• Title/Summary/Keyword: non-structural

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The Production Structure of Genetic Information in South Korea (한국의 유전적 정보 생산 구조)

  • Yi Cheong-Ho
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.5 no.1 s.9
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    • pp.55-92
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    • 2005
  • The factors contributing to the formation of an important scientific concept in South Korea and its circulation in the society are the scientific knowledge that had been already formed, matured, and established in the U.S.A, Europe and Japan and has been introduced into Korea, and the institutions that have been formed during the recent modernization in South Korea. The concept of 'genetic information' cannot be an exception in this context. The concept of genetic information is the one that has been extended and intensified by the genomics and bioinformatics formed and matured through the Human Genome Projects from the former concept of inheritance or heredity within the framework of classical and molecular genetics. The purpose of this study was to find out 'how the production structure of genetic information in South Korea has been formed', under the perspective of the conceptual, epistemic, and institutional holisticity or integratedness in the concept and knowledge production structure idealized in Western advanced nations. The discourse of genetic engineering popular in the mid 1980's in South Korea has catalyzed the development of molecular biology. However, the institutional balance that had been established for the biochemistry departments in Natural Science College and Medical College was not formed between the genetic engineering and genetics departments in South Korea. Therefore, they were unable to achieve the more integrative and macro-level disciplinary impact on life sciences, largely due to institutional lack of the capable (human) genetics departments in some leading Korean colleges of Medicine. In genomics, the cutting-edge reprogramming and restructuring of the traditional genetics in the West, South Korea has not invested, even meagerly, in the infrastructure, fund, and research and development (R & D) for the Basic or First Phase of the research trajectory in the Human Genome Project. Without a minimal Basic Phase, the genomics research and development in Korea has been running more or less for the Advanced or Second Phase. Bioinformatics has started developing in Korea under a narrow perspective which regards it as a mere sub-discipline of information technology (IT). Having developed itself in parallel with genomics, bioinformatics contains its own unique logics and contents that can be both directly and indirectly connected to the information science and technology. As a result, bioinformatics reveals a defect in respect of being synergistically integrated into genetics and life sciences in Korea. Owing to the structural problem in the production, genetic information appears to be produced in a fragmented pattern in the Korean society since its fundamental base is weak and thin. A good example of the conceptual and institutional fragmentedness is that 'the genetics of individual identification' is not a normal integrated part of the Korean genetics, but a scientific practice exercised in the departments of legal medicine in a few Medical Colleges. And the environment contributing to the production structure of genetic information in South Korea today comprises 'sangmyung gonghak'(or life engineering) discourse and non-governmental organization movement.

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THE LUMINOSITY-LINEWIDTH RELATION AS A PROBE OF THE EVOLUTION OF FIELD GALAXIES

  • GUHATHAKURTA PURAGRA;ING KRISTINE;RIX HANS-WALTER;COLLESS MATTHEW;WILLIAMS TED
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.29 no.spc1
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    • pp.63-64
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    • 1996
  • The nature of distant faint blue field galaxies remains a mystery, despite the fact that much attention has been devoted to this subject in the last decade. Galaxy counts, particularly those in the optical and near ultraviolet bandpasses, have been demonstrated to be well in excess of those expected in the 'no-evolution' scenario. This has usually been taken to imply that galaxies were brighter in the past, presumably due to a higher rate of star formation. More recently, redshift surveys of galaxies as faint as B$\~$24 have shown that the mean redshift of faint blue galaxies is lower than that predicted by standard evolutionary models (de-signed to fit the galaxy counts). The galaxy number count data and redshift data suggest that evolutionary effects are most prominent at the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. While these data constrain the form of evolution of the overall luminosity function, they do not constrain evolution in individual galaxies. We are carrying out a series of observations as part of a long-term program aimed at a better understanding of the nature and amount of luminosity evolution in individual galaxies. Our study uses the luminosity-linewidth relation (Tully-Fisher relation) for disk galaxies as a tool to study luminosity evolution. Several studies of a related nature are being carried out by other groups. A specific experiment to test a 'no-evolution' hypothesis is presented here. We have used the AUTOFIB multifibre spectro-graph on the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and the Rutgers Fabry-Perot imager on the Cerro Tolalo lnteramerican Observatory (CTIO) 4-metre tele-scope to measure the internal kinematics of a representative sample of faint blue field galaxies in the red-shift range z = 0.15-0.4. The emission line profiles of [OII] and [OIII] in a typical sample galaxy are significantly broader than the instrumental resolution (100-120 km $s^{-l}$), and it is possible to make a reliable de-termination of the linewidth. Detailed and realistic simulations based on the properties of nearby, low-luminosity spirals are used to convert the measured linewidth into an estimate of the characteristic rotation speed, making statistical corrections for the effects of inclination, non-uniform distribution of ionized gas, rotation curve shape, finite fibre aperture, etc.. The (corrected) mean characteristic rotation speed for our distant galaxy sample is compared to the mean rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable blue luminosity and colour. The typical galaxy in our distant sample has a B-band luminosity of about 0.25 L$\ast$ and a colour that corresponds to the Sb-Sd/Im range of Hub-ble types. Details of the AUTOFIB fibre spectroscopic study are described by Rix et al. (1996). Follow-up deep near infrared imaging with the 10-metre Keck tele-scope+ NIRC combination and high angular resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 are being used to determine the structural and orientation parameters of galaxies on an individual basis. This information is being combined with the spatially resolved CTIO Fabry-Perot data to study the internal kinematics of distant galaxies (Ing et al. 1996). The two main questions addressed by these (preliminary studies) are: 1. Do galaxies of a given luminosity and colour have the same characteristic rotation speed in the distant and local Universe? The distant galaxies in our AUTOFIB sample have a mean characteristic rotation speed of $\~$70 km $s^{-l}$ after correction for measurement bias (Fig. 1); this is inconsistent with the characteristic rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable photometric proper-ties (105 km $s^{-l}$) at the > $99\%$ significance level (Fig. 2). A straightforward explanation for this discrepancy is that faint blue galaxies were about 1-1.5 mag brighter (in the B band) at z $\~$ 0.25 than their present-day counterparts. 2. What is the nature of the internal kinematics of faint field galaxies? The linewidths of these faint galaxies appear to be dominated by the global disk rotation. The larger galaxies in our sample are about 2"-.5" in diameter so one can get direct insight into the nature of their internal velocity field from the $\~$ I" seeing CTIO Fabry-Perot data. A montage of Fabry-Perot data is shown in Fig. 3. The linewidths are too large (by. $5\sigma$) to be caused by turbulence in giant HII regions.

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A Study on the Effects of User Participation on Stickiness and Continued Use on Internet Community (인터넷 커뮤니티에서 사용자 참여가 밀착도와 지속적 이용의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Ko, Mi-Hyun;Kwon, Sun-Dong
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.41-72
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this study is the investigation of the effects of user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities. In this research, stickiness refers to repeat visit and visit duration to an Internet community. Continued use means the willingness to continue to use an Internet community in the future. Internet community-based companies can earn money through selling the digital contents such as game, music, and avatar, advertizing on internet site, or offering an affiliate marketing. For such money making, stickiness and continued use of Internet users is much more important than the number of Internet users. We tried to answer following three questions. Fist, what is the effects of user participation on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities? Second, by what is user participation formed? Third, are network effect, social influence, and usefulness that was significant at prior research about technology acceptance model(TAM) still significant on internet communities? In this study, user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness are independent variables, stickiness is mediating variable, and continued use is dependent variable. Among independent variables, we are focused on user participation. User participation means that Internet user participates in the development of Internet community site (called mini-hompy or blog in Korea). User participation was studied from 1970 to 1997 at the research area of information system. But since 1997 when Internet started to spread to the public, user participation has hardly been studied. Given the importance of user participation at the success of Internet-based companies, it is very meaningful to study the research topic of user participation. To test the proposed model, we used a data set generated from the survey. The survey instrument was designed on the basis of a comprehensive literature review and interviews of experts, and was refined through several rounds of pretests, revisions, and pilot tests. The respondents of survey were the undergraduates and the graduate students who mainly used Internet communities. Data analysis was conducted using 217 respondents(response rate, 97.7 percent). We used structural equation modeling(SEM) implemented in partial least square(PLS). We chose PLS for two reason. First, our model has formative constructs. PLS uses components-based algorithm and can estimated formative constructs. Second, PLS is more appropriate when the research model is in an early stage of development. A review of the literature suggests that empirical tests of user participation is still sparse. The test of model was executed in the order of three research questions. First user participation had the direct effects on stickiness(${\beta}$=0.150, p<0.01) and continued use (${\beta}$=0.119, p<0.05). And user participation, as a partial mediation model, had a indirect effect on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.007, p<0.05). Second, optional participation and prosuming participation significantly formed user participation. Optional participation, with a path magnitude as high as 0.986 (p<0.001), is a key determinant for the strength of user participation. Third, Network effect (${\beta}$=0.236, p<0.001). social influence (${\beta}$=0.135, p<0.05), and usefulness (${\beta}$=0.343, p<0.001) had directly significant impacts on stickiness. But network effect and social influence, as a full mediation model, had both indirectly significant impacts on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.11, p<0.001, and ${\beta}$=0.063, p<0.05, respectively). Compared with this result, usefulness, as a partial mediation model, had a direct impact on continued use and a indirect impact on continued use mediated through stickiness. This study has three contributions. First this is the first empirical study showing that user participation is the significant driver of continued use. The researchers of information system have hardly studies user participation since late 1990s. And the researchers of marketing have studied a few lately. Second, this study enhanced the understanding of user participation. Up to recently, user participation has been studied from the bipolar viewpoint of participation v.s non-participation. Also, even the study on participation has been studied from the point of limited optional participation. But, this study proved the existence of prosuming participation to design and produce products or services, besides optional participation. And this study empirically proved that optional participation and prosuming participation were the key determinant for user participation. Third, our study compliments traditional studies of TAM. According prior literature about of TAM, the constructs of network effect, social influence, and usefulness had effects on the technology adoption. This study proved that these constructs still are significant on Internet communities.

Application of geophysical exploration methods for safety diagnosis of the basement of stone pagoda (지구물리탐사 방법의 석탑지반 안전진단에의 적용)

  • Suh, Man-Cheol;Oh, Jin-Yong;Kim, Ki-Hyun
    • 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2004.08a
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    • pp.70-83
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    • 2004
  • The safety diagnosis of cultural assets is Primarily focused on its non-destructiveness. Research on the nondestructive diagnosis and conservation of masonry cultural heritage is the key which is considered by technologic kernel. Geophyscial Prospecting as nondestructive diagnostic technology plays an important role in the characterization of the foundation of stone pagodas. It is natural that understanding of shallow subsurface condition beneath them is essential for their structural safety diagnosis. As an example, the nondestructive geophysical methods were applied to two three-story stone pagodas, Seokgatap (height 10.8 m, width 4.4 m, weight 82.3 ton) and Dabotap (height 10.4 m, width 7.4 m, weight 123.2 ton) which were built in 791 at Bulkuksa temple. An earlier archaeological investigation shows that stone pagodas have experienced severe weathering process and are slightly leaning, which will threaten their stability At the base part of Dabotap, an offset of the stone alignment is also observed. Direct measurements of ultrasonic velocities was introduced for the mechanical properties of the stone The velocity ranges of ultrasonic waves for Dabotap and Seokgatap are 1217${\~}$4403 m/s and 584${\~}$5845 m/s, respectively, and the estimated averages of the uniaxial compressive strength are 463 kg/$cm^2$ and 409 kg/$cm^2$, respectively. Site characteristics, around the pagodas are determined by the measurement of multiple properties such as seismic velocity, resistivity, image of ground-penetrating radar, On the basis of the higher velocity structure, the site of Seokgatap appears to have solider stability than the Seokgatap site. Near the pagodas, higher(up to 2200 $\Omega$m) resistivity is present whereas their outskirts have as low as 200 $\Omega$m. By the combined results of each geophyscial methods, the subsurface boundaries of two stone pagodas are revealed. The Dabotap site is in the form of an octagon having 6-m-long side with the depth of ${\~}$4 m, whereas the Seokgatap site is the 8 ${\times}$ 10 m rectangle with the depth of 3 m. These subsurface structures appear to reflect the original foundations constructed against the stone load of ${\~}8 ton/m^2$. At the subsurface beneath the northeast of each pagoda, low seismic velocity as well as low resistivity is prominent. It is interpreted to represent the weak underground condition which Is the possible cause of the slightly leaning pagodas toward the NNW.

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Evaluation and interpretation of the effects of heterogeneous layers in an OBS/air-gun crustal structure study (OBS/에어건을 이용한 지각구조 연구에서 불균질층의 영향에 대한 평가와 해석)

  • Tsuruga, Kayoko;Kasahara, Junzo;Kubota, Ryuji;Nishiyama, Eiichiro;Kamimura, Aya;Naito, Yoshihiro;Honda, Fuminori;Oikawa, Nobutaka;Tamura, Yasuo;Nishizawa, Azusa;Kaneda, Kentaro
    • Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.1-14
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    • 2008
  • We present a method for interpreting seismic records with arrivals and waveforms having characteristics which could be generated by extremely inhomogeneous velocity structures, such as non-typical oceanic crust, decollement at subduction zones, and seamounts in oceanic regions, by comparing them with synthetic waveforms. Recent extensive refraction and wide-angle reflection surveys in oceanic regions have provided us with a huge number of high-resolution and high-quality seismic records containing characteristic arrivals and waveforms, besides first arrivals and major reflected phases such as PmP. Some characteristic waveforms, with significant later reflected phases or anomalous amplitude decay with offset distance, are difficult to interpret using only a conventional interpretation method such as the traveltime tomographic inversion method. We find the best process for investigating such characteristic phases is to use an interactive interpretation method to compare observed data with synthetic waveforms, and calculate raypaths and traveltimes. This approach enables us to construct a reasonable structural model that includes all of the major characteristics of the observed waveforms. We present results here with some actual observed examples that might be of great help in the interpretation of such problematic phases. Our approach to the analysis of waveform characteristics is endorsed as an innovative method for constructing high-resolution and high-quality crustal structure models, not only in oceanic regions, but also in the continental regions.

Palaeomagnetism of the Okchon Belt, Korea : Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) and Deformation of the Hwanggangri Formation in Chumgju-Suanbo Area (옥천대에 대한 고자기 연구:충주-수안보 일원 황강리층의 변형과 대자율 비등방성(AMS))

  • Son, Moon;Kim, In-Soo;Kang, Hee-Cheol
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.133-146
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    • 2001
  • We report the results of structural field observation and measurement of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of the diamictitic Hwanggangri Formation distributed in Chungju-Suanbo area of the Okchon Belt, Korea. The outcrops of the Hwanggangri Formation show two types of cleavage in general: slaty cleavage (SI) and crenulation cleavage (5z). 5] cleavage is, however, well observable only in the notheastem (NE) part of study area, while overwhelmed by 52 cleavage in the southwestern (5W) part, indicating stronger later deformation in 5W part of the study area. This partitioning of the study area is corroborated by both IRM and AMS parameters: NE part of the study area is characterized by higher IRM intensity, higher bulk magnetic susceptibility, higher AM5 degree, and by oblate shape of magnetic susceptibility ellipsoid. Their values become drastically lowered toward southwest, and reach to a stable minimum in the whole 5W part of the study area. In addition, degree of both metamorphism and deformation tends to increase gradually from northeast toward southwest and also from northwest toward southeast in the study area. Based on the distribution pattern of the principal axes ( $k_1, k_2, k_3$ axes) of magnetic anisotropy ellipsoids revealed in the NE part of the study area, three episodes of deformation ( $D_1, D_2, D_3$ ) are recognized: D_1$ deformation produced $S_2$ cleavage with NE-5W trend, which is caused by a strong NW-SE tlattening of a coaxial pure shear. $D_2$ deformation produced 5z cleavage characterized by a non-coaxial deformation. It was caused by a ductile or semi-ductile thrusting toward NW and concurrent sinistral shearing along $S_2$ cleavage plane. Lastly, $D_3$ deformation produced tlexural folding of all previous structures with a nearly horizontal NE fold axis. Distribution pattern of the principal axes of magnetic anisotropy ellipsoid from the SW part of the study area, on the other hand, does not show any coherency among sites or samples. We interpret that this dispersed pattern of $k_1, k_2, k_3$ axes together with lower anisotropy strength indicates that magnetic fabrics in the SW part have been disturbed either by a superposition of strong deformation/metamorphism or by a kind of reciprocal strain due to an overlapping of $D_1$ and $D_2$ or by both processes.

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Effect of economic growth, industrial structure, efficiency improvement, decarbonization of power sector and fuel substitution for the transition to low carbon society by 2050 (2050년 저탄소 사회로의 전환을 위한 경제성장, 산업구조, 효율개선, 전력 탈탄소화와 연료 대체의 효과)

  • Park, Nyun-Bae;Hong, Sungjun;Park, Sang Yong
    • Journal of Energy Engineering
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.61-72
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    • 2014
  • This paper analyzed transition pathways toward a low carbon society in Korea to meet global $2^{\circ}C$ climate target. Lower economic growth, industrial structure change, enhance of energy demand management, decarbonization of power sector, and replacement of low carbon fuel could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from fuel combustion in 2050 by 67% against in 2011, or by 74% against in BAU (Business-As-Usual). Lower economic growth contributes to 13% of cumulative emission reduction relative to BAU, industrial structure change 9%, enhance of energy demand management 72%, decarbonization of power sector 5% and replacement of low carbon fuel 1% respectively. Final energy consumption in 2050 needs to be reduced to 50% relative to 2011, or to 41% relative to BAU. Nuclear, coal and renewable energy represent 31%, 40%, 2% respectively among electricity generation in 2011, but 38%, 2%, 32% in 2050. CCS represents 23% of total generation in 2050. Emission intensity of electricity in 2050 was decreased to 19% relative to 2011, or to 24% relative to BAU. Primary energy in 2050 was decreased to 64% compared to 2011, or to 44% compared to BAU. Final energy consumption, primary energy supply and GHG emission from fuel combustion from 1990 to 2011 increased by 176%, 197%, 146%. Radical change from historical trend is required to transit toward a low carbon society by 2050. Appropriate economic growth, structural change to non-energy intensive industries, energy technology research, development and deployment (RD&D) in terms of enhancement of energy efficiency and low carbon energy supply technologies, and fuel change to electricity and renewable energy are key instruments.

Corporate Bond Rating Using Various Multiclass Support Vector Machines (다양한 다분류 SVM을 적용한 기업채권평가)

  • Ahn, Hyun-Chul;Kim, Kyoung-Jae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.157-178
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    • 2009
  • Corporate credit rating is a very important factor in the market for corporate debt. Information concerning corporate operations is often disseminated to market participants through the changes in credit ratings that are published by professional rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor's (S&P) and Moody's Investor Service. Since these agencies generally require a large fee for the service, and the periodically provided ratings sometimes do not reflect the default risk of the company at the time, it may be advantageous for bond-market participants to be able to classify credit ratings before the agencies actually publish them. As a result, it is very important for companies (especially, financial companies) to develop a proper model of credit rating. From a technical perspective, the credit rating constitutes a typical, multiclass, classification problem because rating agencies generally have ten or more categories of ratings. For example, S&P's ratings range from AAA for the highest-quality bonds to D for the lowest-quality bonds. The professional rating agencies emphasize the importance of analysts' subjective judgments in the determination of credit ratings. However, in practice, a mathematical model that uses the financial variables of companies plays an important role in determining credit ratings, since it is convenient to apply and cost efficient. These financial variables include the ratios that represent a company's leverage status, liquidity status, and profitability status. Several statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been applied as tools for predicting credit ratings. Among them, artificial neural networks are most prevalent in the area of finance because of their broad applicability to many business problems and their preeminent ability to adapt. However, artificial neural networks also have many defects, including the difficulty in determining the values of the control parameters and the number of processing elements in the layer as well as the risk of over-fitting. Of late, because of their robustness and high accuracy, support vector machines (SVMs) have become popular as a solution for problems with generating accurate prediction. An SVM's solution may be globally optimal because SVMs seek to minimize structural risk. On the other hand, artificial neural network models may tend to find locally optimal solutions because they seek to minimize empirical risk. In addition, no parameters need to be tuned in SVMs, barring the upper bound for non-separable cases in linear SVMs. Since SVMs were originally devised for binary classification, however they are not intrinsically geared for multiclass classifications as in credit ratings. Thus, researchers have tried to extend the original SVM to multiclass classification. Hitherto, a variety of techniques to extend standard SVMs to multiclass SVMs (MSVMs) has been proposed in the literature Only a few types of MSVM are, however, tested using prior studies that apply MSVMs to credit ratings studies. In this study, we examined six different techniques of MSVMs: (1) One-Against-One, (2) One-Against-AIL (3) DAGSVM, (4) ECOC, (5) Method of Weston and Watkins, and (6) Method of Crammer and Singer. In addition, we examined the prediction accuracy of some modified version of conventional MSVM techniques. To find the most appropriate technique of MSVMs for corporate bond rating, we applied all the techniques of MSVMs to a real-world case of credit rating in Korea. The best application is in corporate bond rating, which is the most frequently studied area of credit rating for specific debt issues or other financial obligations. For our study the research data were collected from National Information and Credit Evaluation, Inc., a major bond-rating company in Korea. The data set is comprised of the bond-ratings for the year 2002 and various financial variables for 1,295 companies from the manufacturing industry in Korea. We compared the results of these techniques with one another, and with those of traditional methods for credit ratings, such as multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), multinomial logistic regression (MLOGIT), and artificial neural networks (ANNs). As a result, we found that DAGSVM with an ordered list was the best approach for the prediction of bond rating. In addition, we found that the modified version of ECOC approach can yield higher prediction accuracy for the cases showing clear patterns.

THREE DIMENTIONAL FORCE ANALYSIS OF FORCE SYSTEM IN CONTINUOUS ARCHWIRE BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD (CONTINUOUS ARCHWIRE의 FORCE SYSTEM에 대한 3차원 유한 요소법적 연구)

  • Row, Joon;Ryu, Young-Kyu
    • The korean journal of orthodontics
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    • v.26 no.1 s.54
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    • pp.17-32
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    • 1996
  • It is important to understand the operating mechanism and force system of fixed appliance that most effective for individual tooth movement in various orthodontic appliances. The archwire system of fixed appliance is devided into 3 types, which is continuous arch, segmented arch and sectional arch. The last two types have longer interbracket distance and simple force operating points, so it is easy to control force system by operator. But the continuous arch has shorter interbracket distance and various bracket geometry, so it is hard to control and anaylze the force system. The purpose of this study was three dimentional force and moment analysis of continuous arch system by finite element method, which is similar situation to three dimentional elastic beam in structural engineering. Several sample form of various bracket geometry and artificial lower crowding typodont made by author were constructed, analyzed and compared each other. The results were as follows : 1. The force magnitude is linear proportional to the degree of displacement or tilting of the bracket. 2. The force magnitude is inversely non-linear proportional to the interbracket distance. 3. In three dimensional typodont model, while the force can be compared with that of the sample form in the area where adjacent bracket geometry is simple, the force is much more than the expected value in the area where adjacent bracket geometry is complex.

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Characterization of Mineralogical Changes of Chrysotile and its Thermal Decomposition by Heat Treatment (열처리에 따른 백석면의 광물학적 특성 변화와 열분해 과정 연구)

  • Jeong, Hyeonyi;Moon, Wonjin;Roh, Yul
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.49 no.2
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    • pp.77-88
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    • 2016
  • Chrysotile is a 1:1 sheet silicate mineral belonging to serpentine group. It has been highlighted studies because of uses, shapes and structural characteristics of the fibrous chrysotile. However, it was designated as Class 1 carcinogen, so high attentions were being placed on detoxification studies of chrysotile. The objectives of this study were to investigate changes of mineralogical characteristics of chrysotile and to suggest detoxification mechanism of chrysotile by thermal decomposition. Samples for this study were obtained from LAB Chrysotile mine in Canada. The samples were heated in air in the range of 600 to $1,300^{\circ}C$. Changes of mineralogical characteristics such as crystal structure, shape, and chemical composition of the chrysotile fibers were examined by TG-DTA, XRD, FT-IR, TEM-EDS and SEM-EDS analyses. As a result of thermal decomposition, the fibrous chrysotile having hollow tube structure was dehydroxylated at $600-650^{\circ}C$ and transformed to disordered chrysotile by removal of OH at the octahedral sheet (MgOH) (Dehydroxylation 1). Upon increasing temperature, it was transformed to forsterite ($Mg_2SiO_4$) at $820^{\circ}C$ by rearrangement of Mg, Si and O (Dehydroxylation 2). In addition, crystal structure of forsterite had begun to transform at $800^{\circ}C$, and gradually grown 3-dimensionally to enstatite ($MgSiO_3$) by recrystallization after the heating above $1,100^{\circ}C$. And then finally transformed to spherical minerals. This study showed chrysotile structure was collapsed about $600-700^{\circ}C$ by dehydroxylation. And then the fibrous chrysotile was transformed to forsterite and enstatite, as non-hazardous minerals. Therefore, this study indicates heat treatment can be used to detoxification of chrysotile.