• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.4D
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• pp.345-356
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• 2012

Road pavement requires repetitive maintenance works to maintain satisfactory service level to the public. However, the repetitive maintenance works upon deteriorated pavement structure make negative effects to deterioration speed. It often leads to inefficient use of limited budget. For that reason, the pavements require reconstruction work to recover their original performance. Recently, construction demands in the Korean national highway have already been reached to maximum level, and the aged pavements start to demand much more reconstruction works. However, in the real world, road agencies have often been confused when they determine maintenance design for such aged road sections due to budget constraint. It is because there is no reliable long-term maintenance strategy that supports their decision making. To support their decision making, this paper aimed to suggest the best maintenance strategy considering changing process of pavement performance by repetitive maintenance works. As an analysis method, probability distribution and hazard function to estimate the life expectancy were adopted, and then the results were used for long-term life cycle cost analysis with deterministic or Monte-Carlo method under various scenarios. As an empirical study, the Korean national highway data that has long-maintenance history data since 1986 has been applied. Last, this paper considered quality assurance of maintenance work to improve maintenance quality. These could be important information as a part of long-term maintenance strategy of pavement.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.403-424
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• 2002

Internet GIS sites are currently being emersed as one of important places to acquire spatial information in stead of traditional paper map. This paper is intended to identify critical factors in evaluating internet GIS site quality. While there should be a considerable number and variety of factors associated with internet GIS site quality, this paper focuses on the site characteristics that generate visitor satisfaction. After carefully reviewing the previous literature of general website evaluation, four criteria that are critical to internet GIS site quality were identified: (1) contents (2) design (3) navigation (4) spatial analysis. An empirical study for a case study site has been conducted to confirm the validity for the four evaluation factors. A site diagnosis by the criteria provided many valuable information for Web site quality. For example, it was found that many symbols in the site made the visitors confusing and navigation interface was not very user-friendly to track required positional information due to inconsistency in terms of cartographic concept. The results indicate that the evaluation criteria may be used not only as a tool to evaluate internet GIS sites, but also as a checklist to improve the quality of a web site that is under development and requires remodelling. As a result, the research findings have established the new concept of ‘the quality assurance of the internet GIS site’, proposed as an initial aim of this paper Many of the issues unresolved in this project could be improved, based on the understanding of the four criteria suggested in this paper.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.93-100
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• 2015

Purpose - The objective of this research is to investigate whether national culture influences consumers' service evaluations. The services industry is receiving increasing attention from academia and practitioners as its position grows in global markets. Standardization or localization is a traditional managerial decision in global business. As the boundaries of services expand across national borders, firms are required to decide whether to standardize services or adjust to local needs. Though it is imperative to reflect global perspectives in marketing theories, these perspectives are mostly based on Western conceptualization of the world. Through a comparison of consumer groups from two culturally remote countries, service quality evaluation mechanisms are examined based on similar stimuli. The study tries to expand service marketing perspectives across national borders. Research design, data, and methodology - Eastern and Western countries are known to be culturally distinct. One Eastern and one Western country were chosen: an Anglo-Saxon country (the U.S., England, and Australia) and South Korea. In Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the differences between the two are pronounced. The Anglo-Saxon based countries share many similarities. Samples of the same sites are targeted. Questionnaires using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL) and a customer satisfaction scale were distributed. Utilizing Hofstede's typology of culture, the service evaluation mechanisms of the respondents from the two groups are evaluated. Three hypotheses are proposed from the review of the literature. These are service evaluation habits, importance of service quality dimensions for the individualistic/collectivistic countries, and strong/weak uncertainty avoidance cultures. Consumers from the individualistic countries are considered to care about themselves and demand a higher level of responsiveness and assurance. On the other hand, consumers from high uncertainty avoidance cultures are assumed to rely more on tangible questions of service quality, as these are the only predictable service quality indicators. A t-test and regression analysis are applied to validate the constructs. Results - The respondents from the Anglo-Saxon countries are more generous on service evaluations than Koreans. Researchers have indicated that Americans tend to give higher service evolution scores than European, Mexican, and Korean counterparts. The tendency is the same here. The sample from Anglo-Saxon countries demonstrated higher service evaluation scores on every dimension of SERVQUAL. For the second hypothesis, the respondents from the collectivistic culture rely less on core service dimensions (assurance and responsiveness) due to their tendency to place more value on group harmony than individual interest. However, the third hypothesis was not validated. Conclusions - The study attempted to expand the scope of service marketing to reflect cross-national perspectives. Service quality is known to have a strong influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty behavior. However, this research demonstrated that individuals from different cultural territories respond heterogeneously to the same stimuli. Scholars argue that national cultures are main factors in such deviated behavior. Scholars and global managers should be aware of differences in consumer value judgment mechanisms such as satisfaction, expectations, and perceptions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.39-49
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• 2013

Purpose - This study attempts to examine the underlying dimensions of service quality (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) for low-cost carriers. It subsequently seeks to determine the effect of the relationships of the dimensions of service quality, airline image, and behavioral intentions on airline services to provide adequate basic information and attributes for developing differentiated and competitive service marketing strategies. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey for this study was conducted on patrons with low-cost carrier boarding experiences in districts near universities and central businesses of Seoul and Busan from 5/10/2012 to 16/10/2012. Out of 346 questionnaires, 20 questionnaires with missing data and insincere answers were excluded for this study. Collected data were processed using SPSS 18.0, and the hypothesis was verified by analyzing the structural equation model with Lisrel 8.54. First, the frequency analysis was conducted to identify universal characteristics. Second, the exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted to identify the accuracy of the variable measurements of the construct. Third, to assess uni-dimensionality and reliability, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. Finally, to verify the adequacy of the research model and research hypothesis, the structural model was employed. Results - The results revealed that the factors, "tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy" were shown to be the most important dimensions of service quality for the airline image of the low-cost carrier which was consistent with previous studies. Therefore, it is fair to suggest that these verified factors are crucial attributes for the brand image of low-cost carriers. Second, as reliability and responsiveness were shown to be the most important factors for behavioral intentions, it is viable to suggest that these two attributes are crucial for the sales value of low-cost carriers. Further, it was found that the brand image of low-cost carriers was closely related to behavioral intentions. Therefore, in order to ensure the competitiveness and loyalty of patrons, the airline image value is a crucial attribute. Conclusions - The result of this study established that service quality is the most important attribute for marketing to ensure competitiveness, and intensive and differentiated service marketing play a crucial role in creating profits for low-cost carrier companies. First, as tangibility is found to be the most crucial factor in ensuring service quality, quality control and maintenance of medium and small carriers must be provided to ensure reliability, as they are the main attributes of low-cost carriers. Second, in order to promote positive behavioral intentions, it is essential to enhance the value of airline image. Third, in order to ensure competitiveness, it is imperative to carry out intensive and differentiated service marketing. Therefore, to promote the image of low-cost carriers and enhance behavioral intentions, the level of service quality must be secured by developing appropriate service improvement programs.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.109-113
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• 2002

In recent years, the radiotherapy equipment has become much more sophisticated, and with the complication comes an increased set of quality assurance (QA) responsibilities. Today's computer controlled linear accelerator requiring QA of not only the radiation integrity, but also the mechanical accuracy of the linear accelerator. The existing QA sheets are adequate for acceptance testing and commissioning but those sheets are somewhat descriptive form for routine QA. establishing the QA sheets for a facility are more efficient if the sheets could estimate the long-term stability for the result of QA. We are going to develope new prototype of mechanical QA sheet to visualize and to verify long-term stability of mechanical QA for clinical linear accelerator. The items included in mechanical QA sheet were 1) gantry rotation, 2) collimator rotation, 3) couch rotation, 4) optical distance indicator (ODI), and 5) laser alignment. We compared new prototype sheet with conventional sheet for several hospitals in Korea for those items. The QA acceptance criteria in this study mainly followed published recommendations. The contents of test for mechanical QA are the following. Confirm that the digital and/or mechanical gantry angle readouts are correct. Verify that digital and/or mechanical readouts of collimator angle agree with the true angle, as determined with the protractor. Measure the light field using a graph paper and compare with the digital readouts. Confirm digital readout accuracy. Verify that the sagittal laser, the left and right lasers, and the ceiling laser intersect at the isocenter. In the design of new QA sheet, we emphasized the representation of the long-term stability of mechanical QA by using Excel program. By using the new prototype QA sheet, we simplified and visualized the mechanical QA process, and could estimate the long-term stability of mechanical error of linear accelerator.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.387-394
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• 2010

In the field of healthcare, the conventional sterilization treatments have been replaced by irradiation methods which are in accordance with internationally well established quality standards. The quality control in radiation sterilization assures that the absorbed dose of the irradiated material is in agreement with its requirements and standards. The electron beam irradiation requires technical assessments of more process parameters than gamma irradiation does. Korea has witnessed wide uses of electron accelerators since early 2000 but there hasn't been research experiences relating to quality system in accordance with international standards. The new large scale e-beam irradiation system with the specification of 10 MeV, 8 kW was installed and operated in 2008 by Seoul Radiology Services Co. It consists of the electron accelerator, product handling system, safety, documentation and control subsystems into an integrated system to meet the requirement of the Good Manufacturing Practice such as process quality assurance and management of product tracking records. To implement the international standard such as EN ISO11137, it is necessary to understand the purposes aimed in the standard and carry out the tests following the procedures required. This study presented the specification of the e-beam facility and showed what its design requirements and features are. The test results on a variety of process parameters were presented and validated it they are within the required limits.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.81-91
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• 2016

VANET is one of the most developed technologies many people have considered a technology for the next generation. It basically utilizes the wireless technology and it can be used for measuring the speed of the vehicle, the location and even traffic control. With sharing those information, VANET can offer Cooperative ITS which can make a solution for a variety of traffic issues. In this way, safety for drivers, efficiency and mobility can be increased with VANET but data between vehicles or between vehicle and infrastructure are included with private information. Therefore alternatives are necessary to secure privacy. If there is no alternative for privacy, it can not only cause some problems about identification information but also it allows attackers to get location tracking and makes a target. Besides, people's lives or property can be dangerous because of sending wrong information or forgery. In addition to this, it is possible to be information stealing by attacker's impersonation or private information exposure through eavesdropping in communication environment. Therefore, in this paper we propose Privacy Assurance Architecture for VANET to ensure privacy from these threats.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.31-43
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• 2022

Purpose: Service quality is a topic of constant interest in marketing research and practitioners. Service quality is an important factor influencing performance even in the context of coffee shops, and research on service quality management strategies continues by coffee shop researchers and practitioners. The service quality of coffee shops is a source of competitive advantage and is an important factor in enhancing customer and business performance. This study aims to identify the effects of cognitive evaluation on emotional and behavioral responses using a cognitive-emotional-behavioral framework and SOR model in the coffee shop context. Cognitive evaluation (service quality) consists of tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, reliability, and empathy dimensions. Research design, data, and methodology: In the proposed model, positive and negative emotions and satisfaction mediate the relationship between service quality and money to spend and visit frequency. The data were collected from customers who visited a coffee shop within the last 1 month. The survey was conducted for about one month. Among a total of 300 distributed questionnaires 261 responses were used for data analysis. The data were analyzed using frequency analysis, measurement model analysis, and structural equation modeling analysis with SPSS 28.0 and SmartPLS 4.0. Results: Tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy had significant positive effects on positive emotion, while only reliability had a significant negative effect on negative emotion. Both positive and negative emotions had significant positive effects on customer satisfaction, but not on money to spend and visit frequency. Lastly, customer satisfaction had significant positive effects on money to spend and visit frequency. Conclusions: The study revealed the relative weight of cognitive factors on customer emotions and confirmed the validity of SOR model. The fact that tangibility is the most important factor in increasing positive emotions and reliability is the most important factor in reducing negative emotions provides a direction for emotional branding strategies using the service quality mix of coffee shops. This study confirmed the full mediating role of satisfaction between positive and negative emotions and consumer behaviors (money to spend and visit frequency). This infers that when a coffee shop increases customer satisfaction through customer emotion management, the customer's money to spend and visit frequency in the coffee shop increases.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

In the seismic design of structures, seismic forces are calculated based on structural models and analysis. In order to accurately address the dynamic characteristics of the actual structure in the structural model, calibration based on actual measurements is required. In this study, a 4-story frame test specimen was manufactured to simulate frame building, accelerometers were attached at each floor, and 1-axis shaking table test was performed. The natural period of the specimen was similar to that of the actual 4 story frame building, and the columns were designed to behave with double-curvature having the infinite stiffness of the horizontal members. To investigate the effects seismic waves characteristics, historical and artificial excitations with various frequencies and acceleration magnitudes were applied. The natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes were obtained using frequency response functions obtained from dynamic response signals, and the mode vector deviations according to the input seismic waves were verified using the Mode assurance criterion (MAC). In addition, the damping ratios obtained from the vibration tests were applied to the structural model, and the method with refined dynamic characteristics was validated by comparing the analysis results with the experimental data.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.18-24
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• 2013

A document control system (DCS), ANSIM (KAERI Advanced Nuclear Safety Information Management) was designed for the purpose of documents preparation, review, and approvement for JRTR (Jordan Research and Training Reactor) project. The ANSIM system consists of a document management, document container, project management, organization management, and EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) document folder. The document container folder run after specific contents, a revision history of the design documents and drawings are issued in KAERI. The EPC document work-scope is a registry for incoming documents in ANSIM, the assignment of a manager or charger, document review, preparing and outgoing PM memorandum as attached the reviewed paper. On the other hand, KAERI is aiming another extra network server for the NRR (New Research Reactor) by the end of this year. In conclusion, it is the first, computation system of DCS that provides document form, document number, and approval line. Second, ANSIM increases the productivity of performance that can be recognized the document work-flow of oneself and all participants. Finally, a plenty of experience and knowledge of nuclear technology can be transmitted to next generation for the design, manufacturing, testing, installation, and commissioning. Though this, ANSIM is expected to allow the export of a knowledge and information system as well as a research reactor.