promoting model and the findings from past studies on women's health. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires from 417 women living in Seoul, between July and November 1994. Questionnaires were developed based on instruments of Walker and others' health promotion lifestyle profile, Wallston and others' multidimensional health locus of control, Maoz's menopausal symptom check list and Speake and others' health self-rating scale. IN addition, items measuring self-efficacy were made by the present author based on past studies. In a pretest, the questionnaire items were reliable with Cronbach's alpha ranging from .786 to .934. The models for health promoting behaviors were tested by using structural equation modelling technique with LISREL 7.20. The results were summarized as follows : 1. The overall fit of the hypothetical model to the data was good (chi-square=4.42, df=5, p=.490, GFI=.995, AGFI=.962, RMSR=.024). 2. Paths of the model were modified by considering both its theoretical implication and statistical significance of the parameter estimates. Compared to the hypothetical model, the revised model has become parsimonious and had a better fit to the data (chi-square =4.55, df=6, p=.602, GFI=.995, AGFI=.967, RMSR=.024). 3. The results of statistical testing were as follows : 1) Family function internal health locus of control, self-efficacy, and education level exerted significant effects on health promoting behaviors(${\gamma}_{43}$=.272, T=3.714; ${\beta}_[41}$=.211, T=2.797; ${\beta}_{42}$=.199, T=2.717; ${\gamma}_{41}$=.136, T=1.986). The effect of economic status, physical menopausal symptoms, and perceived health status on health promoting behavior were insignificant(${\gamma}_{42}$=.095, T=1.456; ${\gamma}_{44}$=.101, T=1.143; ${\gamma}_{43}$=.082, T=.967). 2) Family function had a significance direct effect on internal health locus of control (${\gamma}_{13}$=.307, T=3.784). The direct effect of education level on internal health locus of control was insignificant(${\gamma}_{11}$=-.006, T=-.081). 3) The directs effects of family functions & internal health locus of control on self-efficacy were significant(${\gamma}_{23}$=.208, T=2.607; ${\beta}_{21}$=.191, T=2.2693). But education level and economic status did not exert a significant effect on self-efficacy(${\gamma}_{21}$=.137, T=1.814; ${\beta}_{22}$=.137, T=1.814; ${\gamma}_{22}$=.112, T=1.499). 4) Education level had a direct and positive effect on perceived health status, but physical menopausal symptoms had a negative effect on perceived health status and these effects were all significant(${\gamma}_{31}$=.171, T=2.496; ${\gamma}_{34}$=.524, T=-7.120). Internal health locus and self-efficacy had an insignificant direct effect on perceived health status(${\beta}_{31}$=.028, T=.363; ${\beta}_{32}$=.041, T=.557). 5) All predictive variables of health promoting behaviors explained 51.8% of the total variance in the model. The above findings show that health promoting behaviors are explained by personal, environmental and perceptual factors : family function, internal health locus of control, self-efficacy, and education level had stronger effects on health promoting behaviors than predictors in the model. A significant effect of family function on health promoting behaviors reflects an important role of the Korean late-middle aged women in family relationships. Therefore, health professionals first need to have a proper evaluation of family function in order to reflect the family function style into nursing interventions and development of strategies. These interventions and strategies will enhance internal health locus of control and self-efficacy for promoting health behaviors. Possible strategies include management of health promoting programs, use of a health information booklets, and individual health counseling, which will enhance internal health locus of control and self-efficacy of the late-middle aged women by making them aware of health responsibilities and value for oneself. In this study, an insignificant effect of physical menopausal symptoms and perceived health status on health promoting behaviors implies that they are not motive factors for health promoting behaviors. Further analytic researches are required to clarify the influence of physical menopausal symptoms and perceived health status on health promoting behaviors with-middle aged women.

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Memory Organization for a Fuzzy Controller.

  • Jee, K.D.S.;Poluzzi, R.;Russo, B.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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    • 1993.06a
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    • pp.1041-1043
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    • 1993
  • Fuzzy logic based Control Theory has gained much interest in the industrial world, thanks to its ability to formalize and solve in a very natural way many problems that are very difficult to quantify at an analytical level. This paper shows a solution for treating membership function inside hardware circuits. The proposed hardware structure optimizes the memoried size by using particular form of the vectorial representation. The process of memorizing fuzzy sets, i.e. their membership function, has always been one of the more problematic issues for the hardware implementation, due to the quite large memory space that is needed. To simplify such an implementation, it is commonly [1,2,8,9,10,11] used to limit the membership functions either to those having triangular or trapezoidal shape, or pre-definite shape. These kinds of functions are able to cover a large spectrum of applications with a limited usage of memory, since they can be memorized by specifying very few parameters ( ight, base, critical points, etc.). This however results in a loss of computational power due to computation on the medium points. A solution to this problem is obtained by discretizing the universe of discourse U, i.e. by fixing a finite number of points and memorizing the value of the membership functions on such points [3,10,14,15]. Such a solution provides a satisfying computational speed, a very high precision of definitions and gives the users the opportunity to choose membership functions of any shape. However, a significant memory waste can as well be registered. It is indeed possible that for each of the given fuzzy sets many elements of the universe of discourse have a membership value equal to zero. It has also been noticed that almost in all cases common points among fuzzy sets, i.e. points with non null membership values are very few. More specifically, in many applications, for each element u of U, there exists at most three fuzzy sets for which the membership value is ot null [3,5,6,7,12,13]. Our proposal is based on such hypotheses. Moreover, we use a technique that even though it does not restrict the shapes of membership functions, it reduces strongly the computational time for the membership values and optimizes the function memorization. In figure 1 it is represented a term set whose characteristics are common for fuzzy controllers and to which we will refer in the following. The above term set has a universe of discourse with 128 elements (so to have a good resolution), 8 fuzzy sets that describe the term set, 32 levels of discretization for the membership values. Clearly, the number of bits necessary for the given specifications are 5 for 32 truth levels, 3 for 8 membership functions and 7 for 128 levels of resolution. The memory depth is given by the dimension of the universe of the discourse (128 in our case) and it will be represented by the memory rows. The length of a world of memory is defined by: Length = nem (dm(m)+dm(fm) Where: fm is the maximum number of non null values in every element of the universe of the discourse, dm(m) is the dimension of the values of the membership function m, dm(fm) is the dimension of the word to represent the index of the highest membership function. In our case then Length=24. The memory dimension is therefore 128*24 bits. If we had chosen to memorize all values of the membership functions we would have needed to memorize on each memory row the membership value of each element. Fuzzy sets word dimension is 8*5 bits. Therefore, the dimension of the memory would have been 128*40 bits. Coherently with our hypothesis, in fig. 1 each element of universe of the discourse has a non null membership value on at most three fuzzy sets. Focusing on the elements 32,64,96 of the universe of discourse, they will be memorized as follows: The computation of the rule weights is done by comparing those bits that represent the index of the membership function, with the word of the program memor . The output bus of the Program Memory (μCOD), is given as input a comparator (Combinatory Net). If the index is equal to the bus value then one of the non null weight derives from the rule and it is produced as output, otherwise the output is zero (fig. 2). It is clear, that the memory dimension of the antecedent is in this way reduced since only non null values are memorized. Moreover, the time performance of the system is equivalent to the performance of a system using vectorial memorization of all weights. The dimensioning of the word is influenced by some parameters of the input variable. The most important parameter is the maximum number membership functions (nfm) having a non null value in each element of the universe of discourse. From our study in the field of fuzzy system, we see that typically nfm 3 and there are at most 16 membership function. At any rate, such a value can be increased up to the physical dimensional limit of the antecedent memory. A less important role n the optimization process of the word dimension is played by the number of membership functions defined for each linguistic term. The table below shows the request word dimension as a function of such parameters and compares our proposed method with the method of vectorial memorization[10]. Summing up, the characteristics of our method are: Users are not restricted to membership functions with specific shapes. The number of the fuzzy sets and the resolution of the vertical axis have a very small influence in increasing memory space. Weight computations are done by combinatorial network and therefore the time performance of the system is equivalent to the one of the vectorial method. The number of non null membership values on any element of the universe of discourse is limited. Such a constraint is usually non very restrictive since many controllers obtain a good precision with only three non null weights. The method here briefly described has been adopted by our group in the design of an optimized version of the coprocessor described in [10].

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Corporate Default Prediction Model Using Deep Learning Time Series Algorithm, RNN and LSTM (딥러닝 시계열 알고리즘 적용한 기업부도예측모형 유용성 검증)

  • Cha, Sungjae;Kang, Jungseok
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.1-32
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    • 2018
  • In addition to stakeholders including managers, employees, creditors, and investors of bankrupt companies, corporate defaults have a ripple effect on the local and national economy. Before the Asian financial crisis, the Korean government only analyzed SMEs and tried to improve the forecasting power of a default prediction model, rather than developing various corporate default models. As a result, even large corporations called 'chaebol enterprises' become bankrupt. Even after that, the analysis of past corporate defaults has been focused on specific variables, and when the government restructured immediately after the global financial crisis, they only focused on certain main variables such as 'debt ratio'. A multifaceted study of corporate default prediction models is essential to ensure diverse interests, to avoid situations like the 'Lehman Brothers Case' of the global financial crisis, to avoid total collapse in a single moment. The key variables used in corporate defaults vary over time. This is confirmed by Beaver (1967, 1968) and Altman's (1968) analysis that Deakins'(1972) study shows that the major factors affecting corporate failure have changed. In Grice's (2001) study, the importance of predictive variables was also found through Zmijewski's (1984) and Ohlson's (1980) models. However, the studies that have been carried out in the past use static models. Most of them do not consider the changes that occur in the course of time. Therefore, in order to construct consistent prediction models, it is necessary to compensate the time-dependent bias by means of a time series analysis algorithm reflecting dynamic change. Based on the global financial crisis, which has had a significant impact on Korea, this study is conducted using 10 years of annual corporate data from 2000 to 2009. Data are divided into training data, validation data, and test data respectively, and are divided into 7, 2, and 1 years respectively. In order to construct a consistent bankruptcy model in the flow of time change, we first train a time series deep learning algorithm model using the data before the financial crisis (2000~2006). The parameter tuning of the existing model and the deep learning time series algorithm is conducted with validation data including the financial crisis period (2007~2008). As a result, we construct a model that shows similar pattern to the results of the learning data and shows excellent prediction power. After that, each bankruptcy prediction model is restructured by integrating the learning data and validation data again (2000 ~ 2008), applying the optimal parameters as in the previous validation. Finally, each corporate default prediction model is evaluated and compared using test data (2009) based on the trained models over nine years. Then, the usefulness of the corporate default prediction model based on the deep learning time series algorithm is proved. In addition, by adding the Lasso regression analysis to the existing methods (multiple discriminant analysis, logit model) which select the variables, it is proved that the deep learning time series algorithm model based on the three bundles of variables is useful for robust corporate default prediction. The definition of bankruptcy used is the same as that of Lee (2015). Independent variables include financial information such as financial ratios used in previous studies. Multivariate discriminant analysis, logit model, and Lasso regression model are used to select the optimal variable group. The influence of the Multivariate discriminant analysis model proposed by Altman (1968), the Logit model proposed by Ohlson (1980), the non-time series machine learning algorithms, and the deep learning time series algorithms are compared. In the case of corporate data, there are limitations of 'nonlinear variables', 'multi-collinearity' of variables, and 'lack of data'. While the logit model is nonlinear, the Lasso regression model solves the multi-collinearity problem, and the deep learning time series algorithm using the variable data generation method complements the lack of data. Big Data Technology, a leading technology in the future, is moving from simple human analysis, to automated AI analysis, and finally towards future intertwined AI applications. Although the study of the corporate default prediction model using the time series algorithm is still in its early stages, deep learning algorithm is much faster than regression analysis at corporate default prediction modeling. Also, it is more effective on prediction power. Through the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current government and other overseas governments are working hard to integrate the system in everyday life of their nation and society. Yet the field of deep learning time series research for the financial industry is still insufficient. This is an initial study on deep learning time series algorithm analysis of corporate defaults. Therefore it is hoped that it will be used as a comparative analysis data for non-specialists who start a study combining financial data and deep learning time series algorithm.