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A Study on the Investigation of Sanitary Knowledge and Practice Level of School Foodservice Employees in Jeonju (전주지역 학교급식 조리종사자의 위생지식 및 위생관리 수행에 관한 연구)

  • Han, Eun-Hui;Yang, Hyang-Sook;Shon, Hee-Sook;Rho, Jeong-Ok
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.34 no.8
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    • pp.1210-1218
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    • 2005
  • This study was to investigate the sanitary knowledge and its practice level of school foodservice employees in Jeonju area. A total of 508 questionnaires were usable; resulting in 79.0$\%$ response rate. Statistics data analysis was completed using the SPSS 10.0 program. The results of this study were summarized as follow : About 62$\%$ of school foodservice employees were 41 $\∼$50 years old and 84$\%$ of them had a irregular job and they had a sanitation training at least once a month. The school foodservice employees had more knowledge about 'personal hygiene' than that about 'equipment and facilities sanitation', 'foodborn disease and food microorganism' Their hygiene practice level were high for 'equipment and facilities sanitation' (4.90$\pm$0.25) and were lesser in the order from 'foodborn disease and food microorganism'(4.86$\pm$0.30), 'personal sanitation'(4.79$\pm$0.34) and the least for food processing hygiene (4.70$\pm$0.37). As a result of relationship between knowledge and hygiene practice level, knowledge of school foodservice employees was not influenced on tile hygiene practice level during their working.

Dietary Habits and Foodservice Attitudes of Students Attending American International Schools in Seoul and Gyeonggi Area (서울.경기지역 외국인 학교 학생들의 식습관 및 급식만족도 -미국계 외국인 학교를 중심으로-)

  • Kim, Ok-Sun;Lee, Young-Eun
    • Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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    • v.22 no.6
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    • pp.744-757
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    • 2012
  • This study was designed to obtain basic data for the globalization of Korean food and the expansion of food exports through contract foodservices. A survey of dietary habits and attitudes toward school foodservices was given to students in three American international schools served by a domestic contract foodservice management company located in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. The results showed an average of three meals taken daily 3.39 times for male students and 2.95 times for female students and the time required for a meal was about 24~26 minutes. The average breakfast frequency was 5.10 times(4.59 times for male students and 5.35 times for female students) and many students reported skipping breakfast due to a lack of time. The average weekly frequency of dining out was 1.78 times(2.15 times for male students and 1.60 times for female students). In all schools, irrespective of gender and grade, students responded that a desire for snacking was 'why they want to have cookies', and snacking hours were frequently listed as 'between noon and evening'. Many also responded that an unbalanced diet is the reason some snacks are 'not to their taste'. Overall, students were highly satisfied with the foodservice menu, although there was a significant difference in what was considered proper food temperature, proper food seasoning, suitable amounts of food, and freshness of food. Male and female students were specifically highly satisfied with the 'freshness of food materials' and 'variety of menu' respectively. Overall, all students were highly satisfied with the foodservice, including the 'cleanliness of tables and trays'.

A THREE-DIMENSIONAL FEM COMPARISON STUDY ABOUT THE FORCE, DISPLACEMENT AND INITIAL STRESS DISTRIBUTION ON THE MAXILLARY FIRST MOLARS BY THE APPLICATION OF VAR10US ASYMMETRIC HEAD-GEAR (비대칭 헤드기어의 적용시 상악제 1 대구치에 나타나는힘과 변위 및 초기 응력분포에 관한 3차원 유한요소법적 연구)

  • Kim, Jong-Soo;Cha, Dyung-Suk;Ju, Jin-Won;Lee, Jin-Woo
    • The korean journal of orthodontics
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    • v.31 no.1 s.84
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    • pp.25-38
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    • 2001
  • The purpose of this study was to compare the force, the displacement and the stress distribution on the maxillary first molars altered by the application of various asymmetric head-gear. For this study, the finite element models of unilateral Cl II maxillary dental arch was made. Also, the finite element models of asymmetric face-bow was made. Three types of asymmetric face-bow were made : each of the right side 15mm, 25mm and 35mm shorter than the left side. We compared the forces, the displacement and the distribution of stress that were generated by application of various asymmetric head-gear, The results were as follows. 1. The total forces that both maxillary first molars received were similar in all groups. But the forces that mesially positioned tooth received were increased as the length of the outer-bow shortened, and the forces that normally positioned tooth received were decreased as the length of the outer-bow shortened. 2. In lateral force comparison, the buccal forces that normally positioned tooth received were increased as the length of the outer-bow shortened, and the buccal fortes that mesially positioned tooth received were decreased as the length of the outer-bow shortened. Though the net lateral force moved to the buccal side of normally positioned tooth as the length of the outer-bow shortened, both maxillary first molars received the buccal force. That showed 'Avchiai Expansion Effect' 3. The distal forces, the extrusion forces and the magnitudes of the crown distal tipping that mesially positioned tooth received were increased as the length of the outer-bow shortened, and the forces that normally positioned tooth received were decreased as the length of the outer-bow was shortened. 4. The magnitude of the distal-in rotation that normally positioned tooth received were increased as the length of the outer-bow was shortened. But, mesially positioned tooth show two different results. For the outer-bow 15mm shortened, mesially positioned tooth showed the distal-in rotation, hut for the outer-bow 25mm and 35mn shortened, mesially positioned tooth showed the distal-out rotation. Thus, the turning point exists between 15mm and 25mm. 5. This study of the initial stress distribution of the periodontal ligament at slightly inferior of the furcation area revealed that the compressive stress in the distobuccal root of the normally positioned tooth moved from the palatal side to the distal side and the buccal side successively as the length of the outer-bow shortened. 6. This study of the initial stress distribution of the periodontal ligament at slightly inferior of the furcation area revealed that the magnitudes of stress were altered but the total stress distributions were not altered in the mesiobuccal root and the palatal root of normally positioned tooth, and also three roots of mesially positioned tooth as the length of the outer-bow shortened.

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The Jurisdictional Precedent Analysis of Medical Dispute in Dental Field (치과임상영역에서 발생된 의료분쟁의 판례분석)

  • Kwon, Byung-Ki;Ahn, Hyoung-Joon;Kang, Jin-Kyu;Kim, Chong-Youl;Choi, Jong-Hoon
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.31 no.4
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    • pp.283-296
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    • 2006
  • Along with the development of scientific technologies, health care has been growing remarkably, and as the social life quality improves with increasing interest in health, the demand for medical service is rapidly increasing. However, medical accident and medical dispute also are rapidly increasing due to various factors such as, increasing sense of people's right, lack of understanding in the nature of medical practice, over expectation on medical technique, commercialize medical supply system, moral degeneracy and unawareness of medical jurisprudence by doctors, widespread trend of mutual distrust, and lack of systematized device for solution of medical dispute. This study analysed 30 cases of civil suit in the year between 1994 to 2004, which were selected among the medical dispute cases in dental field with the judgement collected from organizations related to dentistry and department of oral medicine, Yonsei university dental hospital. The following results were drawn from the analyses: 1. The distribution of year showed rapid increase of medical dispute after the year 2000. 2. In the types of medical dispute, suit associated with tooth extraction took 36.7% of all. 3. As for the cause of medical dispute, uncomfortable feeling and dissatisfaction with the treatment showed 36.7%, death and permanent damage showed 16.7% each. 4. Winning the suit, compulsory mediation and recommendation for settlement took 60.0% of judgement result for the plaintiff. 5. For the type of medical organization in relation to medical dispute, 60.0% was found to be the private dental clinics, and 30.0% was university dental hospitals. 6. For the level of trial, dispute that progressed above 2 or 3 trials was of 30.0%. 7. For the amount of claim for damage, the claim amounting between 50 million to 100 million won was of 36.7%, and that of more than 100 million won was 13.3%, and in case of the judgement amount, the amount ranging from 10 million to 30 million won was of 40.0%, and that of more than 100 million won was of 6.7%. 8. For the number of dentist involved in the suit, 26.7% was of 2 or more dentists. 9. For the amount of time spent until the judgement, 46.7% took 11 to 20 months, and 36.7% took 21 to 30 months. 10. For medical malpractice, 46.7% was judged to be guilty, and 70% of the cases had undergone medical judgement or verification of the case by specialists during the process of the suit. 11. In the lost cases of doctors(18 cases), 72.2% was due to violence of carefulness in practice and 16.7% was due to missing of explanation to patient. Medical disputes occurring in the field of dentistry are usually of relatively less risky cases. Hence, the importance of explanation to patient is emphasized, and since the levels of patient satisfaction are subjective, improvement of the relationship between the patient and the dentist and recovery of autonomy within the group dentist are essential in addition to the reduction of technical malpractice. Moreover, management measure against the medical dispute should be set up through complement of the current doctors and hospitals medical malpractice insurance which is being conducted irrationally, and establishment of system in which education as well as consultation for medical disputes lead by the group of dental clinicians and academic scholars are accessible.

3-D Finite element stress analysis in screw-type, cement-type, and combined-type implant fixed partial denture designs (임플란트 상부보철물의 유지형태에 따른 3차원 유한요소 응력분석)

  • Lee, Sung-Chun;Kim, Seok-Gyu
    • The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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    • v.47 no.4
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    • pp.365-375
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    • 2009
  • Statement of problems: Stress analysis on implant components of the combined screw- and cement-retained implant prosthesis has not investigated yet. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the load distribution characteristics of implant prostheses with the different prosthodontic retention types, such as cement-type, screw-type and combined type by using 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Material and methods: A 3-dimensional finite element model was created in which two SS II implants (Osstem Co. Ltd.) were placed in the areas of the first premolar and the first molar in the mandible, and three-unit fixed partial dentures with four different retention types were fabricated on the two SS II implants. Model 1 was a cement-retained implant restoration made on two cement-retained type abutments (Comocta abutment; Osstem Co. Ltd.), and Model 2 was a screw-retained implant restoration made on the screw-retained type abutments (Octa abutment; Osstem Co. Ltd.). Model 3 was a combined type implant restoration made on the cement-retained type abutment (Comocta abutment) for the first molar and the screw-retained type abutment (Octa abutment) for the first premolar. Lastly, Model 4 was a combined type implant restoration made on the screw-retained type abutment (Octa abutment) for the first molar and the cement-retained type abutment (Comocta abutment) for the first premolar. Average masticatory force was applied on the central fossa in a vertical direction, and on the buccal cusp in a vertical and oblique direction for each model. Von-Mises stress patterns on alveolar bone, implant body, abutment, abutment screw, and prosthetic screw around implant prostheses were evaluated through 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Results: Model 2 showed the lowest von Mises stress. In all models, the von Mises stress distribution of cortical bone, cancellous bone and implant body showed the similar pattern. Regardless of loading conditions and type of abutment system, the stress of bone was concentrated on the cortical bone. The von-Mises stress on abutment, abutment screw, and prosthetic screw showed the lower values for the screw-retained type abutment than for the cement-retained type abutment regardless of the model type. There was little reciprocal effect of the abutment system between the molar and the premolar position. For all models, buccal cusp oblique loading caused the largest stress, followed by buccal cusp vertical loading and center vertical loading. Conclusion: Within the limitation of the FEA study, the combined type implant prosthesis did not demonstrate more stress around implant components than the cement type implant prosthesis. Under the assumption of ideal passive fit, the screw-type implant prosthesis showed the east stress around implant components.

Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Indices between Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Primary Insomnia (폐쇄성 수면무호흡 증후군과 일차성 불면증에서 심박동률 변이도 지수의 비교)

  • Nam, Ji-Won;Park, Doo-Heum;Yu, Jaehak;Ryu, Seung-Ho;Ha, Ji-Hyeon
    • Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.68-76
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    • 2012
  • Objectives: Sleep disorders cause changes of autonomic nervous system (ANS) which affect cardiovascular system. Primary insomnia (PI) makes acceleration of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) tone by sleep deficiency and arousal. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) sets off SNS by frequent arousals and hypoxemias during sleep. We aimed to compare the changes of heart rate variability (HRV) indices induced by insomnia or sleep apnea to analyze for ANS how much to be affected by PI or OSAS. Methods: Total 315 subjects carried out nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) were categorized into 4 groups - PI, mild, moderate and severe OSAS. Severity of OSAS was determined by apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). Then we selected 110 subjects considering age, sex and valance of each group's size [Group 1 : PI (mean age=$41.50{\pm}13.16$ yrs, AHI <5, n=20), Group 2 : mild OSAS (mean age=$43.67{\pm}12.11$ yrs, AHI 5-15, n=30), Group 3 : moderate OSAS (mean age $44.93{\pm}12.38$ yrs, AHI 16-30, n=30), Group 4 : severe OSAS (mean age=$45.87{\pm}12.44$ yrs, AHI >30, n=30)]. Comparison of HRV indices among the four groups was performed with ANCOVA (adjusted for age and body mass index) and Sidak post-hoc test. Results: We found statistically significant differences in HRV indices between severe OSAS group and the other groups (PI, mild OSAS and moderate OSAS). And there were no significant differences in HRV indices among PI, mild and moderate OSAS group. In HRV indices of PI and severe OSAS group showing the most prominent difference in the group comparisons, average RR interval were $991.1{\pm}27.1$ and $875.8{\pm}22.0$ ms (p=0.016), standard deviation of NN interval (SDNN) was $85.4{\pm}6.6$ and $112.8{\pm}5.4$ ms (p=0.022), SDNN index was $57.5{\pm}5.2$ and $87.6{\pm}4.2$ (p<0.001), total power was $11,893.5{\pm}1,359.9$ and $18,097.0{\pm}1,107.2ms^2$(p=0.008), very low frequency (VLF) was $7,534.8{\pm}1,120.1$ and $11,883.8{\pm}912.0ms^2$ (p=0.035), low frequency (LF) was $2,724.2{\pm}327.8$ and $4,351.6{\pm}266.9ms^2$(p=0.003). Conclusions: VLF and LF which were correlated with SNS tone showed more increased differences between severe OSAS group and PI group than other group comparisons. We could suggest that severe OSAS group was more influential to increased SNS activity than PI group.

Case Analysis of the Promotion Methodologies in the Smart Exhibition Environment (스마트 전시 환경에서 프로모션 적용 사례 및 분석)

  • Moon, Hyun Sil;Kim, Nam Hee;Kim, Jae Kyeong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.171-183
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    • 2012
  • In the development of technologies, the exhibition industry has received much attention from governments and companies as an important way of marketing activities. Also, the exhibitors have considered the exhibition as new channels of marketing activities. However, the growing size of exhibitions for net square feet and the number of visitors naturally creates the competitive environment for them. Therefore, to make use of the effective marketing tools in these environments, they have planned and implemented many promotion technics. Especially, through smart environment which makes them provide real-time information for visitors, they can implement various kinds of promotion. However, promotions ignoring visitors' various needs and preferences can lose the original purposes and functions of them. That is, as indiscriminate promotions make visitors feel like spam, they can't achieve their purposes. Therefore, they need an approach using STP strategy which segments visitors through right evidences (Segmentation), selects the target visitors (Targeting), and give proper services to them (Positioning). For using STP Strategy in the smart exhibition environment, we consider these characteristics of it. First, an exhibition is defined as market events of a specific duration, which are held at intervals. According to this, exhibitors who plan some promotions should different events and promotions in each exhibition. Therefore, when they adopt traditional STP strategies, a system can provide services using insufficient information and of existing visitors, and should guarantee the performance of it. Second, to segment automatically, cluster analysis which is generally used as data mining technology can be adopted. In the smart exhibition environment, information of visitors can be acquired in real-time. At the same time, services using this information should be also provided in real-time. However, many clustering algorithms have scalability problem which they hardly work on a large database and require for domain knowledge to determine input parameters. Therefore, through selecting a suitable methodology and fitting, it should provide real-time services. Finally, it is needed to make use of data in the smart exhibition environment. As there are useful data such as booth visit records and participation records for events, the STP strategy for the smart exhibition is based on not only demographical segmentation but also behavioral segmentation. Therefore, in this study, we analyze a case of the promotion methodology which exhibitors can provide a differentiated service to segmented visitors in the smart exhibition environment. First, considering characteristics of the smart exhibition environment, we draw evidences of segmentation and fit the clustering methodology for providing real-time services. There are many studies for classify visitors, but we adopt a segmentation methodology based on visitors' behavioral traits. Through the direct observation, Veron and Levasseur classify visitors into four groups to liken visitors' traits to animals (Butterfly, fish, grasshopper, and ant). Especially, because variables of their classification like the number of visits and the average time of a visit can estimate in the smart exhibition environment, it can provide theoretical and practical background for our system. Next, we construct a pilot system which automatically selects suitable visitors along the objectives of promotions and instantly provide promotion messages to them. That is, based on the segmentation of our methodology, our system automatically selects suitable visitors along the characteristics of promotions. We adopt this system to real exhibition environment, and analyze data from results of adaptation. As a result, as we classify visitors into four types through their behavioral pattern in the exhibition, we provide some insights for researchers who build the smart exhibition environment and can gain promotion strategies fitting each cluster. First, visitors of ANT type show high response rate for promotion messages except experience promotion. So they are fascinated by actual profits in exhibition area, and dislike promotions requiring a long time. Contrastively, visitors of GRASSHOPPER type show high response rate only for experience promotion. Second, visitors of FISH type appear favors to coupon and contents promotions. That is, although they don't look in detail, they prefer to obtain further information such as brochure. Especially, exhibitors that want to give much information for limited time should give attention to visitors of this type. Consequently, these promotion strategies are expected to give exhibitors some insights when they plan and organize their activities, and grow the performance of them.

Term Mapping Methodology between Everyday Words and Legal Terms for Law Information Search System (법령정보 검색을 위한 생활용어와 법률용어 간의 대응관계 탐색 방법론)

  • Kim, Ji Hyun;Lee, Jong-Seo;Lee, Myungjin;Kim, Wooju;Hong, June Seok
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.137-152
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    • 2012
  • In the generation of Web 2.0, as many users start to make lots of web contents called user created contents by themselves, the World Wide Web is overflowing by countless information. Therefore, it becomes the key to find out meaningful information among lots of resources. Nowadays, the information retrieval is the most important thing throughout the whole field and several types of search services are developed and widely used in various fields to retrieve information that user really wants. Especially, the legal information search is one of the indispensable services in order to provide people with their convenience through searching the law necessary to their present situation as a channel getting knowledge about it. The Office of Legislation in Korea provides the Korean Law Information portal service to search the law information such as legislation, administrative rule, and judicial precedent from 2009, so people can conveniently find information related to the law. However, this service has limitation because the recent technology for search engine basically returns documents depending on whether the query is included in it or not as a search result. Therefore, it is really difficult to retrieve information related the law for general users who are not familiar with legal terms in the search engine using simple matching of keywords in spite of those kinds of efforts of the Office of Legislation in Korea, because there is a huge divergence between everyday words and legal terms which are especially from Chinese words. Generally, people try to access the law information using everyday words, so they have a difficulty to get the result that they exactly want. In this paper, we propose a term mapping methodology between everyday words and legal terms for general users who don't have sufficient background about legal terms, and we develop a search service that can provide the search results of law information from everyday words. This will be able to search the law information accurately without the knowledge of legal terminology. In other words, our research goal is to make a law information search system that general users are able to retrieval the law information with everyday words. First, this paper takes advantage of tags of internet blogs using the concept for collective intelligence to find out the term mapping relationship between everyday words and legal terms. In order to achieve our goal, we collect tags related to an everyday word from web blog posts. Generally, people add a non-hierarchical keyword or term like a synonym, especially called tag, in order to describe, classify, and manage their posts when they make any post in the internet blog. Second, the collected tags are clustered through the cluster analysis method, K-means. Then, we find a mapping relationship between an everyday word and a legal term using our estimation measure to select the fittest one that can match with an everyday word. Selected legal terms are given the definite relationship, and the relations between everyday words and legal terms are described using SKOS that is an ontology to describe the knowledge related to thesauri, classification schemes, taxonomies, and subject-heading. Thus, based on proposed mapping and searching methodologies, our legal information search system finds out a legal term mapped with user query and retrieves law information using a matched legal term, if users try to retrieve law information using an everyday word. Therefore, from our research, users can get exact results even if they do not have the knowledge related to legal terms. As a result of our research, we expect that general users who don't have professional legal background can conveniently and efficiently retrieve the legal information using everyday words.

Analyzing the User Intention of Booth Recommender System in Smart Exhibition Environment (스마트 전시환경에서 부스 추천시스템의 사용자 의도에 관한 조사연구)

  • Choi, Jae Ho;Xiang, Jun-Yong;Moon, Hyun Sil;Choi, Il Young;Kim, Jae Kyeong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.153-169
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    • 2012
  • Exhibitions have played a key role of effective marketing activity which directly informs services and products to current and potential customers. Through participating in exhibitions, exhibitors have got the opportunity to make face-to-face contact so that they can secure the market share and improve their corporate images. According to this economic importance of exhibitions, show organizers try to adopt a new IT technology for improving their performance, and researchers have also studied services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors through analyzing visit patterns of visitors. Especially, as smart technologies make them monitor activities of visitors in real-time, they have considered booth recommender systems which infer preference of visitors and recommender proper service to them like on-line environment. However, while there are many studies which can improve their performance in the side of new technological development, they have not considered the choice factor of visitors for booth recommender systems. That is, studies for factors which can influence the development direction and effective diffusion of these systems are insufficient. Most of prior studies for the acceptance of new technologies and the continuous intention of use have adopted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM). Booth recommender systems may not be new technology because they are similar with commercial recommender systems such as book recommender systems, in the smart exhibition environment, they can be considered new technology. However, for considering the smart exhibition environment beyond TAM, measurements for the intention of reuse should focus on how booth recommender systems can provide correct information to visitors. In this study, through literature reviews, we draw factors which can influence the satisfaction and reuse intention of visitors for booth recommender systems, and design a model to forecast adaptation of visitors for booth recommendation in the exhibition environment. For these purposes, we conduct a survey for visitors who attended DMC Culture Open in November 2011 and experienced booth recommender systems using own smart phone, and examine hypothesis by regression analysis. As a result, factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors for booth recommender systems are the effectiveness, perceived ease of use, argument quality, serendipity, and so on. Moreover, the satisfaction for booth recommender systems has a positive relationship with the development of reuse intention. For these results, we have some insights for booth recommender systems in the smart exhibition environment. First, this study gives shape to important factors which are considered when they establish strategies which induce visitors to consistently use booth recommender systems. Recently, although show organizers try to improve their performances using new IT technologies, their visitors have not felt the satisfaction from these efforts. At this point, this study can help them to provide services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors and make them last relationship with visitors. On the other hands, this study suggests that they managers along the using time of booth recommender systems. For example, in the early stage of the adoption, they should focus on the argument quality, perceived ease of use, and serendipity, so that improve the acceptance of booth recommender systems. After these stages, they should bridge the differences between expectation and perception for booth recommender systems, and lead continuous uses of visitors. However, this study has some limitations. We only use four factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors. Therefore, we should development our model to consider important additional factors. And the exhibition in our experiments has small number of booths so that visitors may not need to booth recommender systems. In the future study, we will conduct experiments in the exhibition environment which has a larger scale.

Resolving the 'Gray sheep' Problem Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Collaborative Filtering (CF) Recommender Systems (소셜 네트워크 분석 기법을 활용한 협업필터링의 특이취향 사용자(Gray Sheep) 문제 해결)

  • Kim, Minsung;Im, Il
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.137-148
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    • 2014
  • Recommender system has become one of the most important technologies in e-commerce in these days. The ultimate reason to shop online, for many consumers, is to reduce the efforts for information search and purchase. Recommender system is a key technology to serve these needs. Many of the past studies about recommender systems have been devoted to developing and improving recommendation algorithms and collaborative filtering (CF) is known to be the most successful one. Despite its success, however, CF has several shortcomings such as cold-start, sparsity, gray sheep problems. In order to be able to generate recommendations, ordinary CF algorithms require evaluations or preference information directly from users. For new users who do not have any evaluations or preference information, therefore, CF cannot come up with recommendations (Cold-star problem). As the numbers of products and customers increase, the scale of the data increases exponentially and most of the data cells are empty. This sparse dataset makes computation for recommendation extremely hard (Sparsity problem). Since CF is based on the assumption that there are groups of users sharing common preferences or tastes, CF becomes inaccurate if there are many users with rare and unique tastes (Gray sheep problem). This study proposes a new algorithm that utilizes Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques to resolve the gray sheep problem. We utilize 'degree centrality' in SNA to identify users with unique preferences (gray sheep). Degree centrality in SNA refers to the number of direct links to and from a node. In a network of users who are connected through common preferences or tastes, those with unique tastes have fewer links to other users (nodes) and they are isolated from other users. Therefore, gray sheep can be identified by calculating degree centrality of each node. We divide the dataset into two, gray sheep and others, based on the degree centrality of the users. Then, different similarity measures and recommendation methods are applied to these two datasets. More detail algorithm is as follows: Step 1: Convert the initial data which is a two-mode network (user to item) into an one-mode network (user to user). Step 2: Calculate degree centrality of each node and separate those nodes having degree centrality values lower than the pre-set threshold. The threshold value is determined by simulations such that the accuracy of CF for the remaining dataset is maximized. Step 3: Ordinary CF algorithm is applied to the remaining dataset. Step 4: Since the separated dataset consist of users with unique tastes, an ordinary CF algorithm cannot generate recommendations for them. A 'popular item' method is used to generate recommendations for these users. The F measures of the two datasets are weighted by the numbers of nodes and summed to be used as the final performance metric. In order to test performance improvement by this new algorithm, an empirical study was conducted using a publically available dataset - the MovieLens data by GroupLens research team. We used 100,000 evaluations by 943 users on 1,682 movies. The proposed algorithm was compared with an ordinary CF algorithm utilizing 'Best-N-neighbors' and 'Cosine' similarity method. The empirical results show that F measure was improved about 11% on average when the proposed algorithm was used

    . Past studies to improve CF performance typically used additional information other than users' evaluations such as demographic data. Some studies applied SNA techniques as a new similarity metric. This study is novel in that it used SNA to separate dataset. This study shows that performance of CF can be improved, without any additional information, when SNA techniques are used as proposed. This study has several theoretical and practical implications. This study empirically shows that the characteristics of dataset can affect the performance of CF recommender systems. This helps researchers understand factors affecting performance of CF. This study also opens a door for future studies in the area of applying SNA to CF to analyze characteristics of dataset. In practice, this study provides guidelines to improve performance of CF recommender systems with a simple modification.


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