• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.216-225
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• 2018

Over the past 40 years, the public sector has continued to invest in the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Korea. Currently, the domestic sewage treatment rate is over 90% with the enhancement of operating efficiency of the STPs, and water quality of major rivers has been continuously improved. However, COD and T-N indicators are stagnating or slightly worsening, and though advanced treatment facilities are installed in most of the STPs, there is a limit to the removal of nutrients. Since there are a lot of water pollution sources in the vicinity of the watershed because of high population density in Korea, it is essential to reduce the inflow of the nutrients in order to prevent the eutrophication of the rivers and lakes. While the effluent T-P standard in STPs has greatly strengthened since 2012, which results in the considerable investment for the improvement of treatment process in STPs for the last few years, it is necessary to strengthen the T-N standards, as the effluent standard of T-N has been maintained at 20 mg/L since 2002. In this study, based on the analysis of the effluent T-N standard status of major industrialized countries, and the domestic nitrogen load in public waters, the option of appropriate T-N standard level is reviewed, and the required investment costs and the effect of strengthening the standard are estimated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2012

As a result of investment in railway safety since 2004, railway accidents have been reduced by half and we reached a high level of safety compared to other countries. But people are still worries about railway accident, and want safer railway. It is difficult to determine which level of safety must be achieved due to lack of comparative studies on railway safety among different countries and other transportation modes. In this study, a comparative study on railway accident statistics and various transportation modes is performed. The results of this research can be used for the determination of weak areas of railway safety and the level of safety to be achieved.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.299-304
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• 2016

In recent years, heat source systems which have a principal effect on the performance of buildings are difficult to design optimally as a great number of design factors and constraints in large and complicated buildings need to be considered. On the other hand, it is necessary to design an optimum system combination and operation planning for energy efficiency considering Life Cycle Cost (LCC). This study suggests a multi-level and multi-objective optimization method to minimize both LCC and investment cost using a genetic algorithm targeting an office building which requires a large cooling load. The optimum method uses a two stage process to derive the system combination and the operation schedule by utilizing the input data of cooling and heating load profile and system performance characteristics calculated by dynamic energy simulation. The results were assessed by Pareto analysis and a number of Pareto optimal solutions were determined. Moreover, it was confirmed that the derived operation schedule was useful for operating the heat source systems efficiently against the building energy requirements. Consequently, the proposed optimization method is determined by a valid way if the design process is difficult to optimize.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.52-80
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• 2007

In the rapidly changing current society, the Korean National Police(KNP) is facing a lot of demands from the citizens like the protection of subject/victim rights, independence of investigation authority, disclosure of actual truth, and prevention & eradication of crimes. It is widely recognized among the Korean people and the police that the KNP is always standing for the rights of the people and it is high time that the KNP should be restored as the pioneer for the protection of human right. In this situation, the tremendous emphasis is given on the importance of investment in investigative training through the long-term master-plan in order to renovate its constitution, to level up its quality, and to cope with the highly sophisticated crime patterns. Korean police have already shown its outstanding investigative skills of identification of the deceased throughout large cases like Daegu subway arson and tsunami in Southeast Asia. In addition, the skills of cyber crime investigation are highly recognized by foreign law enforcement agencies. However, the investigative skills and abilities are being degraded and the morale of the investigative personnel are falling due to the insufficiently of the finite training budget. Lack of financial support results in the lack of training program and poor training environment, which subsequently leads to the inefficiency of training. Additionally, no long-term budget for fostering specialized investigative agents is allotted. Considering the fact that more than 95% of crimes in Korea are being primarily investigated by the Korean police, we have to understand the importance of the police. By the tremendous investment in investigative training which can lead to the high-quality investigations, the Korean police can ultimately contribute to the protection of safety and life of its people.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.81-93
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• 2022

The stock investing is one of the most popular investment techniques. However, since it is not easy to obtain a return through actual investment, various strategies have been devised and tried in the past to obtain an effective and stable return. Among them, the volatility breakout strategy identifies a strong uptrend that exceeds a certain level on a daily basis as a breakout signal, follows the uptrend, and quickly earns daily returns. It is one of the popular investment strategies that are widely used to realize profits. However, it is difficult to predict stock prices by understanding the price trend pattern of stocks. In this paper, we propose a method of buying and selling stocks by predicting the return in trading based on the volatility breakout strategy using a bi-directional long short-term memory deep neural network that can realize a return in a short period of time. As a result of the experiment assuming actual trading on the test data with the learned model, it can be seen that the results outperform both the return and stability compared to the existing closing price prediction model using the long-short-term memory deep neural network model.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.295-315
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• 2012

This paper attempts to reveal the relationships between IT capacity, SCM risk management factors and Business Performance. According to precedent studies, Our study analysed 153 cases from Korean companies which perform a supply chian risk management and then developed a structural equation model. As a result of the model test, this empirical study found that IT Infrastructure have a positively significant influence on companies' IT application and risk management. Second, there was a positive relationship between IT application and Business performance. Last and foremost, SCM risk management affects positively on Business performance. From this study, we found that investment in IT infrastructure will increase Business performance via raising risk management level, but there was less relationship between IT application level and that of risk management. For further study should be conducted for discovering effective practice factors of risk management.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.533-541
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to grasp what characterizes the vegetation base of the natural forest as a latent vegetation in the middle region of Korea and thus to offer basic data when improving the vegetation base in the middle region being built or to be built in the future. The findings of this soil section survey show the following: The soil is brown to red color soil group on the whole. In addition, the soil's physical features like soil hardness are rated as high level, which results from the fact that the forest soil exits in its natural form under less influence of stamping. The pH of soil shows a weak acidity, like Korean normal soil. Specific electrical conductance is also rated as middle to high level in accordance with the standards of landscape architecture. The Salix koreensis community and the Pinus rigida community are different from other communities in terms of total nitrogen, available phosphate and exchangeable $K^+$ content. Specifically, the two communities are opposed to each other in terms of total nitrogen and available phosphate, while being similar to each other in terms of available phosphate and exchangeable $K^+$ content. This seems to result from the fact that they are located near each other. In addition, the two communities are characterized by the fact that they are distributed at the altitude mean relatively lowest and in the valley. To sum up, the forest soil around Goesan Gun is of middle level on the whole according to the landscape standards, when judging it in terms of vegetation base. Accordingly, it seems that the construction of the vegetation base around Goesan Gun will not require large investment expenses for soil improvement. Also, it seems that the spatial scope of research is needed to expand the basic data on the construction of the vegetation base for the whole middle region of Korea.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.303-315
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• 2020

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Korea's trade relations centered on the Pacific Alliance (PA), a major economic integration in Latin America, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and the PA with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and the PA, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the PA is centered in manufacturing and mining industries, there should be different investment strategies by countries and industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Korea currently has Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Peru, and Columbia, but not with Mexico, the largest trading partner among the PA. Therefore, Korea must take active measures to sign an FTA with Mexico, which has been put on hold. Research implications or Originality - Latin America has the most thriving market when it comes to Free Trade Agreements worldwide. With the official establishment of the Pacific Alliance (PA) in 2012, the economic integration of Latin America faced entirely new circumstances. Reinforcing economic cooperation with the PA is extremely important for Korea in terms of entering and dominating the Latin American market. However, there is still a lack of research on the Pacific Alliance, and corporations that aim to enter the Latin American market face difficulties due to lack of information. By investigating the Pacific Alliance and its prospects and analyzing the trade relations with Korea, this study will provide strategic measures for corporations that wish to enter the Latin American market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.371-385
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Korea's trade relations centered on the MERCOSUR, a major economic integration in Latin America, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and the MERCOSUR with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and the MERCOSUR, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the MERCOSUR is centered in manufacturing and mining industries, there should be different investment strategies by countries and industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Korea currently has Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Peru, and Columbia, but not with MERCOSUR. Therefore, Korea must take active measures to sign an TA with MERCOSUR, which has been put on hold. Research implications or Originality - Latin America has the most thriving market when it comes to Free Trade Agreements worldwide. MERCOSUR is a South American Trade Bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. However, there is still a lack of research on the MERCOSUR, and corporations that aim to enter the Latin American market face difficulties due to lack of information. By investigating MERCOSUR and its prospects and analyzing the trade relations with Korea, this study will provide strategic measures for corporations that wish to enter the Latin American market.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-42
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• 2014

This study analyzes how heterogeneous across firms' productivity level the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of firms in a host country are. The study uses firm level data over 2000~2009 in South Korea and takes a quantile regression approach to estimate FDI's heterogeneous effects on the invested firm ('direct effects') and other domestic firms in the industry to which the invested firm belongs ('intra-industry spillover effects'). Major empirical results are as follows. In manufacturing sector, FDI has positive and statistically significant direct effects on the invested firm. In addition, the higher the quantiles of firms' productivity level are, the larger the positive productivity effects are. FDI also has positive and statistically significant intra-industry spillover effects on domestic firms in low quantiles of productivity while it has negative and statistically significant or insignificant spillover effects on those in high productivity quantiles. In service sector, on the other hand, Sufficient evidence is not found that FDI has statistically significant direct effects or intra-industry spillover effects. Taken together, the study suggests that FDI has heterogeneous effects on the productivity of firms in host country, depending on the firms' productivity level and sector.