• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.61-95
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• 2007

Small-and-medium sized enterprises(SMEs) represent quite a large proportion of the industry as a whole in terms of the number of enterprises or employees. However researches on information system so far have focused on large companies, probably because SMEs were not so active in introducing information systems as larger enterprises. SMEs are now increasingly bringing in information systems such as ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning Systems) and some of the companies already entered the stage of ongoing use. Accordingly, researches should deal with the use of information systems by SME s operating under different conditions from large companies. This study examined factors and mechanism inducing faithful appropriation of information systems, in particular integrative systems such as ERP, in view of individuals` active feedback-seeking behavior. There are three factors expected to affect end users` feedback-seeking behavior for faithful appropriation of information systems. They are management support, peer IT champ support, and IT staff support. The main focus of the study is on how these factors affect feedback-seeking behavior and whether the feedback-seeking behavior plays the role of mediator for realizing faithful appropriation of information systems by end users. To examine the research model and the hypotheses, this study employed an empirical method based on a field survey. The survey used measurements mostly employed and verified by previous researches, while some of the measurements had gone through minor modifications for the purpose of the study. The survey respondents are individual employees of SMEs that have been using ERP for one year or longer. To prevent common method bias, Task-Technology Fit items used as the control variable were made to be answered by different respondents. In total, 127 pairs of valid questionnaires were collected and used for the analysis. The PLS(Partial Least Squares) approach to structural equation modeling(PLS-Graph v.3.0) was used as our data analysis strategy because of its ability to model both formative and reflective latent constructs under small-and medium-size samples. The analysis shows Reliability, Construct Validity and Discriminant Validity are appropriate. The path analysis results are as follows; first, the more there is peer IT champ support, the more the end user is likely to show feedback-seeking behavior(path-coefficient=0.230, t=2.28, p<0.05). In other words, if colleagues proficient in information system use recognize the importance of their help, pass on what they have found to be an effective way of using the system or correct others' misuse, ordinary end users will be able to seek feedback on the faithfulness of their appropriation of information system without hesitation, because they know the convenience of getting help. Second, management support encourages ordinary end users to seek more feedback(path-coefficient=0.271, t=3.06, p<0.01) by affecting the end users' perceived value of feedback(path-coefficient=0.401, t=6.01, p<0.01). Management support is far more influential than other factors that when the management of an SME well understands the benefit of ERP, promotes its faithful appropriation and pays attention to employees' satisfaction with the system, employees will make deliberate efforts for faithful appropriation of the system. However, the third factor, IT staff support was found not to be conducive to feedback-seeking behavior from end users(path-coefficient=0.174, t=1.83). This is partly attributable to the fundamental reason that there is little support for end users from IT staff in SMEs. Even when IT staff provides support, end users may find it less important than that from coworkers more familiar with the end users' job. Meanwhile, the more end users seek feedback and attempt to find ways of faithful appropriation of information systems, the more likely the users will be able to deploy the system according to the purpose the system was originally meant for(path-coefficient=0.35, t=2.88, p<0.01). Finally, the mediation effect analysis confirmed the mediation effect of feedback-seeking behavior. By confirming the mediation effect of feedback-seeking behavior, this study draws attention to the importance of feedback-seeking behavior that has long been overlooked in research about information system use. This study also explores the factors that promote feedback-seeking behavior which in result could affect end user`s faithful appropriation of information systems. In addition, this study provides insight about which inducements or resources SMEs should offer to promote individual users' feedback-seeking behavior when formal and sufficient support from IT staff or an outside information system provider is hardly expected. As the study results show, under the business environment of SMEs, help from skilled colleagues and the management plays a critical role. Therefore, SMEs should seriously consider how to utilize skilled peer information system users, while the management should pay keen attention to end users and support them to make the most of information systems.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1234-1268
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• 2004

A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering in 2002 and 2003 has been carried out. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, air-conditioning, ventilation, sanitation and building environment/design. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of fundamental studies on fluid flow were related with heat transportation in diverse facilities. Drop formation and rivulet flow on solid surfaces were interesting topics related with condensation augmentation. Research on micro environment considering flow, heat transfer, humidity was also interesting to promote comfortable living environment. It can be extended considering biological aspects. Development of fans and blowers of high performance and low noise were continuing research topics. Well developed CFD technologies were widely applied for analysis and design of various facilities and their systems. (2) Heat transfer characteristics of enhanced finned tube heat exchangers and heat sinks were extensively investigated. Experimental studies on the boiling heat transfer, vortex generators, fluidized bed heat exchangers, and frosting and defrosting characteristics were also conducted. In addition, the numerical simulations on various heat exchangers were performed and reported to show heat transfer characteristics and performance of the heat exchanger. (3) A review of the recent studies shows that the performance analysis of heat pump have been made by various simulations and experiments. Progresses have been made specifically on the multi-type heat pump systems and other heat pump systems in which exhaust energy is utilized. The performance characteristics of heat pipe have been studied numerically and experimentally, which proves the validity of the developed simulation programs. The effect of various factors on the heat pipe performance has also been examined. Studies of the ice storage system have been focused on the operational characteristics of the system and on the basics of thermal storage materials. Researches into the phase change have been carried out steadily. Several papers deal with the cycle analysis of a few thermodynamic systems which are very useful in the field of air-conditioning and refrigeration. (4) Recent studies on refrigeration and air-conditioning systems have focused on the system performance and efficiency enhancement when new alternative refrigerants are applied. Heat transfer characteristics during evaporation and condensation are investigated for several tube shapes and new alternative refrigerants including natural refrigerants. Efficiency of various compressors and performance of new expansion devices are also dealt with for better design of refrigeration/air conditioning system. In addition to the studies related with thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures, studies on new refrigerants are also carried out. It should be noted that the researches on two-phase flow are constantly carried out. (5) A review of the recent studies on absorption refrigeration system indicates that heat and mass transfer enhancement is the key factor in improving the system performance. Various experiments have been carried out and diverse simulation models have been presented. Study on the small scale absorption refrigeration system draws a new attention. Cooling tower was also the research object in the respect of enhancement its efficiency, and performance analysis and optimization was carried out. (6) Based on a review of recent studies on indoor thermal environment and building service systems, it is noticed that research issues have mainly focused on several innovative systems such as personal environmental modules, air-barrier type perimeterless system with UFAC, radiant floor cooling system, etc. New approaches are highlighted for improving indoor environmental conditions and minimizing energy consumption, various activities of building energy management and cost-benefit analysis for economic evaluation.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.149-175
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to analyze the overall problems at the moment of October 2008, and then to find the improvements of home-help services of the Long-Term Care Insurance(LTCI), which has been revealed many problems since it was released in July 2008. The research uses the literature survey which analyzes 2nd-hand materials studied by other people already, and survey research was executed from active social workers in the area of LTCI. Based on the policy analysis framework of Gilbert and Specht, all the data are analyzed in the scopes of client·benefit(service)·finance·transferring system. This research has found the problems in each scope of home-help services of the LTCI. Firstly, the client system has some problems in mismatching between registered and service clients, estimating client number, and judging service levels. Secondly, the service system reveals deficiency in professionality of social workers, service quality lowering by loose qualification criteria on workers, non-reasonable limitation of service time available, and the same fare system applied to visiting-help service in spite of different levels. Thirdly, in financing system, clients need to pay additional money to get extra services such as meal, hair cutting, bathing etc., due to government financial support stopped, some organizations have to reduce services and replace full-time workers to part-time ones, which makes the service quality worse. Lastly, in the transferring system, the management system for service quality is not well prepared. There are too much competion because of allowing too many home-help service organizations and care worker academies. The suggestions that this research has found to improve the policy are as follows. ① It is desirable to make the registered clients the service ones as many as possible in the long term perspective. ② The LTCI organization requires more workers and higher professionality. ③ Many elderly people who are not eligible now require connection system to be more served. ④ Management system and service manual for care worker are to be developed. ⑤ Laws related to the service contents and process should be modified, the proportion of client charge needs to adjust. ⑥ Home-help service organization licensed by the LTCI needs to be financially supported publicly. ⑦ Monitoring system to home-help service organization needs to be strengthened. ⑧ Evaluation tools to home-help service organization and workers is required. ⑨ Specification to open the home-help service organization needs to be more strict.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Objective : To investigate the current status of prescription drugs in Oriental medical institutes and to draw up a future plan for the revitalization of Oriental medical health insurance, this survey has been performed. Method : The survey has been made with 321 doctors working at Oriental medical institutes in Daegu and Kyungbuk areas for a period of 3 month from June 1, 2010 until September 1, 2010. Result : 1. When it comes to the current status of the use of herbal drugs in Oriental Health insurance, most of doctors surveyed prescribe insurance drugs, and they prescribe insurance drugs to patients, who are less than 20% of total patients visiting their clinics. 2. The awareness of Herbal Health Care Drugs is investigated. When it comes to the understanding of the difference between insurance drugs(powder type drugs) and granular type drugs, doctors admit that they differ only in one aspect, whether or not their being covered by health insurance. Based on the survey results on the understanding of insurance coverage of granular type drugs, doctors, even though they long for granular type drugs to be accepted as insurance drugs, are worrying whether the number of outpatients might dwindle due to increased insurance co-payments. They also point out that the biggest obstacles in the expansion of the granular type drugs as insurance drugs are the lack of understanding of the government and the objection of the Health Insurance Review and Assesment service (HIRA) for fear of increased insurance claims. 3. Upon investigation on Oriental medicine doctors' understandings of herbal pharmaceutical industry, it is found that doctors' responses on pharmaceutical industry are not all positive ones('new product development and neglect of R&D infrastructure' and 'smallness of industry'). When it is investigated what area needs the greatest improvement in herbal pharmaceutical industry, 'securing sufficient capital, good manufacturing, and strengthening quality control', is the highest. 4. When it is asked what are the most needed in order to improve herbal health insurance medicine, responses such as 'the increase in the accessibility to and the utilization of Oriental medical clinics through the diversification of the means of prescriptions', 'the improvement of insurance benefits(cap adjustments)', 'increase the proportion of high quality medicinal plants', 'the ceiling of co-payments(deductible) at 20,000 won or more', 'expansion of the choices of formulations', 'formulational expansions of tablets and pills', and finally 'admittance and expansion of granular type drug as insurance drug' are the highest. 5. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the current status of the usage of Oriental health care herbal drugs, the followings are observed. First, the frequency of use of health insurance drugs by the doctors who use health insurance with general characteristics shows similar differences in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.001), average number of daily patients (p<0.05). Secondly, as to the willingness of the expanded usage of insurance drugs, similar differences are observed in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05). 6. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the perception of Herbal health care drugs, the followings are observed. First, inspecting general characteristics and insurance claims due to increased co-payments(deductible amount) reveals similar differences in case of working period (p<0.01) and in case of total monthly sales amount (p <0.01). Secondly, inspecting general characteristics and the obstacles that hinder granular type drugs from being accepted as health care insurance drugs shows similar differences in case of working period (p<0.05). 7. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the understanding of Oriental Herbal pharmaceutical companies, the followings are observed. First, opinions on the general characteristics of pharmaceutical companies, when examined with variance analysis, shows similar differences in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05). Secondly, when opinions are examined on general characteristics and the problems of herbal pharmaceutical companies, similar differences are found in case of working period (p<0.01) and in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.001). Lastly, opinions on the general characteristics and reforms of pharmaceutical companies, similar differences are observed in case of working period (p<0.001). 8. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the improvement of insurance Herbal drugs, the followings are observed. First, regarding general characteristics and insurance benefits, similar differences are observed in case of working period (p<0.05), in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05), and in case of average number of daily patients (p<0.01). Secondly, opinions on the general characteristics and the needs for the improvement of Herbal insurance drugs are examined in 5 different aspects, which are the approval of granular type drugs as insurance drugs, the expanded practices of the number of prescription insurance drugs, the needs of a variety of formulations, the needs of TFT of which numbers of Oriental medical doctors are members for the revision of the existing system, and the needs of adjusting the current ceiling of the fixed amount and the fixed rate. When processed by the analysis of variance, the results show similar differences in case of average number of daily patients (p<0.01). Conclusion : From the results of this study the first measures to take are, to reform overall insurance benefit system, including insurance co-payment system(fixed rate cap adjustment), to expand the number of the herbal drugs to be prescribed matching with insurance benefit accordingly, and to revitalize herbal medicine insurance system through the change of various formulations. In addition, it is recommended to improve the effectiveness of herbal medicine by making plans to enhance the efficacy of herbal medicine and by enabling small pharmaceutical companies to outgrow themselves.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.1102-1139
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• 2002

A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering in 2000 and 2001 has been done. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environment. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of fundamental studies on fluid flow were related with heat transportation of facilities. Drop formation and rivulet flow on solid surfaces were interesting topics related with condensation augmentation. Research on micro environment considering flow, heat, humidity was also interesting for comfortable living environment. It can be extended considering biological aspects. Development of fans and blowers of high performance and low noise were continuing topics. Well developed CFD technologies were widely applied for developing facilities and their systems. (2) Most of papers related with heat transfer analysis and heat exchanger shows dealt with convection, evaporation, and channel flow for the design application of heat exchanger. The numerical heat transfer simulation studies have been peformed and reported to show heat transfer characteristics. Experimental as well as numerical studies on heat exchanger were reported, while not many papers are available for the system analysis including heat exchanger. (3) A review of the recent studies on heat pump system shows that performance analysis and control of heat pump have been peformed by various simulations and experiments. The research papers on multi-type heat pump system increased significantly. The studies on heat pipe have been examined experimently for change of working characteristics and strut lure. Research on the phase change has been carried out steadily and operation strategies of encapsulated ice storage tank are reported experimentally in several papers. (4) A review of recent studies on refrigeration/air conditioning system have focused on the system performance and efficiency for new alternative refrigerants. Evaporation and condensation heat transfer characteristics are investigated for tube shapes and new alternative refrigerants. Studies on components of refrigeration/air conditioning system are carried to examine efficiency for various compressors and performance of new expansion devices. In addition to thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures, studies on new refrigerants are also carried out, however research works on two-phase flow seemed to be insufficient. (5) A review of the recent studies on absorption cooling system indicates that heat and mass transfer phenomena have been investigated to improve absorber performance. Various experimental data have been presented and several simulation models have been proposed. A review of the recent studies on duct and ventilation shows that ventilation indices have been proposed to quantify the ventilation performance in buildings and tunnels. Main efforts have been focused on the applications of ventilation effectiveness in practice, either numerically using computational fluid dynamics or experimentally using tracer gas techniques. (6) Based on a review of recent studies on indoor thermal environment and building service systems, research issues have mainly focused on many innovative ideas such as underfloor air-conditioning system, personal environmental modules, radiant floor cooling and etc. Also, the new approaches for minimizing energy consumption as well as improving indoor environmental conditions through predictive control of HVAC systems, various activities of building energy management and cost-benefit analysis for economic evaluation were highlighted.

• Journal of Korea Spatial Information System Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.77-88
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• 2008

There has been growing demands to manage the water quality of west coastal region due to the large scale urbanization along the coastal zone, the possibility of application of TMDL(Total Maximum Daily Loadings) to Han river, and the natural disaster such as oil spill incident in Taean, Chungnam. However, no system has been developed for such purposes. In this background, the demand of GIS based effective water quality management has been increased to monitor water quality environment and propose best management alternatives for Han river and Kyeonggi bay. This study mainly focused on the development of integrated water quality management system for Han river bas in and its estuary are a connected to Kyeonggi bay to support integrated water quality management and its plan. Integration was made based on GIS by spatial linking between water quality attributes and location information. A GIS DB was built to estimate the amount of generated and discharged water pollutants according to TMDL technical guide and it included input data to use two different water quality models--W ASP7 for Han river and EFDC for coastal area--to forecast water quality and to suggest BMP(Best management Practices). The results of BOD, TN, and TP from WASP7 were used as the input to run EFDC. Based on the study results, some critical areas which have relatively higher pollutant loadings were identified, and it was also identified that the locations discharging water pollutant loadings to river and seasonal factor affected water quality. And the relationship of water quality between river and its estuary area was quantitatively verified. The results showed that GIS based integrated system could be used as a tool for estimating status-quo of water quality and proposing economically effective BMPs to mitigate water pollution. Further studies need to be made for improving system's capabilities such as adding decision making function as well as cost-benefit analysis, etc. Also, the concrete methodology for water quality management using the system need to be developed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.50
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• pp.235-263
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• 2002

The present study is designed to explore restructuring direction of the old-age income maintenance system and development direction of the Seniority Pension Scheme(SPS) in Korea. While the SPS is trifling scheme with tiny benefit amount and small budget, the SPS has important role that function as only public income maintenance scheme for both the low income class and the excluded from public pension and public assistance at present stage because of immature National Pension. This study starts with the research question why serious mis-matching problem between needs and resources in old-age income maintenance system occur. Thus this study explores fundamental change direction of the old-age income maintenance system which is coincide with further situation change(demography, labour market, family structure). Also this study explores desirable SPS's development direction as taking into account relation with other public old-age income maintenance system. This paper suggests basic direction of old-age income maintenance system as follows: principle of universal and individual security; principle of sustainability; principle of equity. Under general principle, this paper also proposes largely two development scenario of the SPS. The one is to maintain present transitional and provisional scheme with trying scheme's substantiality. The other is to change into permanent old-age income maintenance scheme for the excluded public pension and public assistance. At this point it is the public pension's role that the SPS's development direction is determined. If the public pension keep one pension per one earner as present system, non-contribution pension as present SPS should maintain continuously. However, if the public pension reorganize into basic pension of one pension per one person and earning-related pension, the SPS should be managed temporarily until mature of public pension. Therefore whether the public pension play basic security role for all elderly or not will determine the SPS development direction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.7-14
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• 2008

The main objective of sewer rehabilitation is to improve its function while eliminating inflow/infiltration (I/I). If we can identify the amount of I/I for an individual pipe, it is possible to estimate the I/Is of sub-areas clearly. However, in real, the amount of I/I for an individual pipe is almost impossible to be obtained due to the limitation of cost and time. In this study, I/I occurrence of each sewer pipe is estimated using AHP (Analytic Hierarch Process) and RPDM (Rehabilitation Priority Decision Model for sewer system) was developed using the estimated I/I of each pipe to perform the efficient sewer rehabilitation. Based on the determined amount of I/I for an individual pipe, the RPDM determines the optimal rehabilitation priority (ORP) using a genetic algorithm for sub-areas in term of minimizing the amount of I/I occurring while the rehabilitation process is performed. The benefit obtained by implementing the ORP for rehabilitation of sub-areas is estimated by the only waste water treatment cost (WWTC) of I/I which occurs during the sewer rehabilitation period. The results of the ORP were compared with those of a numerical weighting method (NWM) which is the decision method for the rehabilitation priority in the general sewer rehabilitation practices and the worst order which are other methods to determine the rehabilitation order of sub-areas in field. The ORP reduced the WWTC by 22% compared to the NWM and by 40% compared to the worst order.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.130-140
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• 1992

The purpose of this study was to survey the trends of waste products in schools, its gathering and disposal, identification of problems and to analyze its disposal. Moreover, this study was aimed at basic suggestions about the establishment and plans of waste environmental education. 98 public primary and secondary schools were surveyed in Seoul during the month of March and April, 1991. Information was collected from each educational association by random sampling. Questionaries were used for this survey. To understand the disposal status of school waste and its reforms, this study surveyed the amount of waste by products, their origin and analyzed the disposal by type, one number of schools and teachers involved. The dump sited and disposal methods of school waste, its problems, and the status of school waste educations were researched, and ideal disposal methods and plans for waste education were suggested. The results were as follows. 1. The School's trash was produced by followings: paper, vinyle plastics, food, woods, metals, ceramics, glass, bottles, and ash from the heating system. The biggest cause of the school's waste as shown by the survey was a lack of environmental awareness(39.8%). The second biggest was the use of a one time use of disposable paper products(27.6%). 2. Waste collection by different grade levels were proven to be important but as you move from elementary to high school, the waste collecting operation decreased, in this connection between the students and waste collection itself it was significant on the other hand the teachers were not working as significant variables. 3. Of the school that collected waste 69.5 percent of the schools separately grouped common waste and recyclable waste. 25 schools(42.4%) received improvement on their environmental awareness of trash collection through this method. 4. From the number of disposal sites in surveyed schools, it was determined that the education of the necessity for separation of waste was performed in vain and accordingly the should require a real education in the future. 5. Regarding the method of disposal of waste the survey indicated that the #1 method of disposal was partial burning and the remains carried to a dump site by others(35,7%). In elementary schools the entire waste was taken by individuals to a dump site (33.3%). In high schools partial burning and then transported by individuals #1 in our survey(50%). 6. Relative to the problem of the treatment to waste, the emission of smoke from the burning was considered to be the #1 priority in our survey (62.3%) the problem of trash collection being delayed was 52.1%(1in our survey). 7. The present situation of environmental education of waste us lacking. Under present circumstances, the practice of public announcements for improvement and waste-paper collection has been going on vigorously but lacking in education as to the preparation of compositions for students the themes of public exhibitions, the organizing of voluntary associations should be part of the education system to reinforce student's awareness of proper waste disposal. 8. The most economical alternative for disposal was recycling usable waste or combustible material through a variety of education we can therefore educate students bring this education to their homes public servants will also be able to benefit in the waste disposal process with proper education. In conclusion we should intensify the systemical organization and the education of our waste disposal for a better environment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.215-220
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• 2012

This paper proposes a ontology of tree structure approach for adaptive object recognition in a situation-variant environment. In this paper, we introduce a new concept, ontology of tree structure ontology, for context sensitivity, as we found that many developed systems work in a context-invariant environment. Due to the effects of illumination on a supreme obstinate designing context-sensitive recognition system, we have focused on designing such a context-variant system using ontology of tree structure. Ontology can be defined as an explicit specification of conceptualization of a domain typically captured in an abstract model of how people think about things in the domain. People produce ontologies to understand and explain underlying principles and environmental factors. In this research, we have proposed context ontology, context modeling, context adaptation, and context categorization to design ontology of tree structure based on illumination criteria. After selecting the proper light-ontology domain, we benefit from selecting a set of actions that produces better performance on that domain. We have carried out extensive experiments on these concepts in the area of object recognition in a dynamic changing environment, and we have achieved enormous success, which will enable us to proceed on our basic concepts.