• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.48-57
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• 2015

In a sodium-cooled fast reactor, which is a Generation-IV reactor, refueling is conducted by rotating, but not opening, the reactor head to prevent a reaction between the sodium, water and air. Therefore, an inspection technique that checks for the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure, which could disturb the rotation of the reactor head, is essential prior to the refueling of a sodium-cooled fast reactor. To this end, an ultrasound-based inspection technique should be employed because the opacity of the sodium prevents conventional optical inspection techniques from being applied to the monitoring of obstacles. In this study, a ranging inspection technique using a plate-type ultrasonic waveguide sensor was developed to monitor the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure in the opaque sodium. Because the waveguide sensor installs an ultrasonic transducer in a relatively cold region and transmits the ultrasonic waves into the hot radioactive liquid sodium through a long waveguide, it offers better reliability and is less susceptible to thermal or radiation damage. A 10 m horizontal beam waveguide sensor capable of radiating an ultrasonic wave horizontally was developed, and beam profile measurements and basic experiments were carried out to investigate the characteristics of the developed sensor. The beam width and propagation distance of the ultrasonic wave radiated from the sensor were assessed based on the experimental results. Finally, a feasibility test using cylindrical targets (corresponding to the shape of possible obstacles) was also conducted to evaluate the applicability of the developed ranging inspection technique to actual applications.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.13-35
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• 2020

Startup accelerators are a new type of investors providing a certain amount of shares for imparting education, mentoring, networking, and providing space and seed money that can directly resolve the difficulties faced by nascent entrepreneurs (Clarysse, 2016). Startup accelerators have expanded worldwide as their influence over the startup ecosystem has increasingly been established (Pauwels et al., 2016; Cohen & Hochberg, 2014). This study was conducted to derive investment determinants of startup accelerators that are emerging as major investment players around the world. To this end, the accelerator-type determinants of investment were derived. As previous research on this topic is nonexistent, this process involved qualitative meta-synthesis, literature reviews, observation, and in-depth interviews. First, more than 30 research papers were examined for the determinants of investment for firms at an early stage of their foundation, and the categories and determinants of investment in the relevant studies were comparatively analyzed using qualitative meta-synthesis. Further, related data were investigated to identify the characteristics of accelerators, and the startup evaluation process of US accelerators was studied. The more than 100 questions raised during this process were coded to examine the determinants of investment that accelerators considered important. In-depth interviews were conducted with four US accelerators to identify the characteristics of accelerators and key determinants of investment. Ultimately, 5 categories of accelerator-type determinants of investment and 26 subordinate determinants of investment were derived. The results were verified and supplemented by consulting with seven accelerators in Korea. The results were confirmed after pilot tests and verification by seven domestic accelerators. After confirming the accelerator-type determinants, the reliability of them was verified by examining the importance and priority of each category through the quantitative survey of Korean accelerators. The research that elicited the accelerator-type investment determinants is the first research and is expected to be a major reference to the progress of subsequent studies. This research that systematically derived the investment determinants of the accelerator is expected to make major contributions to the progress of follow-up studies, the process of selecting startups, and the investment decision-making process of the accelerators.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.421-430
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• 2004

Clinically, it is almost impossible for a physician to distinguish subtle changes of frequency spectrum by using a stethoscope alone especially in the early stage of thrombus formation. Considering that reliability of mechanical valve is paramount because the failure might end up with patient death, early detection of valve thrombus using noninvasive technique is important. Thus the study was designed to provide a tool for early noninvasive detection of valve thrombus by observing shift of frequency spectrum of acoustic signals with computer aid diagnosis system. A thrombus model was constructed on commercialized mechanical valves using polyurethane or silicon. Polyurethane coating was made on the valve surface, and silicon coating on the sewing ring of the valve. To simulate pannus formation, which is fibrous tissue overgrowth obstructing the valve orifice, the degree of silicone coating on the sewing ring varied from 20％, 40％, 60％ of orifice obstruction. In experiment system, acoustic signals from the valve were measured using microphone and amplifier. The microphone was attached to a coupler to remove environmental noise. Acoustic signals were sampled by an AID converter, frequency spectrum was obtained by the algorithm of spectral analysis. To quantitatively distinguish the frequency peak of the normal valve from that of the thrombosed valves, analysis using a neural network was employed. A return map was applied to evaluate continuous monitoring of valve motion cycle. The in-vivo data also obtained from animals with mechanical valves in circulatory devices as well as patients with mechanical valve replacement for 1 year or longer before. Each spectrum wave showed a primary and secondary peak. The secondary peak showed changes according to the thrombus model. In the mock as well as the animal study, both spectral analysis and 3-layer neural network could differentiate the normal valves from thrombosed valves. In the human study, one of 10 patients showed shift of frequency spectrum, however the presence of valve thrombus was yet to be determined. Conclusively, acoustic signal measurement can be of suggestive as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in early detection of mechanical valve thrombosis.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.32-40
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• 2024

In the construction industry, lack of reliability in the quality of recycled aggregates, harmful substance problems, and negative consumer perceptions limit the expansion of the use of recycled aggregates. In this respect, existing studies mainly focus on the use of recycled coarse aggregates in concrete in consideration of durability. On the other hand, in the case of recycled fine aggregates, not only are there insufficient cases applied to major structures, but the scope of application is very limited due to lack of awareness. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to present the possibility of their application in bearing and non-bearing wall structures through physical characteristics experiments of concrete bricks for masonry according to various mixing ratios of recycled fine aggregates and cement amounts. To this end, the compressive strength and absorption rate of concrete bricks were measured focusing on the mixing ratio of the recycled fine aggregate and the crushed fine aggregate and the amount of cement. As a result, it is found that it is possible to use 100% of recycled fine aggregate for 200kg/m³ of cement or 25% of crushed fine aggregate mixed with 75% of recycled fine aggregate for the same amount of cement to achieve the compressive strength of 13MPa, witch is one of the quality requirements for concrete bricks for bearing walls. In addition, it is found that to meet the strength of 8MPa, one of the quality requirements for non-bearing walls, it is sufficient to use 100% of the recycled fine aggregate for 100kg/m³ of cement. Through the absorption rate tests, it is also confirmed that the absorption rate of the concrete brick is 13% or less by meeting the required performance criteria. This means that even if recycled fine aggregate is used in the manufacture of concrete bricks, the quality standards required by KS F 4004 (concrete bricks) can be sufficiently met.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.195-209
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• 2021

According to the 2019-2020 social media usage survey conducted by the Seoul e-commerce center, 5 out of 10 consumers have experienced shopping through social media. The cost of traditional advertising media has been reduced and advertising spending on social media has risen by 74%, indicating that social media is becoming a more important marketing element. While the number of users of social media has increased and corporate marketing activities have increased accordingly, research has been conducted in various aspects of marketing such as user motivation for social media, satisfaction, and purchase intention. There was no subdivided study on the differences in the social media usage frequency of consumers in actual purchasing behavior. This study attempted to identify differences in consumer characteristics by cluster in the agrifood purchase situation by grouping them by type according to the frequency of use of social media for consumers who purchase agri-food online. Product involvement, product need, and online purchase channel Consumer characteristics such as demographic distribution, perceived risk, and eating and lifestyle in each cluster were checked for the three agrifood purchase situations including choice, and types for each cluster were presented. To this end, questionnaire data on the frequency of social media use and online agrifood purchase behavior were collected from 245 consumers, and the validity of the measurement variables was secured through factor analysis and reliability analysis. As a result of cluster analysis according to the frequency of social media use, it was divided into three clusters. The first cluster was a group that mainly used open social media, and the second cluster was a group that used both open and closed social media and online shopping malls; The third cluster was a group with low online media usage overall, and the characteristics of each cluster appeared. Through regression analysis, the effect on product involvement, product need, and purchase channel selection when purchasing agri-food online through each of the three clusters was confirmed through regression analysis. As a result of the regression analysis, the characteristic of cluster 1 in the situation of purchasing agri-food online is a male in his 30s living in a rural area who has no reluctance to purchase agri-food on social media or online shopping malls. The characteristics of cluster 2 are mainly consumers who are interested in purchasing health food, and the consumer characteristics are represented. In the case of cluster 3, when purchasing products online, they purchase after considering quality and price a lot, and the consumer characteristics are represented as people who are more confident in purchasing offline than online. Through this study, it is judged that by identifying the differences in consumer characteristics that appear in the agri-food purchase situation according to the frequency of social media use, it can be helpful in strategic judgments in marketing practice on social media customer targeting and customer segmentation.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.139-154
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• 2018

R programming is free and open source system associated with a rich and ever-growing set of libraries of functions developed and submitted by independent end-users. It is recognized as a popular tool for handling big data sets and analyzing them. Reflecting these characteristics, R has been gaining popularity from data analysts. However, the antecedents of R technology acceptance has not been studied yet. In this study we identify and investigates cognitive factors contributing to build user acceptance toward R in education environment. We extend the existing technology acceptance model by incorporating social norms and software capability. It was found that the factors of subjective norm, perceived usefulness, ease of use affect positively on the intention of acceptance R programming. In addition, perceived usefulness is related to subjective norms, perceived ease of use, and software capability. The main difference of this research from the previous ones is that the target system is not a stand-alone. In addition, the system is not static in the sense that the system is not a final version. Instead, R system is evolving and open source system. We applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to the target system which is a platform where diverse applications such as statistical, big data analyses, and visual rendering can be performed. The model presented in this work can be useful for both colleges that plan to invest in new statistical software and for companies that need to pursue future installations of new technologies. In addition, we identified a modified version of the TAM model which is extended by the constructs such as subjective norm and software capability to the original TAM model. However one of the weak aspects that might inhibit the reliability and validity of the model is that small number of sample size.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.153-165
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• 2014

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is recognizing one of method responding the climate change with reduction of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. In Korea, due to its geological characteristics, sub-seabed geological $CO_2$ storage is regarded as more practical approach than on-land storage under the goal of its deployment. However, concerns on potential $CO_2$ leakage and relevant acidification issue in the marine environment can be an important subject in recently increasing sub-seabed geological $CO_2$ storage sites. In the present study effect data from literatures were collected in order to conduct an effect assessment of elevated $CO_2$ levels in marine environments using a species sensitivity distribution (SSD) various marine organisms such as microbe, crustacean, echinoderm, mollusc and fish. Results from literatures using domestic species were compared to those from foreign literatures to evaluate the reliability of the effect levels of each biological group and end-point. Ecological effect guidelines through estimating level of pH variation (${\delta}pH$) to adversely affect 5 and 50% of tested organisms, HC5 and HC50, were determined using SSD of marine organisms exposed to the $CO_2$-induced acidification. Estimated HC5 as ${\delta}pH$ of 0.137 can be used as only interim quality guideline possibly with adequate assessment factor. In the future, the current interim guideline as HC5 of ${\delta}pH$ in this study will look forward to compensate with supplement of ecotoxicological data reflecting various trophic levels and indigenous species.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 2019

Spatial resolution is still one of the most important parameters for evaluating image quality. In this study, we propose an approach to evaluate spatial resolution and MTF(Modulation Transfer Function) using bar target and Siemens star chart as a part of quality evaluation for UAV images. To this end, images were taken with a fixed-wing eBee(Canon IXUS) at the flight height of 130m and 260m, and with a rotary-wing GD-800(SONY NEX-5N) at flight height of 130m, with a Phantom 4 pro(FC 6310) at flight height of 90m, respectively. Spatial resolution was measured on orthoimages produced from this data. Results show that the resolution measured on the Siemens star and bar target was accurately degraded in proportion to the flight height regardless of the cameras. In the words, the spatial resolution of images taken at the same altitude of 130m with the eBee(Canon IXUS) and the GD-800(SONY NEX-5N) equipped with different cameras was the same as 4.1cm, and that of the eBee(Canon IXUS) at 260m was 8.0cm. In addition, the resolution measured on the Siemens star was about 1~2cm lower than that of the bar target at every flight height. The general tendency was also found to be proportional to the flight height in the measurement of the ${\sigma}_{MTF}$ from MTF, which simultaneously represents the resolution and contrast information of the image. However, at the same altitude of 130m, the ${\sigma}_{MTF}$ of the GD-800(SONY NEX-5N) is 0.36 and the eBee(Canon IXUS) is 0.59, which shows that the GD-800(SONY NEX-5N) has better camera performance. It is expected that study results will contribute to the analysis of spatial resolution of UAV images and to improve the reliability of quality.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2015

Nitrogen (N) loading from domestic, agricultural and industrial sources can lead to excessive growth of macrophytes or phytoplankton in aquatic environment. Many studies have used nitrogen stable isotope ratios to identify anthropogenic nitrogen in aquatic systems as a useful method for studying nitrogen cycle. In this study to evaluate the precision and accuracy of Kjeldahl processes, two reference materials (IAEA-NO-3, N-1) were analyzed repeatedly. Measured the ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ values of IAEA-NO-3 and IAEA-N-1 were $4.7{\pm}0.2$‰ and $0.4{\pm}0.3$‰, respectively, which are within recommended values of analytical uncertainties. Also, we investigated spatial patterns of ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ in effluent plumes from a waste water treatment plant in Han River, Korea. ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ values are enriched at downstream areas of water treatment plant suggesting that dissolved nitrogen in effluent plumes should be one of the main N sources in those areas. The current study clarifies the reliability of Kjeldahl analytical method and the usefulness of stable isotopic techniques to trace the contamination source of dissolved nitrogen such as nitrate and ammonia.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1191-1206
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between perceived health status, future time perspective(FTP), health promoting behaviors, and quality of life in the elderly. To this end, the survey was conducted through distributing questionnaires to the elderly people who lived in areas of Seoul or its adjacent satellite cities in their age of 60 or more in 2013. In total, 497 valid responses were collected. The data was analyzed by using a number of analysis methods including confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, frequency analysis, correlation analysis, simple regression analysis, multiple regression analysis, SEM analysis. The findings are as follows. First, health status of the elderly has a significant influence on FTP. Second, health status the elderly has a significant influence on health promoting behavior. Among sub-factors of health status, subjective health status has a significant influence on spiritual growth, nutrition, physical activity, stress and interpersonal relation. Third, health status of the elderly has a significant influence on quality of life. Among sub-factors of health status, subjective health status has a significant influence on physical, social, emotional and economic quality of life. Fifth, FTP of the elderly has a significant influence on quality of life. FTP has a significant influence on physical, social, emotional economic quality of life among the elderly. Sixth, health promoting behavior among the elderly has a significant influence on quality of life. Among sub-factors of health promoting behavior, spiritual growth has a significant influence on physical, social, emotional and economic quality of life. Nutrition has a significant influence on social factor. Health responsibility has a significant influence on emotional quality of life. Physical activity has a significant influence on physical quality of life. Stress has a significant influence on physical, social and economic quality of life. Finally, interpersonal relation has a significant influence on physical and social quality of life.