• Korean Business Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.53-80
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• 2006

This research has been accomplished to build up the growth strategies of Kangwon district's small & medium-sized construction firms. For this purpose, we made an investigation of the present situation and status for existing regional small & medium construction firms by analyzing data. Based on the results from this study, the following growth strategies are suggested to gain their competitive advantages. Firstly, most of all, the role of the top manager is the most important factor since most of the top manager for the small & medium-sized construction firms coincide with the owner the firms. Secondly, the specialization strategy is to establish. Above all they concentrate their business capacities on core business. Then, this growth strategy should be based on the selective escalation of functions in order to maintain an appropriate level of construction works. Thirdly, the specialized skills and skilled workers are ensured for competitive advantages. For human resource development, they should train workers to be multi-functioned on the assumption the they could stay at firm until they wish to retire. Finally, the government must also spare no effort to encourage the small & medium-sized construction firms to build up it's competitive power and cultivate it's spontaneous generation power though the reformation of system related whit the small and medium construction industry.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 2010

A privately held, third generation family owned company, Boom Technologies, Inc. (BTI), a provider of products and services to the electric utility, telecommunications and contractor markets, continues to make progress in exporting. Although export sales only equaled 5% of total revenue in 2008, BTI has an entire export division. Their export division's Managing Director reveals the trial and errors of a privately held company and their quest for success overseas. From its inception, BTI has always believed its greatest asset is its employees. When export sales struggled due to lack of strategy and direction, BTI hired a Managing Director for its export division. With leadership and guidance from BTI's president and from the Managing Director, they utilized the department's skills and knowledge. Structural changes were made to expand their market presence abroad and increase export sales. As a result, export sales increased four-fold, area managers in new countries were added and distribution networks were successfully cultivated. At times, revenue generation was difficult to determine due to the structure of the company. Therefore, in 1996, the export division was restructured as a limited liability company. This allowed the company to improve the tracking of revenue and expenses. Originally, 80% of BTI's export sales came from two countries; therefore, the initial approach to selling overseas was not reaching their anticipated goals of expanding their foreign market presence. However, changes were made and now the company manages the details of selling to over 80 countries. There were three major export expansion challenges noted by the Managing Director: 1. Product and Shipping - The major obstacle for BTI was product assembly. Originally, the majority of the product was assembled in the United States, which increased shipping and packaging costs. With so many parts specified in the order, many times the order would arrive with parts missing. The missing parts could equate to tens of thousands of dollars. Shipping these missing parts separately in another shipment also cost tens of thousands of dollar, plus a delivery delay time of six to eight weeks; all of which came out of the BTI's pockets. 2. Product Adaptation - Safety and product standards varied widely for each of the 80 countries to which BTI exported. Weights, special licenses, product specification requirements, measurement systems, and truck stability can all differ from country to country and can serve as a type of barrier to entry, making it difficult to adapt products accordingly. Technical and safety standards are barriers that serve as a type of protection for the local industry and can stand in the way of successfully pursuing foreign markets. 3. Marketing Challenges - The importance of distribution creates many challenges for BTI as they attempt to determine how each country prefers to operate with regard to their distribution systems. Some countries have competition from a small competitor that only produces one competing product; whereas BTI manufactures over 100 products. Marketing material is another concern for BTI as they attempt to push marketing costs to the distributors. Adapting the marketing material can be costly in terms of translation and cultural differences. In addition, the size of paper in the United States differs from those in some countries, causing many problems when attempting to copy the same layout and With distribution being one of several challenges for BTI, the company claims their distribution network is one of their competitive advantages, as the location and names of their distributors are not revealed. In addition, BTI rotates two offerings yearly: training to their distributors one year and then the next is a distributor's meeting. With a focus on product and shipping, product adaptation, and marketing challenges, the intricacies of selling overseas takes time and patience. Another competitive advantage noted is BTI's cradle to grave strategy, where they follow the product from sale to its final resting place, whether the truck is leased or purchased new or used. They also offer service and maintenance plans with a detailed cost analysis provided to the company prior to purchasing or leasing the product. Expanding abroad will always create challenges for a company. As the Managing Director stated, "If you don't have patience (in the export business), you better do something else." Knowing how to adapt quickly provides BTI with the skills necessary to adjust to the changing needs of each country and its own unique challenges, allowing them to remain competitive.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.113-139
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• 2007

This study aims to, looking from a standpoint of network, has investigated the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace, the characteristics that can earn electronic trust from the users, and characteristics of the web-site. It has examined the mechanism whereby electronic trust be earned and how it affects web-site involvement and service transaction intention. Ultimately, The study attempts to make proposals whereby such trust can lead for a cooperative trading community in the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace The Covalence structural equation modeling was designed and empirically tested for the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace. The shipping industry employees were given questionnaires and data were analyzed. Except for perceived security of the three characteristic factors on the web-site, the perceived site quality and characteristics factors in operation only affected co-variables. Transaction Fairness was determined to be the most important factor among exogenous factors increasing electronic trust. With regards to transaction rules, if a transaction is beneficial only to one side, then no long term transaction will not take place. If the concerned parties properly recognize that transaction fairness is crucial to electronic transaction, then it will enormously contribute to successful operations of shipping e-marketplace. Also, Perceived efficiency in transaction also affects electronic trust. This reduces transaction costs and speeds up and simplifies the transaction process. It has reduced greater time and costs than existing off-line transaction, and would positively affect electronic trust. By making an open forum for participants to obtain information for transaction, they can gather useful information, and at the same time, the web-site operator can provide information, which, in turn, will increase electronic trust in electronic transaction. Furthermore, such formation of trust in electronic transaction influences shipping companies in such a way that they will want to continuously participate in the transaction, raising web-site involvement. The result of increased trust is that shipping companies in the future will do business with each other and form a foundation for continuous transactions amongst themselves. Consequently, the formation of trust in electronic transaction greatly influences web-site involvement and service transaction intention. The results of the study have again proved that in order to maintain continuous business relationship with the current clients, electronic trust in virtual space, which operates the shipping industry's B2B e-marketplace, is important for the interested parties.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 2010

Objective: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the force and stress depending on the type, deflection and thickness of the materials and to evaluate the mechanical properties of thermoplastic materials after repeated loading. Methods: Four types of thermoplastic products were tested. Force until the deflections of 2.0 mm and the stress when the materials were restoring to its resting position were evaluated. The mechanical properties of thermoplastic materials evaluated after 5 repeated loading cycles. Results: The interaction was observed between the thickness and the deflection (p < 0.05) from the regression equation. Thickness and amount of deflection rather than products and materials showed the largest effect on force and stress. In all products, at least 159 gf of force was required for more than 1.0 mm deflection or when materials with 1.0 mm thickness were deflected. The stress recorded was more than 19 gf/$mm^2$. During repeated loading, each group showed significant difference on the force and the stress (p < 0.01), 10 - 17% reduction of force and 4 - 7% reduction of stress in average. Conclusions: Proper thickness of thermoplastic materials and deflection level of tooth movement should be decided for the physiologic tooth movement. Force decay after repeated loading should be considered for the efficient tooth movement.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2006

The first Japanese pilot-scale $CO_2$ sequestration project has been undertaken in an onshore saline aquifer, near Nagaoka in Niigata prefecture, and time-lapse well logs were carried out in observation wells to detect the arrival of injected $CO_2$ and to evaluate $CO_2$ saturation in the reservoir. $CO_2$ was injected into a thin permeable zone at the depth of 1110m at a rate of 20-40 tonnes per day. The total amount of injected $CO_2$ was 10400 tonnes, during the injection period from July 2003 to January 2005. The pilot-scale demonstration allowed an improved understanding of the $CO_2$ movement in a porous sandstone reservoir, by conducting time-lapse geophysical well logs at three observation wells. Comparison between neutron well logging before and after the insertion of fibreglass casing in observation well OB-2 showed good agreement within the target formation, and the higher concentration of shale volume in the reservoir results in a bigger difference between the two well logging results. $CO_2$ breakthrough was identified by induction, sonic, and neutron logs. By sonic logging, we confirmed P-wave velocity reduction that agreed fairly well with a laboratory measurement on drilled core samples from the Nagaoka site. We successfully matched the history changes of sonic P-wave velocity and estimated $CO_2$ saturation a(ter breakthrough in two observation wells out of three. The sonic-velocity history matching result suggested that the sweep efficiency was about 40%. Small effects of $CO_2$ saturation on resistivity resulted in small changes in induction logs when the reservoir was partially saturated. We also found that $CO_2$ saturation in the $CO_2$-bearing zone responded to suspension of $CO_2$ injection.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.397-406
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• 2015

ZnO, II-VI group inorganic compound semi-conductor, has been receiving much attention due to its wide applications in various fields. Since the ZnO has 3.37 eV of a wide band gap and 60 meV of big excitation binding energy, it is well-known material for various uses such the optical property, a semi-conductor, magnetism, antibiosis, photocatalyst, etc. When applied in the field of photocatalyst, many research studies have been actively conducted regarding magnetic materials and the core-shell structure to take on the need of recycling used materials. In this paper, magnetic core-shell ZnFe₂O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully synthesized through three steps. In order to analyze the structural characteristics of the synthesized substances, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used. The spinel structure of ZnFe₂O₄ and the wurtzite structure of ZnO were confirmed by XRD, and ZnO production rate was confirmed through the analysis of different concentrations of the precursors. The surface change of the synthesized materials was confirmed by SEM. The formation of SiO₂ layer and the synthesis of ZnFe₂O₄@ZnO@SiO₂ NPs were finally verified through the bond of Fe-O, Zn-O and Si-O-Si by FT-IR. The magnetic property of the synthesized materials was analyzed through the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The increase and decrease in the magnetism were respectively confirmed by the results of the formed ZnO and SiO₂ layer. The photocatalysis effect of the synthesized ZnFe₂O₄ @ZnO@SiO₂ NPs was experimented in a black box (dark room) using methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2007

A system to non-invasively fix and monitor eye by a head mounted display (HMD) with a CCD camera for stereotactic radiotherapy (SRS) of uveal melanoma has been developed and implemented clinically. The eye fixing and monitoring system consists of a HMD showing patient a screen for fixing eyeball, a CCD camera monitoring patient's eyeball, and an immobilization mask. At flrst, patient's head was immobilized with a mask. Then, patient was Instructed to wear HMD, to which CCD camera was attached, on the mask and see the given reference point on its screen. While patient stared at the given point in order to fix eyeball, the camera monitored Its motion. Four volunteers and one patient of uveal melanoma for SRS came into this study. For the volunteers, setup errors and the motion of eyeball were analyzed. For the patient, CT scans were peformed, with patient's wearing HMD and fixing the eye to the given point. To treat patient under the same condition, daily CT scans were also peformed before every treatment and the motion of lens was compared to the planning CT Setup errors for four volunteers were within 1mm and the motion of eyeball was fixed within the clinically acceptable ranges. For the patient with uveal melanoma, the motion of lens was fixed within 2mm from daily CT scans. An eye fixing and monitoring system allowed Immobilizing patient as well as monitoring eyeball and was successfully implemented in the treatment of uveal melanoma for SRS.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2008

Retinal prosthesis is regarded as the most feasible method for the blind caused by retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) or age related macular degeneration (AMD). Recently Korean consortium launched for developing retinal prosthesis. One of the prerequisites for the success of retinal prosthesis is the optimization of the electrical stimuli applied through the prosthesis. Since electrical characteristics of degenerate retina are expected to differ from those of normal retina, we performed voltage stimulation experiment both in normal and degenerate retina to provide a guideline for the optimization of electrical stimulation for the upcoming prosthesis. After isolation of retina, retinal patch was attached with the ganglion cell side facing the surface of microelectrode arrays (MEA). $8{\times}8$ grid layout MEA (electrode diameter: $30{\mu}m$, electrode spacing: $200{\mu}m$, and impedance: $50k{\Omega}$ at 1 kHz) was used to record in-vitro retinal ganglion cell activity. Mono-polar electrical stimulation was applied through one of the 60 MEA channel, and the remaining channels were used for recording. The electrical stimulus was a constant voltage, charge-balanced biphasic, anodic-first square wave pulse without interphase delay, and 50 trains of pulse was applied with a period of 2 sec. Different electrical stimuli were applied. First, pulse amplitude was varied (voltage: $0.5{\sim}3.0V$). Second, pulse duration was varied $(100{\sim}1,200{\mu}s)$. Evoked responses were analyzed by PSTH from averaged data with 50 trials. Charge density was calculated with Ohm's and Coulomb's law. In normal retina, by varying the pulse amplitude from 0.5 to 3V with fixed duration of $500{\mu}s$, the threshold level for reliable ganglion cell response was found at 1.5V. The calculated threshold of charge density was $2.123mC/cm^2$. By varying the pulse duration from 100 to $1,200{\mu}s$ with fixed amplitude of 2V, the threshold level was found at $300{\mu}s$. The calculated threhold of charge density was $1.698mC/cm^2$. Even after the block of ON-pathway with L-(1)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (APB), electrical stimulus evoked ganglion cell activities. In this APB-induced degenerate retina, by varying the pulse duration from 100 to $1200{\mu}s$ with fixed voltage of 2 V, the threshold level was found at $300{\mu}s$, which is the same with normal retina. More experiment with APB-induced degenerate retina is needed to make a clear comparison of threshold of charge density between normal and degenerate retina.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2008

Retinal prosthesis is regarded as the most feasible method for the blind caused by retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. One of the prerequisites for the success of retinal prosthesis is the optimization of the electrical stimuli applied through the prosthesis. Since electrical characteristics of degenerate retina are expected to differ from those of normal retina, we investigated differences of the retinal waveforms in normal and degenerate retina to provide a guideline for the optimization of electrical stimulation for the upcoming prosthesis. After isolation of retina, retinal patch was attached with the ganglion cell side facing the surface of microelectrode arrays (MEA). $8{\times}8$ grid layout MEA (electrode diameter: $30{\mu}m$, electrode spacing: $200{\mu}m$, and impedance: 50 $k{\Omega}$ at 1 kHz) was used to record in-vitro retinal ganglion cell activity. In normal mice (C57BL/6J strain) of postnatal day 28, only short duration (<2 ms) retinal spikes were recorded. In rd/rd mice (C3H/HeJ strain), besides normal spikes, waveform with longer duration (~100 ms), the slow wave component was recorded. We attempted to understand the mechanism of this slow wave component in degenerate retina using various synaptic blockers. We suggest that stronger glutamatergic input from bipolar cell to the ganglion cell in rd/rd mouse than normal mouse contributes the most to this slow wave component. Out of many degenerative changes, we favor elimination of the inhibitory horizontal input to bipolar cells as a main contributor for a relatively stronger input from bipolar cell to ganglion cell in rd/rd mouse.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.13-25
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• 2012

Ground anchor method is one of the most popular reinforcing technology for slope in Korea. For the health monitoring of slope which is reinforced by permanent anchor for a long period, monitoring of the tension force of ground anchor is very important. However, since electromechanical sensors such as strain gauge and V/W type load cell are also subject to long-term risk as well as suffering from noise during long distance transmission and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI), optical FBG sensors embedded tendon was developed to measure strain of 7-wire strand by embedding FBG sensor into the center king cable of 7-wire strand. This FBG sensors embedded tendon has been successfully applied to measuring the short-term anchor force. But to adopt this tendon to long-term monitoring, temperature compensation of the FBG sensors embedded tendon should be done. In this paper, we described how to compensate the effect in compliance with the change of underground temperature during long-term tension force monitoring of ground anchors by using optical fiber sensors (FBG: Fiber Bragg Grating). The model test was carried out to determine the temperature sensitivity coefficient (${\beta}^{\prime}$) of FBG sensors embedded tendon. The determined temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}=2.0{\times}10^{-5}/^{\circ}C$ was verified by comparing the ground temperatures predicted from the proposed sensor using ${\beta}^{\prime}$ with ground temperatures measured from ground thermometer. Finally, temperature compensations were carried out based on ${\beta}^{\prime}$ value and ground temperature measurement from KMA for the tension force monitoring results of tension type and compression type anchors, which had been installed more than 1 year before at the test site. Temperature compensated tension forces are compared with those measured from conventional load cell during the same measuring time. Test results show that determined temperature sensitivity coefficient (${\beta}^{\prime}$) of FBG sensors embedded tendon is valid and proposed temperature compensation method is also appropriate from the fact that the temperature compensated tension forces are not dependent on the change of ground temperature and are consistent with the tension forces measured from the conventional load cell.