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A Methodology of Customer Churn Prediction based on Two-Dimensional Loyalty Segmentation (이차원 고객충성도 세그먼트 기반의 고객이탈예측 방법론)

  • Kim, Hyung Su;Hong, Seung Woo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.111-126
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    • 2020
  • Most industries have recently become aware of the importance of customer lifetime value as they are exposed to a competitive environment. As a result, preventing customers from churn is becoming a more important business issue than securing new customers. This is because maintaining churn customers is far more economical than securing new customers, and in fact, the acquisition cost of new customers is known to be five to six times higher than the maintenance cost of churn customers. Also, Companies that effectively prevent customer churn and improve customer retention rates are known to have a positive effect on not only increasing the company's profitability but also improving its brand image by improving customer satisfaction. Predicting customer churn, which had been conducted as a sub-research area for CRM, has recently become more important as a big data-based performance marketing theme due to the development of business machine learning technology. Until now, research on customer churn prediction has been carried out actively in such sectors as the mobile telecommunication industry, the financial industry, the distribution industry, and the game industry, which are highly competitive and urgent to manage churn. In addition, These churn prediction studies were focused on improving the performance of the churn prediction model itself, such as simply comparing the performance of various models, exploring features that are effective in forecasting departures, or developing new ensemble techniques, and were limited in terms of practical utilization because most studies considered the entire customer group as a group and developed a predictive model. As such, the main purpose of the existing related research was to improve the performance of the predictive model itself, and there was a relatively lack of research to improve the overall customer churn prediction process. In fact, customers in the business have different behavior characteristics due to heterogeneous transaction patterns, and the resulting churn rate is different, so it is unreasonable to assume the entire customer as a single customer group. Therefore, it is desirable to segment customers according to customer classification criteria, such as loyalty, and to operate an appropriate churn prediction model individually, in order to carry out effective customer churn predictions in heterogeneous industries. Of course, in some studies, there are studies in which customers are subdivided using clustering techniques and applied a churn prediction model for individual customer groups. Although this process of predicting churn can produce better predictions than a single predict model for the entire customer population, there is still room for improvement in that clustering is a mechanical, exploratory grouping technique that calculates distances based on inputs and does not reflect the strategic intent of an entity such as loyalties. This study proposes a segment-based customer departure prediction process (CCP/2DL: Customer Churn Prediction based on Two-Dimensional Loyalty segmentation) based on two-dimensional customer loyalty, assuming that successful customer churn management can be better done through improvements in the overall process than through the performance of the model itself. CCP/2DL is a series of churn prediction processes that segment two-way, quantitative and qualitative loyalty-based customer, conduct secondary grouping of customer segments according to churn patterns, and then independently apply heterogeneous churn prediction models for each churn pattern group. Performance comparisons were performed with the most commonly applied the General churn prediction process and the Clustering-based churn prediction process to assess the relative excellence of the proposed churn prediction process. The General churn prediction process used in this study refers to the process of predicting a single group of customers simply intended to be predicted as a machine learning model, using the most commonly used churn predicting method. And the Clustering-based churn prediction process is a method of first using clustering techniques to segment customers and implement a churn prediction model for each individual group. In cooperation with a global NGO, the proposed CCP/2DL performance showed better performance than other methodologies for predicting churn. This churn prediction process is not only effective in predicting churn, but can also be a strategic basis for obtaining a variety of customer observations and carrying out other related performance marketing activities.

A Study on Hoslital Nurses' Preferred Duty Shift and Duty Hours (병원 간호사의 선호근무시간대에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Gyeong-Sik;Jeong, Geum-Hui
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.77-96
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    • 1997
  • The duty shifts of hospital nurses not only affect nurses' physical and mental health but also present various personnel management problems which often result in high turnover rates. In this context a study was carried out from October to November 1995 for a period of two months to find out the status of hospital nurses' duty shift patterns, and preferred duty hours and fixed duty shifts. The study population was 867 RNs working in five general hospitals located in Seoul and its vicinity. The questionnaire developed by the writer was used for data collection. The response rate was 85.9 percent or 745 returns. The SAS program was used for data analysis with the computation of frequencies, percentages and Chi square test. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. General characteristics of the study population: 56 percent of respondents was (25 years group and 76.5 percent were "single": the predominant proportion of respondents was junior nursing college graduates(92.2%) and have less than 5 years nursing experience in hospitals(65.5%). For their future working plan in nursing profession, nearly 50% responded as uncertain The reasons given for their career plan was predominantly 'personal growth and development' rather than financial reasons. 2. The interval for rotations of duty stations was found to be mostly irregular(56.4%) while others reported as weekly(16.1%), monthly(12.9%), and fixed terms(4.6%). 3. The main problems related to duty shifts particularly the evening and night duty nurses reported were "not enough time for the family, " "afraid of security problems after the work when returning home late at night." and "lack of leisure time". "problems in physical and physiological adjustment." "problems in family life." "lack of time for interactions with fellow nurses" etc. 4. The forty percent of respondents reported to have '1-2 times' of duty shift rotations while all others reported that '0 time'. '2-3 times'. 'more than 3 times' etc. which suggest the irregularity in duty shift rotations. 5. The majority(62.8%) of study population found to favor the rotating system of duty stations. The reasons for favoring the rotation system were: the opportunity for "learning new things and personal development." "better human relations are possible. "better understanding in various duty stations." "changes in monotonous routine job" etc. The proportion of those disfavor the rotating 'system was 34.7 percent. giving the reasons of"it impedes development of specialization." "poor job performances." "stress factors" etc. Furthermore. respondents made the following comments in relation to the rotation of duty stations: the nurses should be given the opportunity to participate in the. decision making process: personal interest and aptitudes should be considered: regular intervals for the rotations or it should be planned in advance. etc. 6. For the future career plan. the older. married group with longer nursing experiences appeared to think the nursing as their lifetime career more likely than the younger. single group with shorter nursing experiences ($x^2=61.19.{\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=41.55.{\;}p=.000$). The reason given for their future career plan regardless of length of future service, was predominantly "personal growth and development" rather than financial reasons. For further analysis, the group those with the shorter career plan appeared to claim "financial reasons" for their future career more readily than the group who consider the nursing job as their lifetime career$(x^2$= 11.73, p=.003) did. This finding suggests the need for careful .considerations in personnel management of nursing administration particularly when dealing with the nurses' career development. The majority of respondents preferred the fixed day shift. However, further analysis of those preferred evening shift by age and civil status, "< 25 years group"(15.1%) and "single group"(13.2) were more likely to favor the fixed evening shift than > 25 years(6.4%) and married(4.8%)groups. This differences were statistically significant ($x^2=14.54, {\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=8.75, {\;}p=.003$). 7. A great majority of respondents(86.9% or n=647) found to prefer the day shifts. When the four different types of duty shifts(Types A. B. C, D) were presented, 55.0 percent of total respondents preferred the A type or the existing one followed by D type(22.7%). B type(12.4%) and C type(8.2%). 8. When the condition of monetary incentives for the evening(20% of salary) and night shifts(40% of. salary) of the existing duty type was presented. again the day shift appeared to be the most preferred one although the rate was slightly lower(66.4% against 86.9%). In the case of evening shift, with the same incentive, the preference rates for evening and night shifts increased from 11.0 to 22.4 percent and from 0.5 to 3.0 percent respectively. When the age variable was controlled. < 25 yrs group showed higher rates(31.6%. 4.8%) than those of > 25 yrs group(15.5%. 1.3%) respectively preferring the evening and night shifts(p=.000). The civil status also seemed to operate on the preferences of the duty shifts as the single group showed lower rate(69.0%) for day duty against 83. 6% of the married group. and higher rates for evening and night duties(27.2%. 15.1%) respectively against those of the married group(3.8%. 1.8%) while a higher proportion of the married group(83. 6%) preferred the day duties than the single group(69.0%). These differences were found to be statistically all significant(p=.001). 9. The findings on preferences of three different types of fixed duty hours namely, B, C. and D(with additional monetary incentives) are as follows in order of preference: B type(12hrs a day, 3days a wk): day shift(64.1%), evening shift(26.1%). night shift(6.5%) C type(12hrs a day. 4days a wk) : evening shift(49.2%). day shift(32.8%), night shift(11.5%) D type(10hrs a day. 4days a wk): showed the similar trend as B type. The findings of higher preferences on the evening and night duties when the incentives are given. as shown above, suggest the need for the introductions of different patterns of duty hours and incentive measures in order to overcome the difficulties in rostering the nursing duties. However, the interpretation of the above data, particularly the C type, needs cautions as the total number of respondents is very small(n=61). It requires further in-depth study. In conclusion. it seemed to suggest that the patterns of nurses duty hours and shifts in the most hospitals in the country have neither been tried for different duty types nor been flexible. The stereotype rostering system of three shifts and insensitiveness for personal life aspect of nurses seemed to be prevailing. This study seems to support that irregular and frequent rotations of duty shifts may be contributing factors for most nurses' maladjustment problems in physical and mental health. personal and family life which eventually may result in high turnover rates. In order to overcome the increasing problems in personnel management of hospital nurses particularly in rostering of evening and night duty shifts, which may related to eventual high turnover rates, the findings of this study strongly suggest the need for an introduction of new rostering systems including fixed duties and appropriate incentive measures for evenings and nights which the most nurses want to avoid, In considering the nursing care of inpatients is the round-the clock business. the practice of the nursing duty shift system is inevitable. In this context, based on the findings of this study. the following are recommended: 1. The further in-depth studies on duty shifts and hours need to be undertaken for the development of appropriate and effective rostering systems for hospital nurses. 2. An introduction of appropriate incentive measures for evening and night duty shifts along with organizational considerations such as the trials for preferred duty time bands, duty hours, and fixed duty shifts should be considered if good quality of care for the patients be maintained for the round the clock. This may require an initiation of systematic research and development activities in the field of hospital nursing administration as a part of permanent system in the hospital. 3. Planned and regular intervals, orientation and training, and professional and personal growth should be considered for the rotation of different duty stations or units. 4. In considering the higher degree of preferences in the duty type of "10hours a day, 4days a week" shown in this study, it would be worthwhile to undertake the R&D type studies in large hospital settings.

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Children's eating behaviors and teachers' feeding practices during mealtime at child-care centers (어린이집 급식시간 중 영유아의 식사행동 실태 및 보육교사의 식사지도 방법)

  • Yeoh, Yoonjae;Kwon, Sooyoun
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.71-80
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    • 2015
  • Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate children's eating behaviors and teachers' feeding practices during mealtime at child-care centers. In addition, it focused on the difference of teachers' feeding practices on children age under 2 years ( ${\leq}2$ years old) and 3 years and older (3~5 years old). Methods: A total of 169 teachers working at childcare centers in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, Korea, completed self-report questionnaires in December 2013. The questionnaires were composed of questions on children's eating behaviors, feeding practices; 'Explain', 'Praise', 'Modeling', 'Indulgent', 'Insist' and 'Reward', interaction with home, and a range of demographic information (analysis rate: 51.2%). Results: Approximately 59.2% of teachers had not taken a class on feeding practice and the average score for nutrition knowledge was 14.6 out of 30 points. The most undesirable eating behavior of children during mealtime was 'eating while walking around (36.7%)' both ' ${\leq}2$ years old' and '3~5 years old'. Regarding feeding practices according to children's undesirable eating behaviors during mealtime, there were differences between age groups. When children did not eat all of the foods that were served and did not clean up silverware or seats after having food, teachers caring for '3~5 years old' practiced 'Explain'. However, percentages of those who practiced 'Indulgent' and 'Modeling' were significantly higher in teachers caring for ' ${\leq}2$ years old' than '3~5 years old'. Conclusion: These findings indicated that teachers caring for children lack education and knowledge about nutrition and feeding practice. In addition, verbal feeding practices, like explain, were mainly used by teachers. As a result, for teachers, guidelines and programs for learning about age appropriate feeding practice during mealtime at child-care centers may be needed.

The Effect of Color Filter on the Reading Ability in Teenager with Irlen-Syndrome (얼렌증후군에서 컬러필터가 읽기능력에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Dong-Joon;Leem, Hyun-Sung
    • Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.125-136
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of improving read speed with color filter or without color filter to improve reading disorder of teenager who were diagnosed as Meares-Irlen syndrome through survey inspection with Meares-Irlen syndrome visual stress (MISViS) score. Methods: MISViS subjects were selected from screening survey MISViS results given above 2.13 in the clinical criteria scores (MISViS score). Reading speed were measured quickly and efficiently the rate of reading via test in which randomly ordered common words are read aloud during a minute. Each of the subjects were worn a filter of the lowest concentration in each color filter group composed of 15 groups. Results: MISViS score of MISViS group and control group were 2.57 and 0.66, respectively. Results of reading speed with filter and without filter in MISViS group were $102.27{\pm}27.86$ wpm and $118.87{\pm}26.99$ wpm (p=0.001), respectively, as well as were $132.93{\pm}6.88$ wpm and $133.43{\pm}6.64$ wpm (p=0.131) in the normal group. Associated with error changes with filter and without filter between two groups, skipping in MISViS Group were from $0.25{\pm}0.62$ times to 0 times (p=0.191), Errors were from $1.83{\pm}1.69$ times to $0.17{\pm}0.38$ times (p = 0.004) and, repetitions were 0. skipping in control group were 0 times, errors were from $0.21{\pm}0.43$ times to $0.07{\pm}0.27$ times (p=0.336) and, repetitions were from $0.14{\pm}0.36$ times to 0 (p=0.165). The filter of blue series chosen in MISViS group had higher percentage (40%), whereas, subjects in normal group were more likely to prefer the filter of gray color (29%). Conclusions: This study showed that MISViS score have been used as a significant diagnosis for Irlen syndrome screening. This study found that wearing suitable color filter for MISViS patients were useful to improve learning with regard to reading. Unique color filter selection for MISViS subjects must be carefully considered since fit color filter are different personally.

A study on analyzing effectiveness of childbirth education (임부교실 운영효과 분석을 위한 일 연구)

  • Kim, Hea Sook;Choi, Yun Soon;Chang, Soon Bok;Jung, Jae Won
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.85-98
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    • 1995
  • The purpose of this study is to provide basic data regarding effective learning opportunities in childbirth education classes. Also analysis of the data indicates the optimum conditions for the welfare and improvements in the promotion of health in childbearing mothers. The results of this study are as follows; 1) The average age of the subjects in this study was 30.6 years and the total number of subjects was 58 pregnant women. The average number of children was one and 84.5% of the subjects were unemployed even though 63.8% of them held over bachelor's degrees. It was found that 22.4% of the subjects were living in an extended family. Also 61.5% of them were living with parents-in-law. The number of pregnancies were calssified as one, two, or three to nine times with the percentages of 58.7%, 22.4% and 18.9%, respectively. Further, 72.4% of the subjects had no abortion experience and 15.5% had one aborion experience. While 89.7% of the subjects planned to feed their babies with breastmilk, mixed feeding were used by only 22.4% of the sample. These data were collected at about 6 months after delivery. Thus one can see that a low rate of breastfeeding was common. 2) The length of one period of childbirth education is four weeks. It was found that 36.2% of the subjects participated in childbirth education only once, where as 13.8% participated four times and 19% of the subjects participated in this class more than four times. pregnant at least once. Further, 75.9% of the participants were participated in this education through their own will. Their motivation for participation developed through information, advertisement and posters which contained information on childbirth education. Those with unplanned pregnancies 92.9% participated after a suggestion by the nurses. The number of participants in terms of percentage according to the childbirth education contents can be classified as following. The most active participation was shown in preparation of delivery(77.6%), postpartrm management(56.9%) fetal development(37.6%) and physiology of pregnancy(17.2%). It was found that 75.9% of the subjects were willing to participate again if they were given a chance. The reason can be summarized as following: The content of the education is very helpful(47.7%). Scientific knowledge can be obtained through this program(20.5%). Participation helps in achieving psychological stability(9.1%). Participation enables one to establish a friendly relationship with other participants(6.8%) of the sample. 24.1% of the participants did not want to participate again. The reasons can be as following: They do not want another baby(42.9%). The first paricipation in childbirth education gave enough knowledge about childbirth(21.4%). Another reason for not want to participate again was because they had a cesarean birth(14.3%). Only 7.1% of them responded with a negative view. A response that they do not need childbirth education after their operation can be traced back to the general belief that childbirth education is the place where one prepares for natural birth through the Lamaze breathing technique. Of the subjects, 91.4% suggested that this program could be recommended to other childbearing mothers, because this program gave educational content along with psychological stability for childbearing women. Of the subjects 41.4% did not see any efforts towards the welfare of the baby, where as 88.2% did. Among the subjects 58.6% made some effort to eliminate the discomfort of labor by breathing and imagination and breathing and walking. Further 41.7% of the 24 subjects did not do anything toward the welfare of the baby, because they did have a cesarean section so that they didn't have a chance even though they had been educated about childbirth. Also 33.3% of the subjects did not do anything toward the welfare of the baby, because they lacked a willingness. After leaving the hospital, only 75.9% of the subjects did some exercises. The subjects who tried participate this program with their husband accounted for 20.7% of the sample. Interviewing with the subjects solved some of the uneasiness and. fear of delivery, increased self-confidence in parenting and active coping in the delivery process.

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The Lean Startup: Korea's Case Study-Cardoc (린 스타트업 방법론의 적용: 한국 '카닥' 사례를 중심으로)

  • Na, Hee Kyung;Lee, Hee Woo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.29-43
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    • 2016
  • The Lean Startup, a methodology for minimizing failure rate of startups, has been receiving attention since its publication in 2011. Although it has been receiving enormous attention as an effective methodology of startups' growth and the emergence of unicorn companies, it is undeniable that the theoretical research and cases on this topic have not been fully accumulated in Korea. Progress of management theory has been made when combining the theory and case studies. In this paper, we thus excavated the 'Cardoc' case, which has applied the lean startup concept to the entire process of service and customer development from the inception of its product design. The following are the findings of the case. First, for the successful application of lean startup, it is essential that all team members to understand the lean startup concept and are willing to apply it thoroughly to the business management. Second, the prompt launching of MVP(Minimum Viable Product) is more important than table discussion. Third, it is crucial to select the appropriate key metrics and analytic tools for effective learning. Fourth, startup must scale up promptly as soon as it verifies the product-market fit through the BML(Build-Measure-Learn) iteration cycle. Fifth, all new business expansion should be lean. Cardoc is currently testing new MVPs in order to move onto the next scale-up process with huge investments in newly added segments. This study is meaningful in that it elaborates the representative case of a Korean startup that has applied the lean startup strategy under the circumstance of insufficient discussion of Korean startup cases in comparison with growing attention both in concept development and case accumulation abroad. We hope that this paper can be a stepping stone for future relevant research on the implementation of lean startup methodology in Korea.

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An Analysis on the Reemployment of the Unemployed : Centered on the Applications of Human Capital and Human Capability Perspective (실업자의 재취업에 관한 분석: 인적자본관점(Human Capital Perspective)과 인간능력관점(Human Capability Perspective)의 적용)

  • Kang, Chul-Hee;Lee, Hong-Jik;Hong, Hyun-Mi-Ra
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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    • v.57 no.3
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    • pp.223-249
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    • 2005
  • This study examines the hazard rate of reemployment by conducting the Cox regression analysis. In addition, two gender groups are subjected to comparative analysis to identify the effect of the factors related to the human capital and human capability perspective on reemployment. For this purpose, 1,871 cases are selected from the 5th year data from Korea Labor and Income Panel Study. The results of study are as follows. First, the factors of human capital, such as education, appropriateness of skill level, and job tenure hold negative impact on the probability of reemployment, while factors of human capability, such as basic learning ability, health insurance, social insurance, residential area(living in the Seoul metropolitan area) hold positive on the probability of reemployment. It is interesting note that there are different sets of factors that affect the probability of reemployment in the two gender groups. This trend is even more apparent in the case of factors that pertain to human capability. The results of this study imply that the factors of human capability, which stress the socio-institutional characteristics, should be considered as comparably significant compared to the factors that pertain to human capital when it comes to the estimation of reemployment. Also, results of this comparative study teach us that various perspectives, such as dual labor market theory and gender-segmented labor market theory, should be factored in for reemployment discussion as well. In conclusion, this research delivers several significant messages since it introduces the concept of human capability perspective, subjected to few empirical analyses in the past, and also heralds the way for comparative analysis on the impact of the factors pertaining to human capability on reemployment.

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A Study on the Characteristics of Each Section Based on Visitor's Satisfactions of the Dulegil in Bukhansan National Park (북한산국립공원 둘레길 탐방객 만족도에 따른 구간별 특성화 연구)

  • Han, Bong-Ho;Choi, Jin-Woo;Hur, Ji-Yeon;Kim, Sun-Hee;An, Kyung-Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.41 no.2
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    • pp.69-82
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    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of Dulegil in Bukhansan National Park in dispersing peak climbing hikers, characterize each section of Dulegil and suggest ideas of improvement. This study was conducted based on the survey completed by visitors in all 21 sections of Dulegil. After the construction of Dulegil, the number of visit to Dulegil grew and it was analyzed that Dulegil attracted new visitors given that the rate of young people(aged 19~30) who visited for the first time was quite high. Regarding the frequency of peak climbing, 7.6% of the respondents said "decreased" and 46.2% said "increased", showing that Dulegil's effect to disperse peak climbing hikers is nominal. Seven qualities were evaluated regarding Dulegil's level of satisfaction. Out of those seven, the quality of recreational place and taking a walk achieved high scores of 3.74 and 3.61 respectively. The quality of culture and history scored the lowest with 3.09. The analysis on the characteristic of each section of Dulegil, reason of visit, and the visitors' level of satisfaction showed that Dulegil is now regarded as a place where they can improve their health through light exercise and walking. In addition, a positive effect can be expected for a long time since there are different ways of utilizing the resources of the National Park, such as getting in touch with nature, preserving ecology, learning history and enjoying beautiful landscapes. If infrastructure and programs specific to each section of Dulegil were improved in a long-term perspective, it would be effective to encourage peak climbers and enjoy the lower parts of the mountain.

An Analysis of Elementary Students' Attention Characteristics through Attention Test and the Eye Tracking on Real Science Classes (실제 과학수업에서 시선추적과 주의력 검사를 통한 초등학생들의 주의 특성 분석)

  • Shin, Won-Sub;Shin, Dong-Hoon
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.36 no.4
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    • pp.705-715
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this research is to analyze elementary students' attention characteristics through attention test and eye tracking on real science classes. The SMI's ETG(eye tracker glasses) mobile eye tracker was used to analyze the attention process of elementary students'. The sampling rate of the ETG is 30Hz. The participants of attention test were elementary 155 6th-grade elementary students and the participants for the eye-tracker were six 6th-grade male students. The eye movements were analyzed using the 'BeGaze Mobile Video Analysis Package' program. The results of this research are as follows. First, the attention test results of elementary students showed high correlation between selective attention and sustained attention (.85) and low correlation between selective attention and self-regulation (.32). Second, the attention types of elementary students were divided into four; attention, inattention, easygoing and hasty. Third, elementary students' attention were divided into top-down, bottom-up, default mode network through analysis of elementary students′ eye-movements during real science classes. Also their attention shift occurred frequently due to various reasons in real class situation. There were three reasons that made elementary students fail to handle knowledge-dependent top-down attention; 1) the cognitive failure of target caused by failing to focus attention, 2) the absence of prior knowledge on target object, 3) the analogical failure of prior knowledge. Finally, elementary students' attention process were schematized based on the analysis of students' eye movements and attention test. This research is expected to be utilized as basic data for developing effective teaching strategies, teaching-learning models and instructional materials.

Effect of Natural Plant Mixtures on Behavioral Profiles and Antioxidants Status in SD Rats (자생식물 혼합 추출물이 SD 흰쥐에서의 행동양상 및 항산화 체계에 미치는 영향)

  • Seo, Bo-Young;Kim, Min-Jung;Kim, Hyun-Su;Park, Hae-Ryong;Lee, Seung-Cheol;Park, Eun-Ju
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.40 no.9
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    • pp.1208-1214
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    • 2011
  • Caffeine, a psychoactive stimulant, has been implicated in the modulation of learning and memory functions due to its action as a non-selective adenosine receptors antagonist. On the contrary, some side effects of caffeine have been reported, such as an increased energy loss and metabolic rate, decrease DNA synthesis in the spleen, and increased oxidative damage to exerted on LDL particles. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a safe stimulant from natural plants mixture (Aralia elata, Acori graminei Rhizoma, Chrysanthemum, Dandleion, Guarana, Shepherd's purse) that can be used as a substitute for caffeine. Thirty SD rats were divided into three groups; control group, caffeine group (15.0 mg/kg, i.p.), and natural plants mixture group (NP, 1 mL/kg, p.o.). The effect of NP extract on stimulant activity was evaluated with open-field test (OFT) and plus maze test for measurement of behavioral profiles. Plasma lipid profiles, lipid peroxidation in LDL (conjugated dienes), total antioxidant capacity (TRAP) and DNA damage in white blood, liver, and brain cells were measured. In the OFT, immobility time was increased significantly by acute (once) and chronic (3 weeks) supplementation of NP and showed a similar effect to caffeine treatment. Three weeks of caffeine treatment caused plasma lipid peroxidation and DNA damage in liver cells, whereas there were no changes in the NP group. NP group showed a higher plasma HDL cholesterol concentration compared to the caffeine group. The results indicate that the natural plants mixture had a stimulant effect without inducing oxidative stress.